Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2

by Margaret Daley

  Tears glistened in her eyes. “And how do we do that?”

  “The only way we can. By loving each other, and helping each other every day to remember that God is with us. I believe He has a plan for us. Maybe He had one years ago, and we messed up. But I think He’s giving us a second chance to do it right this time. We need to let faith guide us, and I know He’ll bless us.” He ran his fingers over her knuckles. “I’ve always loved you, Mia. And this time I don’t want to lose you. Please, tell me you’re willing to give us a chance.”

  A tear rolled down her cheek, and he rubbed it away with his thumb. “I do love you, Lucas,” she said. “I just didn’t feel I was worthy of you. I wanted something better for you.”

  He shook his head. “You’re all I want. You’re all I need. Please, please, don’t leave me again.”

  She reached up and cupped her hand around his jaw. He closed his eyes at the gentle touch of her fingers. “I do love you, Lucas. More than I can ever tell you.”

  “Then marry me,” he murmured. “Marry me and make my lonely life finally have some meaning.”

  He opened his eyes, and she was smiling. “I’ll marry you, Lucas. There’s no one I’d rather spend the rest of my life with than you. But what about your family? Do you think they’ll accept me?”

  “They will. All they want is my happiness, and they know you’re the one who can complete me.”

  He reached in his pocket and pulled out the small box he’d kept locked away in a drawer for years. “I have something for you,” he said.

  When he opened it, her eyes widened. “Oh, Lucas, the locket you gave me the night I danced in The Nutcracker. I didn’t know you’d kept it.”

  He nodded. “When you gave it back to me after we broke up, I couldn’t make myself get rid of it. Every once in a while I’d get it out and look at it. And I’d wonder what you were doing. If I had known what you were going through, I would have tried to help you.”

  “I know. But that’s all behind us now.” She glanced down at the locket. “Is our picture still inside?”

  He opened it and held it out for her to see. The picture of them, their heads touching and smiles on their faces, stared up at them. “This was made a few weeks before the performance.”

  “I know.” She bowed her head toward him, and he fastened the locket around her neck.

  “This is just to seal our commitment until we go get your engagement ring this week.”

  A look of panic flashed in her eyes. “Lucas, are you sure your family is okay with this?”

  He laughed and tugged her to him. “They’re fine. With life the way it is around here, we just roll with the punches.”

  She smiled as his lips brushed hers, and then she pulled his head down and pressed her lips against his. After a moment she separated and stared up at him. “Now, that’s a proper kiss.”

  He leaned forward to kiss her again but hesitated as his sister ran into the room. “Stop, you two!” Jessica yelled. “We’ve got an emergency. Claire has gone into labor, and I think Adam is about to pass out. We’ve got to leave for the hospital right now.”

  Lucas laughed, grabbed Mia’s hand and pulled her to her feet. “So much for Adam bragging about how he was the coolest expectant father ever.”

  “Well, he’s not cool anymore,” Jessica said. “Mr. Always-in-Control Bounty Hunter is in a panic. Claire’s suitcase is at home, and he’s afraid there isn’t enough gas in his car to get to the hospital.”

  She’d barely finished speaking when Lucas caught sight of Adam with his arm around Claire, ushering her down the hallway to the front door. “Now, don’t worry, honey,” Adam said. “We’re gonna get through this without any trouble.” He jerked the front door open. “Get in Ryan’s car. He and Jessica are going to drive us.”

  Claire came to a stop and put her hands on her hips. “Adam, I need my coat. It’s freezing outside.”

  His face turned pale, and he rushed toward the living room. “I’ll get it.”

  “Adam,” she called out. “It’s in the kitchen.”

  He skidded to a halt and turned toward the kitchen. “Oh, yeah. Be right back. Don’t leave without me.”

  Claire let out a sigh and shook her head in Mia’s direction. “Now, that sounds like a good idea.”

  Before they could say anything, Adam came running back with two coats in his hands. He grabbed Claire’s left arm and tried to force it into the sleeve of one of them, and she jerked her arm free. “Adam, that’s your coat.”

  Lucas laughed, and Adam glared at him before he bundled both coats under one arm and grabbed Claire with his other hand. “Claire, will you please get in the car before we have to deliver this baby in the entry hall?”

  Claire rolled her eyes and huffed out a big breath. “Adam, if you don’t calm down, we’re going to have to get you a wheelchair when we get to the hospital.”

  “Claire,” Adam groaned, “if you don’t get in the car this minute, I’m going to pick you up and put you there myself.”

