CHAPTER 1
The stallion’s hooves pounded the frozen
earth along a narrow path through New York State’s rugged forest.
Twenty-three-year-old Laura Murillo leaned
forward in the saddle. “Faster, Champ, faster!”
Vapor poured from the horse’s nostrils,
and despite below-freezing temperatures, sweat beaded on Laura’s forehead,
mingling with the black curls escaping her helmet.
She thanked God that the former racing
thoroughbred still had plenty of spirit. She prayed he wouldn’t spook and buck.
Laura heard the approaching ATV squeezing
through snow-draped pine boughs hanging over the twisted path, then a
resounding gunshot.
Oh
God, let someone hear.
But Laura knew she had wandered too far
into the wilderness and that the dense forest muffled sound.
Her mind screamed. Why did I come back here again? What
was I thinking? I could pay for this with my life. Champ too.
Laura forced back her panicked thoughts
with characteristic determination etched into her attractive face. She knew
every inch of the forest; one of its old, hidden trails was a mile ahead. Even
though Champ was in full gallop, they seemed to move in slow motion.
At last, they reached the trail, and Laura
pulled on the rein, instructing him to turn. The heavy brush swallowed them as
another gunshot blasted. Laura held her breath as the ATV approached, cracking
branches and crunching snow before fading past them up the narrow path.
Still, danger was
closing in, and she had to warn the others.
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