Page 92 of Fatal Witness

Blood stained his pants leg. “You—”

“I’m fine.” He helped Dani off. “You probably need to walk around a little.”

Then Mark unstrapped Gem and lifted her off the rack. She shook herself and stretched, then looked expectantly at Mark. He ruffled the fur on her neck. “Free, Gem.”

She barked and ran in a small circle.

“Looks like she’s going to be okay,” Dani said.

“I hope so. When we get back to town, I’ll take her to the vet to get checked out. Right now, I need to find water for her.”

They’d left the bottled water at Mark’s cabin when the shooting started. “If you do, can we drink it as well?”

“At this point I’d wait—we should get to the highway soon. Ifsomething happens and we don’t, then we’ll talk about drinking what water we find.”

Dani kept an eye out for the shooter as she walked over the ridge away from the ATV and did a few yoga stretches while Mark searched. She was still stretching when he returned. “Find anything?”

He shook his head. “Maybe we’ll run across a stream soon, but right now, we need to get moving.” He took her hand and pulled Dani toward the ATV with Gem trotting beside them. “Watch your step.”

He didn’t have to tell her that twice. She focused on where she put her feet as well as for any rattlesnakes sunning themselves on the rocky terrain.

They were almost to the four-wheeler when a bullet ricocheted off a boulder beside her.

Mark practically tackled her to the ground. “Get on the other side of the rocks. And Gem, down!”

Another bullet pinged off the rock right where she’d been standing. Dani scrambled around the boulder followed by Mark and Gem. “How did he get ahead of us?”

“He has to be tracking one of us, and it’s not me. Give me your cell phone.”

She pulled it from her back pocket. “But Alex disabled the family app—”

“If Keith thought you might turn it off, he could’ve installed a hidden one.” He quickly opened her settings and scrolled through them. “I don’t see anything—wait. Here’s one with an odd name.” He opened it. “It’s a find your phone type of app.”

Suddenly she wanted to throw up. Keith’s phone. That she never found. The murderer had it and was using the app to track her. Mark tapped on the app and then looked to the southwest. “We’re running parallel to the road right now, and his location is less than a quarter of a mile from it.”

He showed her the shooter’s location. She clenched her jaw. “He’s been tracking us the whole time.”

“Yeah. It’s why he was waiting for us at the house.”

“What do we do now?”

For an answer, he took out the SIM card in her phone and stomped it. “This ought to buy us a little time. You ready?”

She nodded.

“Stay low and beside me until you reach the crest—whatever you do, don’t run ahead of me. After you’re on the other side, you’ll be safe.”

She knew what Mark was doing—he was protecting her by putting himself between her and the shooter. Dani followed his orders and crawled to the crest of the ridge. Once they were over it, they ran to the four-wheeler. He quickly strapped Gem to the front again. “Sorry, girl, but I don’t want to risk you getting shot.”

“Do you think he has an ATV?”

“Maybe.” He held his phone up again.

“Still no service?”

“No.”

Dani flinched at his curt tone.

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