  Claire looked over her shoulder as Adam propelled her out the door and arched her eyebrows. “Welcome to life in the Knight family, Mia. You never know what’s going to happen next.”

  Lucas stood at the door and watched until Ryan drove away. He shook his head and laughed when he saw Adam lean over from the backseat and gesture wildly. Probably giving instructions on which route to take to the hospital. When the car disappeared down the street, he closed the door and faced Mia.

  “Well, there’s a preview of how quickly life can change around here. What do you think? Are you ready to take this bunch on?”

  She looped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him. “I think I’m going to enjoy every minute.”

  *

  Dear Reader,

  Yuletide Fugitive Threat was a difficult book to write because of the domestic violence that served as the basis for Mia’s story. As I wrote about her experiences, I was reminded that she was not unique in what she suffered. It has been reported that each year 4,774,000 women in the United States experience physical abuse from an intimate partner and that one in four women will be victims of physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetimes. If you or someone you know is caught in this vicious trap, I hope that you will seek help before it is too late. Don’t continue to suffer because your husband or boyfriend has convinced you that you are the one at fault in the relationship. In my story, even though Mia was released from her situation, she still had a lot of healing to do. I’m praying that you, too, can find the strength to seek help that will bring complete healing into your life.

  Sandra Robbins

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense story.

  You enjoy a dash of danger. Love Inspired Suspense stories feature strong heroes and heroines whose faith is central in solving mysteries and saving lives.

  Enjoy six new stories from Love Inspired Suspense every month!

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  ISBN-13: 9781460389324

  Yuletide Fugitive Threat

  Copyright © 2015 by Sandra Robbins

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the aut
hor’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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  RACE AGAINST TIME

  Lacey Phillips believes Captain Wade Spencer knows something about her brother’s mysterious death. So she throws caution to the wind and tracks him down on Christmas Eve looking for answers. Wade tries to turn her away—until bullets start to fly. He doesn’t want to take the stubborn beauty on his life-or-death mission to find out the truth about how Wade’s past may have cost her brother his life. But with killers lurking everywhere, he has to protect her—especially when she breaches the walls around his heart. Can Wade and his faithful service dog keep Lacey alive long enough to figure out who’s targeting them?

  ROADS TO DANGER: Family secrets resurface

  “Someone is trying to kill you…

  “If you knew that then,” Wade continued, “would you have stayed home?”

  Lacey looked at him. “No. My brother’s dead. I won’t stop until I know why.”

  “I already told you. Because of me.”

  “Those guys out there weren’t sent by you. There’s more to the story. More than you even know.”

  “The story of my life. Ever since I found out my mother’s aliases, I’ve been living that reality.”

  “This is more than just finding out if your mother was a spy, isn’t it?” When Wade hesitated she said, “Please. We could be killed any second. Honesty is all we have left.”

  He nodded. “But that’s all you’re going to get out of me. Talking only gets people killed. I get people killed.”

  “But you rescued your sister—”

  “Don’t.” He captured her gaze. His eyes glittered. “Don’t make me into some hero. I opened my mouth, and she was almost killed. And the next time, your brother paid the price.” His gaze darkened. “And if I can’t fix this, you’re next.”

  Katy Lee writes suspenseful romances that thrill and inspire. She believes every story should stir and satisfy the reader—from the edge of their seat. A native New Englander, Katy loves to knit warm wooly things. She enjoys traveling the side roads and exploring the locals’ hideaways. A homeschooling mom of three competitive swimmers, Katy often writes from the stands while cheering them on. Visit Katy at katyleebooks.com.

  Books by Katy Lee

  Love Inspired Suspense

  Warning Signs

  Grave Danger

  Sunken Treasure

  Permanent Vacancy

  Silent Night Pursuit

  SILENT NIGHT

  PURSUIT

  Katy Lee

  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

  —1 John 3:18

  To Ben and all the other service dogs like him who assist their military handlers on a daily basis. You truly inspire.

  Acknowledgments

  My stories would fall flat without real-life people sharing their experiences with me. They are the true heroes behind the stories. I want to especially thank Dennis Theodore Swols, SSG United States Army. His honesty in answering my many questions about post-traumatic stress disorder as well as the amazing service dogs that have helped him in his daily life are what brought the emotions to the page. Thank you, Dennis, and thank you to your dog, Ben, too. What a blessing you have both been to my story and my life.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  “In point two miles, your destination will be on your left,” the GPS’s mechanical voice spoke into the tension-filled interior of the old Honda Beat roadster. Lacey Phillips stole a quick glance at her rearview mirror. Blinding headlights from the car on her tail suggested she might not make it those point two miles. If this guy came any closer, she could be spending her Christmas Eve in a snowy New Hampshire ditch instead.

