Chapter One
A young woman stands on the edge of an old widow's walk in small-town Maine. Since the railing surrounding the walk no longer exists, her toes freely dangle off the house's roof and she glances at them, takes a deep breath with her arms outstretched on either side of her, and then closes her eyes and exhales. It starts to rain suddenly from the dark gray clouds that appeared only moments before, slowly and lightly at first. The woman's eyebrows crinkle in concentration and the drizzling rain increases in intensity and frequency. A small smile appears on her face and as she opens her eyes lightening flashes in the sky behind her.
"That's more like it," she says contentedly.
Her toes leave the edge of the roof as she turns around and takes a step to make her way inside, but then she stops. Something's not right. There is someone on the roof across from her. As soon as she stops, a gun is fired. She doesn't recognize her attacker, even as the pain starts to register in her left shoulder. The impact of the bullet unbalances her and she falls backwards off the roof. Before she hits the ground she is caught by something and instead of falling to her death, she raises several stories off the ground and is flown to safety. The blood loss makes her woozy and she starts to lose consciousness, but before she completely blacks out she hears a man's voice. . .
"Hold on. Just hold on."