“I’m not that bad, but your grandpa put it on last night. All I had to do was plug it in.”
“Sure. We haven’t had much time to talk since I arrived, and I want us to before Bree comes and Grandpa gets up.”
David tensed as he poured two mugs of coffee. He never knew what to expect from Melissa since she’d become a teenager. Now was not any different, although since she’d come to Anchorage, their relationship had been pleasant—no drama, no arguments. He thought maybe that was because Bree had been part of a lot of their activities. Melissa and Bree had gotten along from the beginning, which had thrilled him.
He took a chair across from his daughter at the table and slid a mug to her. “What do you want to talk about?”
“Us. For so long I blamed you for Mom’s death, but I have a friend at school who is dealing with a similar situation with her boyfriend, and I saw how he tried to fool her that everything was all right. He nearly died from an overdose of painkillers from a football injury. He’s getting help now. She didn’t realize for a long time what he was doing.” Melissa drew in a deep breath. “Mom made the decision to do what she did, not you, and I wasn’t fair to you about it. I lashed out at you.”
“I did my share of stuff wrong. I should have been there for you two more. For a long time I thought my career was the most important thing in my life. Your mother even encouraged me those last few years to rise in the ranks in the air force.”
Melissa’s eyes filled with tears. “That last time you went overseas, I was so angry but also hurt that you did.”
“I want us to start over and build a relationship from here on out. Can we?”
One tear slipped down her cheek, and she brushed it away. “That’s why I came. I’m realizing how important family is, and we have a small one.”
David rose and came around to hug his daughter. With Melissa and Bree in his life, this would be the best Christmas ever.
“I didn’t think the holidays could get any better, but it just has,” his dad said from the entrance. He joined them, enclosing his arms around David and Melissa. When his father stepped back, he drew in an exaggerated breath. “What great smells to wake up to—coffee and ham.”
When the doorbell rang, David hurried to answer it. The second Bree entered, he took Ringo from her and put him down on the floor; then he pulled her into his arms. “This is the first Christmas for us as a couple, with many more to come.”
Bree chuckled. “No, you don’t get to open your present until later when everyone else does.”
“But I should have been able to open it on Christmas Eve.” Joy enveloped David, something that had been elusive for years—until Bree came into his life. “Please now.” Ringo rubbed against his leg, demanding attention, but David only had eyes for Bree.
She shook her head. “Okay, but only after I open my gift first.”
“Wait right here.” David went into the living room and found the small box under the tree. He brought it back to Bree. “I hope you like it.”
She tore into the package and revealed a glittering solitary emerald on a gold band. “Yes. Yes.”
David had started to get down on his one knee and stopped. “Who told you?”
“I did,” his dad said. “You know I can’t keep secrets like that.” Next to his dad in the hallway was Melissa with a big smile on her face.
David turned back to Bree and knelt in front of her. He had to ask her formally. “Will you marry me when you’re ready? We can wait six months, a year—”
“How about a wedding on Valentine’s Day?”
He rose and pulled Bree to him. “We can wait longer. I want you to be sure.”
She threw her arms around him. “I am sure. My present to you is getting married this Valentine’s Day.” Then she gave him a kiss that sealed the rest of their lives.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from COLD CASE JUSTICE by Sharon Dunn.
Dear Readers,
The Yuletide Rescue is the first in my Alaskan Search and Rescue Series. I have several books planned for this series, and the next will be out in February 2015 titled To Save Her Child. I’ve always been fascinated with Alaska and loved the time I visited my friend who lived there. The state has such contrasts and covers a huge area. Alaska will be a great setting for a series centered on search and rescue missions.
I love hearing from readers. You can contact me at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 2074, Tulsa, OK 74101. You can also learn more about my books at www.margaretdaley.com. I have a newsletter that you can sign up for on my website.
Best wishes,
Margaret
Questions for Discussion
Trust is important in a relationship. Both David and Bree have trouble putting their total trust in God. Have you put your total trust in Him? If not, why not?
Bree is self-reliant and depends on herself. Do you consider yourself independent, needing no one? Is it possible to go through life like that?
Bree tries hard to control her life, to have it planned, so there are no surprises. She finds out that isn’t always going to work. Life often throws a person a curve ball. How well do you deal with changes in your life? Does change scare you? Why or why not?
What is your favorite scene? Why?
Bree is devastated when she finds out about Jeremiah’s illegal activities. Have you ever had someone fool you for months or years? What did you do when you found out what was really going on?
David can’t forgive himself for his wife’s suicide. He felt he should have seen the signs and been able to do something to help his wife. Have you ever felt responsible for someone else’s action? How did you deal with it?
Jeremiah betrayed Bree, and his actions put her life in danger. If someone did that to you, could you forgive the person? Why or why not?
Who did you think was behind the smuggling ring? Why?
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.