  Not what a born-and-bred Southern girl was used to.

  Lacey had nothing for warmth but a blue-jean coat and her brother’s army beanie hat.

  Check that: her deceased brother’s.

  “Stay on the road, Lacey,” she said aloud, and tightened her hold on the wheel.

  She could almost hear her brother whisper the same words to her. They’d been each other’s spotter on the racetrack for so long, guiding each and every lane change from mouthpiece to earpiece, guarding against unforeseen hazards on the road ahead. Now it felt as though he guided her again. And it all started when Jeff had left her an envelope with nothing in it but a name and a key. Oh, how she wished there had been a warning of danger inside it, as well.

  The car behind pulled up. For the past half hour it had kept the same taunting pace with her as when she’d spotted it outside the small town of Norcastle, New Hampshire. She’d thought it curious when they’d both took the cutoff to ascend these secluded mountain roads. Twenty more minutes of being tailgated through twists and turns and more cutoffs had caused her curiosity to change to full-on alarm.

  Lacey wondered how long the car had been there before she noticed it. With her one-track mind on the sole purpose of this trip, it could have pulled up the moment she’d left work at her dad’s South Carolina reconstruction race-car shop seventeen hours ago.

  Get the answers was as far as her thoughts had gone when she’d found the envelope in her brother’s office at the shop. Now, with her unwanted company coming up the rear, she probably should have put a little more planning into her mission. After all, her brother was dead, and she didn’t believe it was an accident, as the stamp on his military file implied. How far would someone go to keep that little detail under the rug?

  Lacey accelerated, hoping to find the driveway her GPS alerted her to. Somewhere in these twisty back roads and walls of thick trees was the entrance to the home of her brother’s friend, Captain Wade Spencer—the name her brother had left in that envelope.

  Lacey’s tires slipped beneath her as the car hit ice, something she was not used to. A yank of the wheel and a downshift freed her from the skid, but she realized this two-seater Beater was not the car to take north in the beginning of winter. Reason number 345 she would never make a good wedding planner like her wise and detailed-oriented, Southern-genteel mother. It was just one more disappointment for Adelaide Phillips to lecture her daughter about when Lacey returned home.

  If she returned home.

  Lacey looked in the rearview mirror again and breathed a little easier with the little extra space between her car and the one behind her, but with the thoughts of her mother permeating her brain now, it wasn’t too much easier.

  What would Adelaide do when she heard her rebel daughter had raced off to places unknown to investigate her brother’s death?

  Lacey revved her engine, just as she typically did to tune her mother’s sweet-as-sugar voice out of her mind. Then she floored the pedal, and her tires squealed beneath her just as they would on pit road on race day.

  She had a mission, and Adelaide would just have to accept it. Lacey took some solace, though, knowing she didn’t completely go alone. She believed she could step out, or drive out, as the case may be, in faith because God always we
nt with her.

  Lord, right about now, I could use a little of Your guidance and maybe some more space between me and the car behind me. They’re getting awfully close again. Please, don’t let them interfere with my goal. I have to make things right. Stay with me, and please cover for me with Mama, and please help me find this Wade guy’s place.

  Lacey scrutinized the dense forest ahead of her but still saw no inclination of any living being this far out from town. Talk about cutting yourself off from the world, she thought. What kind of person was this Wade any—

  Lacey jolted. The car behind her had tapped her bumper! Was he playing some kind of game?

  Back home on the track there might have been some words hollered out, or at the very least, an issue of a challenge for such behavior, but she didn’t think for a second this guy cared about his bad sportsmanship. So what did he want? To stop her from getting her answers was all she could fathom.

  But she needed these answers for Jeffrey, Lacey reminded herself. She wouldn’t give up until her brother’s life was honored, not locked up in a confidential file somewhere in DC.

  The car bumped her again.

  Lacey’s stomach squeezed with trepidation. Never did she think she would need an exit strategy. It had always been get the answers and go home. In and out and home by Christmas dinner. End of mission.

  She squeezed her steering wheel tighter and jerked when the car bumped her a third time. How she wished she’d been able to equip the Honda Beat for racing already. If she wasn’t stuck in the shop working other drivers’ cars, the Beat would have included at least a roll cage of tubular steel by now. Her ability to fight back would have put an end to the cat-and-mouse game this guy was playing. What was the point in tapping her bumper? Did he want her to move over?