Free Hunter's Salvation by Shiloh Walker

happen. She didn’t have the time or the energy for it. Jess was too tired, running on caffeine and nerves for too long.
    Standing in the middle of the street, she turned her head and looked over her shoulder at him. Sometimes things outside your control happen.
    Talk about ironic. Yeah, Jess knew things outside her control were going to happen. Losing her parents had been out of her control. Losing Randi had been out of her control. She refused to believe that avenging Randi was another one of those things.
    â€œThis won’t be one of those things.” Shrugging the rest of her emotional baggage aside, Jess headed for her car. It was late, yes, but maybe he was still there. Damn it, she was going to find him. He’d be at the club sooner or later, and when he was, she’d be waiting.
    The cold air whipped around her legs. The leather skirt might as well be made of tissue paper for all the good it did in keeping her warm. As she stalked to the car, she wondered if she should grab some better clothes, but she’d wasted enough time.
    A big, hard hand closed around her upper arm, and Jess spun, jabbing her finger into his chest. “Let go of me, jackass.”
    â€œYou don’t know what kind of trouble you’re looking for.”
    This time, that low, sexy growl of a voice didn’t make her all hot and bothered. It just made her bothered . As in, pissed. “Excuse me, but the blonde is just skin-deep. I’m not an idiot, and I know exactly what kind of trouble I’m looking for. Let go. ”
    But he didn’t.
    Taking matters into her own hands, Jess focused on one of the decorative stones that Randi had used as a border for her flowerbeds. It was about the size of a chicken’s egg. If Jess used enough force, her power could make it go in one side of the dude’s head and out the other.
    She settled for just clocking him on the temple and knocking him out cold. As he collapsed to the ground, his grip on her arm loosened, and Jess backed away. This time, she’d find a hiding spot out of the open.
    Â 
    â€œS ON of a bitch.”
    Thirty minutes later, Jess sat on the roadside, staring into nothingness.
    Masters had already left.
    None of Jess’s contacts had been able to unearth where the man lived. The address listed with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles was legit, but it was a family that lived there, not Masters.
    Jess’s only way of finding him was to wait for him at the club. Tonight she’d had vague plans of following him when he left. Now she’d have to wait until another night.
    â€œSon of a bitch,” she said again.
    Â 
    W HEN Jess walked into her kitchen the next morning, she wasn’t terribly surprised to find that she had an intruder. During her sleepless night, she’d put two and two together and figured out why Tall, Dark, and Delicious was at the club. Once she had figured it out, she had to wonder what had taken so long. She’d known for months that something was off about the place.
    The infallible Hunters should have been all over the place ages ago.
    Jess knew about the Hunters. Nothing specific, but enough details to know that they should have been here. Mom had told her about the Hunters—paranormal cops, basically. Considering that the badness in the club had some sort of unnatural bent to it, it was right up the Hunters’ alley. Or should be.
    â€œDon’t you have a job to do?”
    A thick, straight black brow arched, and he leaned back in his chair, studying her with a probing gaze. “Excuse me?”
    She just smiled. So what if it felt a little pissy. “How is your head?”
    He lifted a shoulder in a shrug and said, “Considering that somehow you levitated a rock and plowed it into my skull, I guess it feels okay.” There was just a shadow of a bruise on his temple, already nearly gone.
    Witches really did heal fast, she mused. Then she shook her head and focused on the problems