Love Inspired Suspense June 2015 #1

by Margaret Daley

  Accelerant.

  She closed her eyes. This was what she’d seen that night. This was her nightmare all over again.

  God, how could this happen? How can You let this happen?

  But she understood too well that giving people free will meant allowing evil in the world. That was what the criminal-justice system was for. How had Santino escaped? How had he found her so quickly? The obvious answer snaked around her neck and choked her. She jerked against the rope as though she could free herself. No, no, no, no. She didn’t want to die this way.

  To die the way Derrick had.

  Even in the darkness, she thought she could see Santino’s evil grin as he dropped a match. Flames erupted behind him. He strode toward her, a wall of fire quickly spreading behind him, cutting her off from the town and any possible rescue.

  “See you on the other side of this life,” he said as he walked past her.

  If only Tracy had gone into WITSEC from the beginning, then none of this would be happening. David would be safe at home. John and Kari’s home wouldn’t be burning, and the forest wouldn’t be ablaze.

  How could she have made such a colossal mistake? Cost more lives?

  Tracy prayed for her life and for the lives of others. The fire spread out hard and fast against the dry foliage of summer. Flames inched toward her, as well. Thankfully the wind was blowing away from her. Maybe Santino had planned it that way so she could suffer longer. She didn’t know. But the wind could shift at any moment and then she would be consumed.

  Now she understood why she hadn’t been killed before now. He’d wanted to kill her himself. He’d wanted the chance to set her on fire.

  The bright orange and yellow flames licked the sky, illuminating the area near Tracy. Behind the blaze, the sky was black with smoke in the thick of night. Surely firefighters would see and respond. If they weren’t already busy putting out the fire at the house.

  Squeezing her eyes shut, Tracy hung her head, the last of her prayers slipping from her heart. Nobody could save her this time.

  *

  Adrenaline coursing through his veins, David raced toward the wall of fire, his lungs burning from smoke and exertion.

  He’d seen a man carry Tracy away from the house and into the woods, but he’d been trapped and couldn’t get out in time to stop him. John had been the one to free David. He and Kari were safely out of the house.

  He’d told John. He’d told him everything about the danger he and his wife would be facing if they allowed him and Tracy to stay with them, but the man had still wanted them to stay.

  Fire trucks were on their way. The firefighters would save as much of the house as they could. He didn’t have time to explain to anyone that he had to get to Tracy before someone killed her.

  And when he’d looked into the darkness of a short Alaskan night, he’d seen the very instant the ground had been torched. Tracy had to be there. She had to be on the other side of the growing wall of fire. And David had to save her—he had to succeed in saving the woman he loved this time. He couldn’t live with any other outcome.

  But to see those flames licking this part of the world again—he’d been here nearly ten years before and the memory crushed the breath from him.

  He raced toward the fire and fought his way through the thick, dry underbrush, racing the flames that blazed up the trees and into the crowns. He had to beat the fire, get to the other side before it spread and blocked his path to Tracy. Firefighters had to have seen the fire by now, but he wasn’t sure they had the resources to battle it without calling in help. He’d been part of that help years ago. This wildland fire could blaze out of control before the required resources could be brought in.

  What he wouldn’t give to be wearing his firefighting gear at this moment.

  God, please let me find her. She has to be here.

  This was Santino’s plan.

  “Tracy! Where are you?”

  “Here, I’m over here.” Tracy’s voice barely rose above the crackling roar of a growing wildfire.

  David couldn’t believe he’d heard her. The flames illuminated the woods, and in the distance, he spotted her tied to a tree. Anger burned in his gut. But he’d found her in time—hope burst through, infusing him with energy. He would beat the flames and save her.

  The fire was growing dangerously close and heat licked his limbs. When he made it to Tracy, he slid to his knees, took out his pocketknife and cut the rope. He couldn’t catch his breath enough to talk, but he doubted she could talk, either, if not from the stifling heat and choking smoke then from the shock evident on her face. Reflecting in her grateful eyes.

  “It’s Carlos Santino. He escaped. He’s here.” Her eyes grew wide. “David, behind you! It’s Santino!”

  David jerked around and jumped to his feet, prepared to fight.

  A sneering man with a face covered in tattoos laughed in reply. “You came for her, like I knew you would.”

  Why did the man care if David had come for her? But David didn’t need to know the answer to that.

  “Tracy, get out of here.” Anger boiling over, he lunged at the man.

  They fought, and as the blows came, David knew he was no match for the man in terms of muscle and sheer strength. A man who’d been training for this moment in prison. But David had something Santino didn’t have—the gut-wrenching determination to free the women he loved once and for all.

  David had him in a headlock, but Santino escaped his grip and David saw the fear in his eyes—a haunting look David would never forget.

  To his surprise, Santino turned and fled, running toward the flames. With Tracy’s cries in his ears, he ran after him. He couldn’t let him get away. Tracy would never be free if Santino escaped.

