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Ms. Stevenson.”
    Shaking her head, Teresa smiled. “You two think you can hide out here forever?”
    “We’ll do what we have to,” Lockman said.
    “Think about it, Craig. If I could find you…” She let him fill in the blank.
    As if the mere mention of the idea made it so, the sound of an engine and the skid of tires on gravel came from out front.
    Icy heat poured over Lockman’s skin. “You brought someone with you?”
    Teresa’s face paled. “They’re not mine.”
    Lockman turned to Kate. “Get Jessie. Go. Now.”

Chapter Ten
    While Kate ran to get Jessie, Lockman cut the lights. “You armed?” he asked Teresa.
    “Just my blade. Rest of my gear is with my car, parked about a mile down the road.”
    Lockman nodded and got to work. From the cupboard under the kitchen sink he retrieved a Sig Sauer fully loaded with silver rounds. He handed the weapon to Teresa. From a cookie jar he withdrew a flash bang grenade. He tucked this in his shirt pocket.
    “To the living room.”
    Teresa followed him.
    He peered out the window, Teresa close enough that he could smell the woods on her from when she was sneaking around in the trees. An earthy but clean scent, and the faint hint of the shampoo from her hair.
    Outside, a black cargo van sat parked at an angle. The back doors hung wide open. No sign of a driver up front. No movement in the dusk’s shadows.
    “I told you, you should have gotten that tracking device removed.”
    “There’s no way—”
    “There’s always a way.”
    Kate came out with Jessie, both of them walking close, plain fear in their eyes.
    Lockman nodded at them. “Just like we’ve practiced.”
    Kate put an arm around Jessie and guided her silently into the kitchen.
    Teresa raised an eyebrow.
    “Cabin came with a cellar,” Lockman explained. “I built a tunnel that opens about forty yards back into the woods.”
    “Nice.”
    “Fool me once…” He knelt down and pried open a loose floorboard. From the hole he pulled out first one Glock, then another, and finally a pair of spare magazines.
    “What else you got stashed in this place?”
    “Couple rifles in the cellar. The girls will take those with them. And if we get really desperate, I have a grenade launcher under the couch.”
    “Who hooked you up?”
    “Who do you think?”
    She grinned. “Marty.”
    “The one and only.”
    They both returned to watching out the window.
    “We could save ammo and use the tunnel,” Teresa said.
    “And let them find it and follow us out?” He racked a round into one Glock’s chamber. Repeated with the second. “I want to buy Kate and Jessie as much time as possible. But if you want to go…”
    “Don’t be an asshole. I help my friends when they need it.”
    He felt the dig, but ignored it. No time for that conversation now.
    “Where are they?”
    Lockman glanced toward the kitchen. Jessie and Kate were out of sight, probably in the tunnel by now. “Sweating us out.”
    “It’s working.”
    “Why don’t you cover the back. They could come at us from any direction. Be best if we could see them before they hit the cabin.”
    “On it.” She duck walked around the couch and into the kitchen.
    Lockman stayed low and watched out the front.
    Condensation filmed the van’s windshield.
    That didn’t make any sense. Not unless someone was in the van, their breath fogging the window.
    He no sooner had the thought when the engine roared to life and the van drove straight at the front of the cabin.

Chapter Eleven
    “Oh, shit.”
    Lockman twisted around and dove away from the window.
    A deafening symphony of destruction exploded behind him as he sailed over the couch. Shattering glass. Snapping wood. Cracking drywall. And the growl of the van’s engine as it pushed its way in through the front of the cabin.
    Lockman hit the floor, rolling over his shoulder, using the momentum to carry him to his feet. Once up, he spun around and fired both of his guns into the van’s windshield.
    The