Hunter's Quest

** Excerpt **

The sudden, sharp crack of a rifle shot, way too close, shattered the peace of a lovely June day.

Moments before, Kristie Sandford had been driving sedately and musing on camera angles and light as she reveled in the sun-drenched beauty of a back road in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Pink and blue wildflowers grew along the verge, just in front of shrubs in varying shades of green. The scent of honeysuckle drifted in the open window of the car.

Alarmed by the explosive noise, she pressed down on the Toyota’s brake pedal and scanned the area around her. Thick shrubbery limited visibility to only a few feet into their depths. The land rose above her on the right, but even when she bent her neck to look up the side of the hill, she could detect no sign of human presence. She hadn’t passed any parked vehicles recently, and only one had gone by in the other direction in the last ten minutes. The last house she’d seen was more than a mile back.

A second crack followed moments later. Hunters, maybe—an uneasy thought. Stray bullets from careless hunters killed people. Kristie slowed the car, although the frequent switchbacks on the steep, narrow mountain road already limited her speed.

She steered around the next tight curve, alert to the possibility of another shot. That attention probably saved the life of the man who darted out of the trees and dashed across the road directly ahead of her.

“Ohmigod.” She stomped on the brake. Thank heaven for anti-lock technology. The tires screeched on the pavement and almost lost traction.

The man stopped in the middle of the road and stared at her. His glance swung toward the trees from which he’d emerged, then back to her. What the hell was he doing? Did he have a death wish or was he just frozen by panic? He stood in the center of the highway, watching her bear down on him.

** End Excerpt **

Kristie Sandford's vacation is interrupted when a man jumps out in front of her car. She avoids hitting him, but when she stops to see if he's hurt, he demands she help him escape from the people chasing him. Kristie has an odd "gift" - she occasionally gets warning messages, and she gets one saying he needs her help or he'll die. Jason Hunter is an NC SBI (North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation) agent working on his own time searching for a friend, an investigative reporter who disappeared while tracking down rumors of corruption in the bureaucracy of a small mountain town. Jason is grateful to Kristie for rescuing him, but dubious when she insists she has to continue helping him. Kristie is attracted to Jason, but the edge of danger she senses in him reminds her too much of the abusive family she escaped as soon as she could.