LITMIR.BIZ

      Colin swerved the wheel of his SUV hard, trying to avoid the woman. Just as he thought he would, she twisted back toward his car. Even though his vehicle was slowing down, he couldn’t stop fast enough. The shouts from his passengers and the loud music drowned out the sound of him striking the person, but he felt the impact as though it vibrated through him to his soul. She reeled off the front end of his bumper while he fought to control his SUV. Fishtailing a few feet farther, his car finally came to a stop.

      “Is everyone all right?” Colin checked his passengers, his hands shaking so much they slipped from the wheel.

      “Yeah,” Brent answered, straining to see out the window.

      “Man! What was that? A deer?” Jamie Zamets asked, his eyes wide as he craned his neck around to see behind them.

      “Do you think it’s dead?” Neil asked from the back seat, the shaken tone to his question making it come out as a whisper.

      “It was a woman,” Brent said, unbuckling his seat beat.

      “Stay put.” Colin forced all the command he had learned in the army into his voice. He was afraid of what he would find when he got out and he didn’t want the teenagers to see.

      Colin hurried from the vehicle, slamming the door to emphasize the fact that he wanted the boys to stay in the car. He ran around the back of his vehicle and came to a skidding stop six feet from the rear bumper.

      Lying on the pavement was a slim, petite figure, dressed in pants and a shirt, the darkness obscuring the woman’s features, the illumination from the taillights not strong enough for him to assess her injuries. Colin knelt to feel for a pulse. A faint beat beneath his fingertips sent relief through him. The scent of blood assailed his nostrils. She was alive but for how long?

      “Rev, I thought you might need—” Brent’s sentence came to an abrupt halt as the flashlight he carried caught the victim in its glare.

      “She’s beautiful,” the teen finally murmured.

      Colin’s gaze skimmed over the woman’s face, bleeding from scratches that had nothing to do with the wreck. Beneath the cuts, he had to acknowledge, were very pleasing features, framed by a mass of long black curls. “Here, let me have that and you get back in the car.”

      The slamming sound of two doors slashed through the silence. Colin knew there was no way he would be able to protect them now.

      “Is she dead?” Jamie asked, coming up beside Brent.

      “No. Don’t you all know how to follow directions?”

      “Thought you might want my cell phone, Reverend.”

      Colin heard Neil’s words, but he felt as if he was back in the army, bending over a wounded comrade, because what riveted his attention now was the gaping hole in the young woman’s shoulder, blood oozing out of it and pooling on the pavement. His head came up. He scanned the terrain alongside the highway, trying to peer into the dense woods, but he couldn’t see anyone, only dark shadows cast by the tall pines and oaks.

      From the way she had spun, the shot had to have come from the right side of the road, probably from that thick line of trees, not far from his car. Too close. Hairs on the nape of his neck tingled. Danger resounded in his mind.

      “Get back into the car,” he said in the toughest voice he could muster.

      “But—” Brent started to protest.

      “Go. I’ll take care of her. Call for help, Neil.”

      At that moment a pair of headlights crested the hill and came toward them, followed by another set. Colin shifted his body to shield the woman as the boys trudged back to the car, muttering their disappointment. The tension in his body relaxed a little when he heard the doors slamming on his SUV.

      Dear Lord, please protect us from whoever shot this woman. Let this be help arriving. Keep her and the boys safe.

      He used his flashlight to flag down the approaching vehicle, hoping there would be safety in numbers, all the while keeping his body between the line of trees and the woman lying on the pavement.