Another thought forced its way through the massive shock of what she’d done. The gunshot had to have alerted others, which meant Evie needed to get as far away from this room as she could.
Or a bleeding man was going to be the least of her worries.
She spun on her heels and ran out the door. She closed the bathroom door behind her, hoping to deter the discovery of the carnage being left behind.
Her footfalls were silent as she made her way to the cabin door. The gun in her right hand shook as she opened the door with her left. Evie’s knees nearly buckled with relief when she found the hallway empty, and after a quick back and forth about which direction to go, she decided to go right.
She moved quickly along the narrow corridor leading to a set of stairs several yards away. As she jogged closer and closer to what she hoped was her freedom, Evie passed by a handful of other cabins on the way.
A noise sounded from somewhere behind, and she turned her head to check over her shoulder. Evie’s heart leaped into her throat when she spotted the man she’d shot, the wound in hisshoulder still bleeding as he ran toward her with a murderous expression.
“You fucking bitch!” He sprinted as fast as his heavy muscles would take him.
No!
Evie turned back around and sprinted toward the stairs. The gun in her hand felt even heavier than before, but she didn’t dare drop it. It was her only means of defense, and if she lost it?—
A wall of muscle slammed into her from behind less than three feet from the bottom of the stairs. Evie hit the floor with a bone-jarring thud, pain radiating throughout her entire body.
The gun she’d been so determined never to let go flew from her hand and skidded across the floor.
“No!” she cried out, reaching for it with every ounce of strength she possessed.
She twisted and turned beneath the man’s massive form, scrambling with all her might to get free. But the sheer weight of his body kept her from moving even a single inch, and before Evie knew what was happening, he was sliding himself up her back, moving himself closer to…
The gun!
If he got to it before she did, Evie knew she’d end up dead. So the second his body cleared hers enough to reposition, she took off in a fitful rage.
The base of her throat burned with an animalistic growl as she jumped onto the man’s broad back. They both went for the fallen gun, his meaty fingers reached the pistol at the exact same time as hers.
A fight to the death ensued, and Evie knew deep down this was it. There could only be one winner in this deadly game, and unless she was the one who got the gun first?—
The pistol was ripped from her hand, and she was spun roughly onto her back. The man she’d been fighting stood at her feet, the gun’s barrel pointed straight at her head.
“Please, don’t!” She raised a useless palm in front of her face, as if flesh and bone could stop a bullet’s penetration.
Truth was, there wasn’tanythingshe could do now that would prevent her impending death. All she could do was lay there and wait.
The man stared down at her, looking her square in the eyes. And without so much as a hint of humanity or remorse, he started to pull the trigger.
“No!”
Evie turned her head away and squeezed her eyes shut. A loud blast filled the entire hallway. The sound eerily similar to the one she herself had created mere moments before.
She waited for the pain to strike. To feel the white hot fire she’d read about in stories where victims had been shot.
But there was no fire. There was no pain. There was only?—
The man who’d been a hair’s breadth away from ending her life fell dead to the floor beside her. Evie gasped when she saw the gaping exit wound that had decimated the front of the man’s throat.
And as she remained where she was, still frozen with fear, she realized the eyes that had once been filled with anger and hate were now completely void of sight. Because the man they belonged to was dead, killed not by Evie’s hand, but by?—
“Landy?” Her eyes grew wide with shock as she turned to see the person responsible for saving her life.
“Evelynn, I?—”
“Oh, thank God!” She rolled to her side to push herself to her feet.