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ONE
Rochelle Miller stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted Elwood Corben across the wide corridor of the courthouse where she worked. She took in a deep breath to clear her head as her anxiety level skyrocketed. Why, after ten years, had the man she’d fled Seattle over shown up in Montana? It couldn’t be coincidence. Elwood Corben had hunted her down. But why now, after all this time?
Elwood was speaking to a police officer, their heads bent close together in a very cozy way. She thought to slip into a room before he saw her, but fear paralyzed her. Elwood caught her staring, grinned at her and walked across the corridor. Each of his footsteps seemed to crush her further into the floor.
His face was all teeth and narrow snakelike eyes. His dyed hair couldn’t hide that he was a man past sixty. “Megan, how good to see you.”
Even changing her first and last name hadn’t kept him away. He must have hired a detective to find her. She’d thought she’d been careful in covering her tracks, but she’d been only sixteen when she’d run from him and hadn’t had the resources or know-how to do a thorough job in changing her identity.
Rochelle laced her fingers together to hide how badly they were shaking. Though Elwood Corben wouldn’t harm her with all these people around, she’d picked up on the threat beneath his words. Only she
knew the truth about Elwood Corben—that he was a cold-blooded murderer.
She squared her shoulders and purged her voice of the terror raging inside her. “I have to go to work.” She hurried toward a courtroom that she knew had just adjourned. She slipped into the milling crowd and headed toward a side exit. When she looked over her shoulder, she couldn’t see Elwood among the throng of people. Working her way through the labyrinth of the courthouse, she took a circuitous route to the side street where her car was parked. The winter cold chilled her skin as she got into her car. She hadn’t had time to get her coat or her purse, but was glad she had shoved her keys into her pants pocket. Her heart raced as she slipped in behind the wheel and started the car.
Her only clear thought was of her nine-year-old son, Jamie.
When she pulled out, Rochelle checked her rearview mirror to make sure she wasn’t being followed. She tried to formulate a plan as she drew closer to Jamie’s school. Corben knew where she worked, but maybe he didn’t know where she lived. Why else would he have come to the courthouse instead of her home? She’d hidden away cash at her house in case this day ever came. First she’d get Jamie and then the money. Rochelle feathered the brake as she turned a corner onto a busy street, knowing she needed to slow down or she’d end up on the sidewalk.
She wove through the heavy traffic. Her car fishtailed on the icy road. A horn honked. She gripped the wheel a little tighter. For sure, Corben didn’t know about Jamie, and he wasn’t going to find out. Yet another reason to get out of town quickly and not go to the police. If she lingered here in Discovery, even if the police could protect her, Corben would find out he had a grandson. She couldn’t take that chance. Elwood wasn’t capable of loving family members. She knew that all too well.
Rochelle tensed as the images from ten years ago assaulted her mind.
She’d only been sixteen when she’d fallen in love with Corben’s son Dylan. Though Elwood Corben walked around with a smoldering rage, she hadn’t understood the extent to which he was involved in illegal activity until she heard Dylan arguing with his father one night. Dylan insisted he was not going be a part of the family’s import/export business because his father often operated outside the law.
She’d come to the balcony of Elwood’s house and listened to the heated discussion.
Dylan’s voice held conviction. “I want a legitimate life, Dad. I want to marry Megan.”
The silence that followed caused her to hold her breath. From her vantage point she saw only Dylan’s back and part of Elwood’s arms and upper body.
“You are my son and you will do what I say.”
The barely contained rage in Elwood’s words made her shiver. She saw Elwood’s fist swing out and strike Dylan, who crumpled to the floor after hitting his head on the counter. She could have viewed Dylan’s fall as an accident brought on by Elwood’s out-of-control anger, for Elwood hadn’t known Dylan would hit his head. But as she watched Elwood stare down at his son and do nothing, she saw him for the murderer he was.
Blood spread across the tile. In the moment that life left Dylan’s body, something died inside her, too. Though she’d been in rebellion from her Christian upbringing when she met Dylan, she had loved him.
She must have screamed, because Elwood stomped across the tile and glared up at her where she stood on the stairs. Murder glistened in his eyes. “What did you see?”
She shook her head, unable to stop staring at Dylan lying motionless on the floor. Knowing that Elwood intended to kill her for what she’d witnessed, she’d fled from the house. He’d caught up with her before she could get to the police station, threatened her life and her family’s. She’d managed to escape his grasp and taken the first bus out of town. Two days later, when she’d made it to Discovery, she found out she was pregnant. Up until that point, she had intended to go back and talk to the police. Once Jamie was born, though, she knew she had to protect him from Elwood ever finding out he existed. Elwood would hardly be the doting grandfather. If Dylan had been any indication at all, Elwood sought only to control family. When he couldn’t control, he killed. She couldn’t risk Jamie being a party to that.
Not wanting her family to be harmed or Corben strong-arming them into saying where she was, she’d cut off contact with them, as well.
