Page 61 of Elsie's Strong Shelter

Moving on instinct, he sprinted ahead.

Bang!

The shots grew louder. He pushed himself harder, digging deep for every last ounce of energy left inside him.

The trees parted and revealed a narrow path that snaked its way through the woods. Marks through the dirt caught his attention and he crouched for a closer look. Deep lines interrupted faint outlines of shoe prints.

Validation spurred him on until the path ended at the opening of a cave blasted into the side of a mountain. An old board stretched across the entrance; a second board discarded on the ground. He ran to it and the sight of blood turned his stomach. He debated charging inside the cave, but the shots he heard hadn’t come from inside the mountain.

Bang!

The explosion of gunfire was closer than ever. He raced to the left, heart in his throat. He followed the curve of the mountain until the outline of a man staring down a chute of some kind came into view.

Justin!

Dean secured his weapon and slowed, stepping carefully. At ten feet away, he yelled, “Drop your weapon!”

Justin stilled.

“I said drop your weapon,” Dean repeated. “Hands in the air.”

Justin whirled around. His gun stayed firmly in his grip.

“It’s over. We know your stepdad is involved and that you were helping Malcom launder money through the bar. We found the stuff for the poker games. There’s no way out for you, so set down the gun and put your hands where I can see them.”

Justin sneered. “You’re forgetting one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You come one step closer, and my next bullet goes in your girlfriend’s head. She’s already hit. Took her right down. You don’t want to be the reason she’s dead, do you?”

Dean stopped moving but his weapon stayed in place. He considered the threat. He couldn’t risk leaping into action if Justin was telling the truth.

A flash of movement caught Dean’s eyes. Something rustled the brush behind Justin. “Why did you take Mila? She had nothing in this.” He inched a little closer.

“I didn’t want to, but she saw too much. I couldn’t let her leave my grandma’s. She would have ruined everything.” Justin flung his free hand wide. “Hell, she did ruin everything even though I didn’t kill her.”

Hope flared to life. “Why didn’t you?”

“I didn’t want to hurt her, dammit. That’s not the kind of person I am. Even when Malcom went after her, I wouldn’t let him. Wouldn’t let him do the things he wanted to with her. But I couldn’t let her just walk away. Then your stupid girlfriend wouldn’t leave it alone, wouldn’t stop looking.”

The hope melted into raw, hot anger. “If you couldn’t kill them, what was the plan? Leave them out here to die?”

Justin shrugged. “Maybe. But then your girlfriend had to keep being a pain in the ass, even trapped in a damn mine.”

Dean took another step.

“Stop moving!” Justin’s piercing scream sent a pair of birds flying overhead.

The movement behind the young man increased and a flash of brown and black fur darted forward. Boo raced from the tree line and lunged at Justin, shoving his front paws against Justin’s back.

“What the—?” Justin yelled as he fell to the ground.

Dean sprang into action, erasing the distance between him and Justin. He stomped his boot on Justin’s wrist, forcing him to release the gun, then dropped his knee between his shoulder blades to pin him to the ground.

“Ahh!” Justin screamed. “Get off me.”

Tommy and Calvin emerged from the woods, running at full force, Mr. Sweet not far behind.

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