She looked up into the understanding eyes of Detective Dan Mahoney as he gently pried the gun from her hands.

"Come on, we have to hurry.” His urgent whisper enhanced her fear. “There will be others.” He grasped her hand and pulled her up from the floor before she could say a word. He walked toward the broken front door, leaving Jess to survey the now destroyed hunting lodge. The old cabin was no longer a safe house.

Dan glanced outside through the pouring rain, and then turned back to Jess. When he stepped over the mangled mess that used to be a man, her eyes were again drawn to the body. She’d done that, taken a life. He could have had a family, a wife, kids, and now because of her he lay lifeless, dead. The bile rose in her throat, and she ran to the back porch, leaned over the railing just in time as her stomach convulsed, vomiting until there was nothing left. She straightened from her stooped position and wiped her mouth with a shaky hand.

Jess closed her eyes, tilted her chin skyward, and allowed the cool rain to wash over her face. “Concentrate,” she told herself. “Don’t look at him again.” She had done what she had to do. She knew that she had no choice, but still her heart ached. Her hair dripping from the rain and her clothes soaked, she returned to the cabin.

She went to the bath to grab a towel, using it to wipe her face. Footsteps sounded behind her and she turned to see Dan in the other room, his shirt speckled by raindrops. He stepped over a second body lying on the floor as if it were nothing more than small piece of furniture. There was steely determination etched in every line of his handsome face as he approached her.

Insistently, he grabbed her hand.

"Hurry, Jess, hurry! Out the back!" He ushered her through the room, over the body of the dead man. “Don’t look at him, come on! You have to get out of here!”

"The back? The back?” she yelled over a clap of thunder. “It's at least a fifty foot drop. You don’t think I could possibly...?"

She stopped mid-sentence as he held up his other hand to reveal a thick rope with large knots tied in even intervals along the length. With a firm grip, he tugged her arm, leading her back toward the sliding glass doors.

“What is that rope for and what are you doing?” A dreadful sinking feeling awoke in the pit of her empty stomach.

He ignored her question as he secured the rope to the railing.

"I had this made just in case.” The deluge soaked his clothing when he stepped outside. He tossed the rope over the railing, wrapped it around twice, and pulled it tight testing its strength. Jess tiptoed to see the rope touch the steep hillside over fifty feet below them.

“Come on, Jess!”

She vehemently shook her head.