Rochelle stared through the windshield at the icy road as her heart pounded out a wild rhythm. Her arm muscles tensed as she gripped the wheel. She was less than two minutes away from Jamie’s school. She pressed the accelerator and swerved around a slow-moving car.
The car that hit her came out of nowhere. She didn’t even have time to touch the brake before she heard the crunching of metal. Her body swung back and then forward. Glass sprayed across her field of vision.
As her world went black, all she could think about was holding her nine-year-old son and making sure he was safe.
* * *
Paramedic Matthew Stewart felt a tightening in his stomach as the sirens of the ambulance he was driving wailed. He maneuvered around the stopped traffic.
His partner, Daniel, leaned forward in the passenger seat as they got closer to the scene of the accident. “This doesn’t look good.”
Up ahead, Matthew could see that a truck with a dented passenger-side door had been pulled to the side of the road. A compact car with a crumpled front end sat in the middle of the street.
His neck muscles tensed.
This was the first serious call he’d been out on since Christina Johnson’s suicide, and his adrenaline was mixing with his anxiety. A neighbor had phoned that he’d found Christina unconscious with a broken ankle. When she came to, she said she’d fainted and twisted her ankle when she fell. The ER doctors had signed off on her after they patched her up. But Matthew’s instinct had told him something more was going on. Yet, he’d done nothing about it. Christina hadn’t acted like a suicidal woman. No one thought to question her fainting story. A week later, they were called back to her house. This time, she’d taken enough pills to kill an elephant, not just pass out and fall down. He couldn’t sleep at night because he kept going over and over in his head why he hadn’t trusted his gut, and he vowed next time he would.
As the crowd of gawkers parted, he killed the siren and parked the ambulance. He pushed open the door and grabbed the C-collar and the backboard from the back bay. An older man ran up to him.
“The guy in the truck is okay.” The man pointed at a twenty-something man who was rubbing his neck. “The woman is in real bad shape, though.” The older man indicated the compact car.
Daniel patted Matthew’s shoulder. “I’ll have a look at him and then come help you.”
Matthew drew his attention toward the car in the middle of the street. The front end had been completely pushed in and the windshield had been smashed. He couldn’t tell the condition of the driver from this far away. In the distance, he heard the sound of the police sirens headed toward them.
As he stepped toward the car, he saw the woman’s head rested against the driver’s-side window. He opened the door slowly and began his assessment. Despite the winter chill, she wasn’t wearing a coat and her eyes were open but unfocused. Blood dripped from the gash on her forehead. She was pretty, probably in her late twenties. She looked vaguely familiar to him.
He knelt and spoke softly. “Ma’am, you’ve been in an accident.”
She shook her head. The glazed eyes told him she still wasn’t tracking with him. “I have to get to the school...for my son. Please...I have...to leave town.”
Why was she thinking about leaving town? Not a normal response for an accident victim. She wasn’t making much sense. She might have a head injury. “Ma’am, can you tell me what day it is?”
She met his gaze. A light came into her eyes. “Do I know you?”
He studied her more closely. “I think we might be neighbors. Do you live on B Stree
t?” He’d seen her playing in the yard with her son and getting in her car in the morning dressed in a business suit. He’d talked to the kid a couple of times and knew his name was Jamie.
“Yes, just up the street from you.” She nodded. Pain shot across her expression, compressing her features. She moaned. “My arm.”
He touched her shoulder. “Please don’t try to move. My partner and I are going to put you on a backboard and get a collar around you to prevent any additional injury to your spine.”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital.” Her voice filled with panic. “I can’t. Please, I have to get my son.” She arched her back and closed her eyes, probably trying to shut out the pain.
Even without a close exam, he knew her injuries were extensive. Though she was free to refuse medical attention, she clearly needed it. He didn’t want a repeat of what had happened with Christina Johnson. He had to convince her.
“What’s your name, ma’am?”
“Rochelle.”
“Rochelle, I’m Matthew. I can appreciate that you are concerned about your son. We’ll make arrangements for you to call a friend to pick him up. But right now, my priority is to get you to a hospital.”
She shook her head. “You don’t understand.” She swung out of the car seat and attempted to push herself to her feet. He caught her before she collapsed to the ground. Her eyes opened briefly and then she became a rag doll in his arms.
“I got it,” said Daniel as he ran toward them, grabbing Rochelle’s legs and helping Matthew transfer her to the board.
She stirred only slightly when they strapped her to the backboard and put the collar around her neck. The crowd dispersed as they loaded her into the ambulance.
“I’m going to ride in back with her,” said Matthew.
While Daniel moved into the flow of traffic, Matthew started an IV. They passed a tow truck headed in the opposite direction. Up front, he could hear Daniel calling ahead to alert the hospital of their arrival.
The Yuletide Rescue Page 19