  Unfortunately, even when he went back to prison, Tracy would never be free of Santino’s grasp.

  *

  Tracy screamed, calling after David.

  She couldn’t believe it. Had she just seen David and Santino disappear through the fire? There must be someplace to run between the flames. Surely he’d found a way through to the other side… But Tracy was alone. How did she escape? The heat felt as if it would melt her even standing a few hundred yards away.

  David had told her to run and get to safety, but safety was something she had felt only when she was at David’s side. She couldn’t run away and leave him behind. She bent over as racking coughs took control of her body.

  Someone approached from behind. Tracy turned. Fearing it was Santino. Hoping it was David. But, no, it was a firefighter in full gear. He reached for Tracy, but she pulled away.

  “David went that way. You have to save him.”

  The firefighter looked in the distance and shook his head, as if there was no hope of David surviving. He reached for Tracy again. She didn’t want to go, but he tugged her with him, intent on getting her to safety.

  “No!” Tracy yelled, reaching in the direction she’d seen David and Santino go.

  But it was no use. The fireman carried her to safety.

  *

  At the Incident Command Center, Tracy stood in the parking lot, emergency vehicle lights blinking all around her. She tugged a blanket someone had thrown over her shoulders closer and stared at the fire blazing in the distance. It was consuming the side of the mountain and heading for the town, which could be yet another casualty of Santino’s retaliation against Tracy.

  The firefighters were creating a firebreak to save the town.

  A backfire.

  A fireman had saved her life, carried her to safety down a path she could never have found on her own to escape the flames. But David hadn’t emerged, and she feared he’d perished in the flames trying to keep Santino away from her. And that was why she hadn’t wanted to love. She couldn’t stand to go through it all over again.

  And yet here she was, reliving the nightmare.

  How could Tracy live with this? Even if free will was to blame for Santino’s actions, rather than God, how could she hold on to fa
ith in a life where everything she loved was taken away from her?

  Admittedly, she’d lost touch with God. Stopped praying as much as she should, when her reaction should have been the exact opposite. Seeing David’s faith, and hearing the way he prayed, and his grandmother, too, had taught her that much. Reignited her own faith. But now it was faltering again.

  She pulled the blanket around her tighter. When the smoke settled, literally, maybe things would look differently. And she knew in the end, God took bad things and turned them to good.

  Tracy was still waiting to see good come of this.

  That scripture from Isaiah 61 came to mind. Maybe because she’d recently seen it in a framed cross-stitch at Katy’s house.

  The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

  Tearing her gaze from the scene that had exploded and expanded in front of her over the past couple of hours, Tracy hung her head.

  Beauty for ashes. That was what she needed. What they all needed out of this.

  Lord, we definitely need the ruined cities—or in this case, forest—repaired. We need those who have suffered because of Santino to be comforted.

  *

  When the gray of twilight tinted the skies in the wee hours of an early Alaska morning, the flames still were only partially contained. Tracy watched a figure emerge from the smoke in the distance. She expected a fireman, but the man wasn’t wearing any gear. She feared Santino had come for her.

  But no. She knew that cadence. That set of his shoulders.

  Her pulse ratcheted up and she dropped the blanket, rushing forward. A man pulled her back— Adam, the Warren brother who’d lost his business to fire just yesterday and had arrived on the scene not long ago, along with the other Warren siblings and Isaiah. Leah had stayed behind with her new baby.

  Right now she didn’t want their interference. “But…it’s David.”

  “You know, I think you’re right.” Adam let her go.

  Tracy hurried across the ground, closing the distance. As she grew near, she saw David’s stern features soften into a smile when he saw her. Tracy jumped into his arms. Covered in soot, he smelled of smoke and earth. He buried his face in her neck and shuddered.

  She hadn’t wanted to love again with good reason. But David’s courage and bravery, his arms around her, brought her to her senses.

  She could love again.

  She must love again. Her heart would give her no other choice.

  David finally released her, though she could have remained in his arms forever.

  “I did it, Tracy. I saved the woman I love this time.”

  The look in his eyes, his words, made her heart flip-flop. “Love?”

  “Yes, love.”

  Someone cleared a throat.

  Tracy didn’t want the interruption.

  “Tracy. David.” Chief Winters stood there, two US marshals next to him. “As soon as I learned where you were, and what had happened, we headed this way. Made it just in time, I see.”

  He introduced the marshals.

  “Where’s Jennifer…er…Marshal Hanes?” But Tracy feared she already knew.

  “I was afraid we were too late,” Chief Winters said. “I only just learned that Santino escaped tonight. Marshal Hanes was compromised, her family threatened, traumatized in such a way that she gave your location away. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure things out. But I had to know how you were discovered in Mountain Cove to begin with.”

  One of the marshals stepped forward. “I’m sorry, ma’am. But we’ll handle things from here.”

