Page 67 of Hunter

“How far is it? And I’ll need directions.” Opening the drawer under the phone, she found a notepad and a pen.

“It’s about a ten-minute drive,” the caller said, then went on to tell her what turns to make, where to park, which trail to take through the woods, and how to reach the correct cabin.

“Thank you,” she said when he finished.

“Not at all,” he replied courteously.

He was more civil than most of the other staff members she’d had contact with, she thought, as she replaced the receiver and headed for her bedroom. She needed a shower and clean clothes. But she should be able to make it to the meeting in time.

As she hurried to get ready, she started worrying. She should have asked if Hunter knew she was coming. It wouldn’t be good to take him by surprise. What if he refused to see her, she thought with a pang?

Praying that they’d let her talk with him alone, she climbed into the car, checked the directions, and headed toward the unpopulated side of the grounds. Ignoring the speed limit, she was soon at the edge of the woods. When she’d jogged down here, the road had had a security barrier blocking off traffic. Now the gate was open, and she drove through, into an area she’d never seen before. There were no buildings, only virgin forest. This must be what the rural landscape was like before the Army took over, she mused as she came to the top of a hill and saw the lake sparkling in the sunshine. She hadn’t even known it existed. If DOD ever needed quick cash, they could sell Stratford Creek to a developer and make a bundle.

It was dark and cool under the shade of the trees. In another quarter mile, she came to a road leading off to the left. Taking it, she ended up in the parking lot Perry had described. There was only one other vehicle in the lot, a jeep sitting at the far end. She pulled in next to it and scanned the woods. Several paths led downhill—presumably toward the lake. She took the middle one and came out facing a stretch of pristine beach, reinforcing her previous observation that this was prime resort real estate. The lake was calm, with tiny waves lapping the sand. No one was in sight, and the only sign of habitation was the gray weathered pier that stuck out over the water. The cabin Perry had described was at the end of the dock, although it wasn’t quite what she’d been picturing in her mind.

“Hunter?” she called, but the noise of a commercial jet far overhead blotted out the sound of her voice. If he was there, he couldn’t hear her she thought as she stepped onto the worn boards and started toward the cabin.

The footing was uneven, and she picked her way, hoping she wouldn’t step through a rotten board.

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Over the noise of the jet, Hunter thought he heard Kathryn call his name and looked up in surprise. He and Reid had set the explosives on the underside of the shack at the end of the pier. Then Reid had gone off to do something, leaving him alone to wait for additional instructions.

He’d been sitting with his back against the trunk of a tree, holding a flower by its stem and stroking the petals against his mouth, remembering the wonderful softness of Kathryn’s lips against his. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine she was with him, and they were in the place where the deer came to drink from the stream.

Now he heard her voice. Was she really here? How had she found this place?

He saw her step onto the boards of the dock and start walking tentatively toward the doomed little house. The charges were in place, expertly positioned to blow the structure into oblivion. All somebody had to do was press the buttons on the detonator.

“Get back,” he shouted at Kathryn above the drone of the jet. She didn’t hear him, and he started running, calling more loudly and frantically waving his arms.

She stopped at the sound of his voice and tipped her head to the side, but she was looking in the wrong direction and didn’t see him. After a moment, she started moving again along the pier—toward the enclosure with its deadly charges.

At the same time, from the corner of his eye, he saw Reid running down one of the other paths from the parking lot. He broke into the clearing along the shoreline and dashed toward the spot several hundred yards away where they’d set up the detonators.

Hunter’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?” he called.

The man didn’t answer. Instead, he kept moving toward the firing mechanism. If he’d wanted to get Kathryn Kelley out of danger, Hunter reasoned, he would be running in the other direction—shouting at her to get away from the pier.

Instead, he was hurrying to set off the charges! That was the only logical explanation.

Reid was farther away than Kathryn. There was no chance of intercepting him before he could get to the detonators. All Hunter could do was dash toward Kathryn, sprinting with every ounce of power he possessed, knowing that he had little chance of getting to her in time.

Chapter Eleven

Kathryn reached the cabin and stooped to peer in a broken window, but there was no one inside.

“Hunter?” she called, turning away in perplexity from the dilapidated building.

Had Perry been mistaken? Or—what?

It was then that she saw Hunter dashing madly toward her and heard him shouting, “Get away from the house. Get away.”

He came toward her at full tilt. Behind him, she saw a blond man fleeing in the opposite direction toward a little stand of trees. It was Reid, she realized. The security guard who had rabbit-punched Hunter when he was helpless to defend himself.

At that moment, Hunter gained the end of the pier, leaped onto the worn boards, and came straight at her. She expected him to slow down. He plowed ahead, like a freight train speeding down a mountain, and she knew that when he hit her, the impact would be painful. Cowering back, she stiffened her body against the inevitable crash.

She screamed as he struck her with the weight of his muscular frame, screamed again as he took her over the side of the flimsy railing and into space.

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