the rearview mirror, as if she were checking her lipstick or hair, and saw the hulking SUV about six car lengths back. “Let’s head to town, and if they follow us, let’s go right to the sheriff’s office.”
Dafoe executed a quick turn on to a narrow country road. “Are they following us?” he asked Jenna, who still had the rearview.
“No, they kept going straight.”
“We might be okay.”
But Jenna felt jumpy and hoped like hell that Dafoe knew where the tight country lane would take them.
He made a series of turns that led them back to the road to his farm. He reached over and took the mirror, adjusting it and assuring her that he’d keep his eyes open for the Expedition.
Jenna nodded and tried to breathe, but it wasn’t easy. Those hairs on the back of her neck were making their prickly presence known again.
Dafoe slowed and entered the long driveway to his house. Seconds later, he said, “They’re still here,” with no attempt to hide his uneasiness.
“What?” Jenna twisted around, expecting to see the Expedition churning up a tunnel of dust behind them.
“I’m sorry. I meant Forensia and Sang-mi. You thought I meant that black car?”
“No apologies necessary. But you did sound worried.”
“Just disappointed,” Dafoe said. “They told me that they’d be done with their work and gone so we could have some privacy.”
Privacy would have been nice, but at this moment Jenna was happy just to feel safe.
The feeling didn’t last long. When they reached the porch, they saw Forensia sitting by the window with Dafoe’s rifle in her hands and Sang-mi by her side. Bayou rose gingerly, wagging his tail.
They hurried inside. “What’s going on?” Dafoe asked. “And give me that rifle. You’re making me nervous.”
Forensia handed it over. “You shouldn’t be worried about me making you nervous.” She spoke with her eyes still on the driveway. “You should be worried about the big, black SUV that was here right after you left. It was idling out on the road when I saw it.”
Dafoe and Jenna shared a quick glance. “An Expedition?” Jenna asked.
Forensia shrugged. “I don’t know. All I can say is that it was big and had dark windows, and it was the second one in two days.”
Dafoe peered at the driveway. “How’d you even see it all the way down on the road?”
“That damn calf we spend half our time chasing got out of the pasture again, and we ended up having to go get him. He got all the way down to those trees near the road. I saw the car when I caught up with the calf.”
“Did they see you?”
“Maybe. I grabbed the little pain in the ass and dragged him back before he got out in the open. But they could have seen me; I wasn’t thinking about hiding when I went down there. Why? Did you guys see it, too?”
“Yeah, we did,” Dafoe said. “At the station. I guess they made you plenty nervous.” He glanced at his rifle.
“After being followed yesterday? Yeah, I’m starting to get anxious, you bet.”
“The one we saw kept going straight after we turned,” Jenna said.
Sang-mi shrieked and pointed. Everyone stared down the long driveway. The Expedition was coming, whipping up dust like a precisely plotted hurricane. Dafoe thrust the rifle into Jenna’s hands, raced into the kitchen, and returned with the pistol that he kept stashed in a cabinet.
“This is a pathetic amount of firepower, so let’s get out of here now,” he shouted.
He led them out on the far side of the house, and they raced to a copse about two hundred feet away, Bayou hobbling till Dafoe scooped him up. They heard all four doors of the SUV slam as they stumbled through the patch of forest. Dusk was claiming the land like a looter.
“Assassins,” Sang-mi said sharply.
“This way,” Dafoe ordered. In less than sixty seconds, he brought them to a dry stream. Jenna had her cell out for a 911 call.
“Tell them to come with sirens, lights, everything,” Dafoe said breathlessly.
Jenna spoke in a voice muffled by danger. The 911 operator coolly collected the information. “Please hurry,” Jenna pleaded before snapping the cell shut.
Night fell quickly, as it always seemed to after Halloween, when daylight behaves like it’s too scared to breathe. The four of them ran through a stand of birch trees, stopping at the edge of an open field.
“Where are they?” whispered Jenna, ears straining beyond the hard exhalations that rose around her. She eyed a spot about fifty