  Reality forced its way into the moment. Tracy moved to step from David’s arms. “I’m sorry, David. But you can’t love me. I have to leave now. We talked about this. It’s the only way. I wish I had done this before I brought such havoc on everyone.”

  But David wouldn’t let her go. “You don’t have to go anywhere. Santino is dead.”

  Dizziness swept over her. She couldn’t find words.

  “How do you know?” Chief Winters asked.

  “He tried to kill Tracy tonight, but I wouldn’t let him. I chased him and we ended up nearly surrounded by a wall of fire. I escaped before it was too late.” Weariness crept over his haggard features. “God help me, I tried to save him. Tried to pull him from the flames he’d stepped into. No matter what he’d done, I couldn’t watch him die. But he…wouldn’t let me help him. He thought he could save himself.”

  David hung his head. Tracy never wanted to see that look on his face again. He was a fireman and a hero. He never wanted to lose anyone—even someone who had committed heinous crimes. In the end, by fighting Santino, he’d saved Tracy.

  Set her free.

  “You saved me, David. You risked your life for me and saved me in the most important way.”

  “And I’d do it a hundred times over to keep you safe.” David pressed his forehead against hers, oblivious to the US marshals and officials standing around them. “I only wish I hadn’t avoided you for so long. I love you.”

  “I love you, too, David.”

  “Santino might be dead, Tracy,” the marshal said, “but that doesn’t negate efforts by his people. The door is still open for you to enter WITSEC, and I’m here to take you away to your new life.”

  How could she leave David? But then…how could she stay?

  “Maybe a married name would help keep you under the radar,” David said.

  Tracy gasped.

  “Will you marry me, Tracy?”

  “Are you sure?” She wanted to make sure his proposal wasn’t some sort of heroic act. “There’s no need for you to go that far to save me.”

  He chuckled. “Then go that far to save me, Tracy, and marry me. I don’t want to live without you.”

  “Yes. Oh, yes, David.”

  She had her beauty for ashes.

  *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from PAYBACK by Hope White

  Dear Reader,

  I hope you enjoyed reading Backfire. Tracy and David struggled with questions about why bad things happened in their lives, and I’m sure many of us struggle with those same questions. Sometimes we don’t get the answers we want but I believe God is always there with us to answer our prayers and to turn things around, to trade beauty for ashes. I’ve seen Him do this in my own life too many times to count, so I can write this with confidence.

  In writing Tracy’s character, I kept questioning myself. Should I have her save herself? She seems too dependent on others and on the hero. Women don’t need someone to save them anymore. I could have put a twist on the story. Have her save the hero instead.

  The recent movie Frozen comes to mind. Disney has updated their damsel-in-distress stories, changing the princess in need of her prince to save her into a story in keeping with our modern thinking. I loved the movie, but to be honest, I see nothing wrong with a princess wanting her prince to save her. To rescue her. And when the princess is used to only depending on herself, sometimes the greatest act of bravery can be trusting someone else—letting yourself love someone else.

  I find that very romantic, and in fact, the Bible as a whole is a romance story. Jesus even rides a white horse! He is our Prince come to save us. He laid down His life for us. So went my thinking in deciding to keep Tracy in need of help to keep the man from her traumatic past from killing her.

  I love connecting with my readers. You can find ways to connect with me on my website. If you would like to get news about my upcoming titles, please
sign up for my newsletter on my website: elizabethgoddard.com.

  I pray God’s many blessings on you!

  Elizabeth Goddard

  http://www.harlequin.com/harlequinexperience

  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!

  Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  HarlequinBlog.com

  ONE

  She had to protect him.

  Shivering against a strong gust of wind, Nia Sharpe quickened her pace up the mountain trail, determined to find her boss, resort manager Aiden McBride, by nightfall. She knew he was planning a midweek overnight hike to Pleasant Point and she needed to warn him.

  Something didn’t feel right about the two men, calling themselves Mark and Greg, who came looking for Aiden, men who claimed to be business associates. After they’d checked in, she had the resort’s IT tech, Zack Carter, dig into their backgrounds, but he came up empty. It was as though the two men didn’t exist.

  As concierge for Echo Mountain Resort, it wasn’t just Nia’s job to help guests. She also prided herself on keeping Aiden’s life as calm as possible.

  When she’d learned that the mystery men rented hiking gear from the recreation office, her instincts went on full alert.

  Always trust your instincts. A hard but valuable lesson she’d learned in childhood. One that she put to good use to protect her boss.

  Fearing Mark and Greg had discovered Aiden’s hiking plans by talking to resort staff, she took off at lunchtime to beat them to Pleasant Point.

  She’d repeatedly called Aiden over the course of the past few hours, but he didn’t answer. Reception was spotty in the mountains, so that was no surprise. A shudder trickled down her spine. Had the men already found Aiden?