To Save Her Child

by Margaret Daley

  “All Keith said to me was I should have realized I would never escape him completely. He mentioned the story about Seth’s rescue at Eagle River and said that I should quit worrying about people besides myself.”

  “We found a copy of the story written in the newspaper with a photo where you appeared in the background. Not the same one that was on the TV channel. But that had to be how he discovered where you were.” Josiah settled his arm on her shoulders.

  Thomas frowned. “He bribed an airport employee for David’s flight plan that day you all left for the island.”

  Ella tensed. “Is the employee still alive?”

  Thomas’s eyes hardened. “Barely. He was left for dead.”

  Beneath Josiah’s arm, she relaxed the tightness in her shoulders. “I’ll pray he makes it. Keith liked to tie up loose ends, and I’m glad he didn’t succeed here.”

  “Your ex-husband’s death has been ruled an accident. He’ll be buried tomorrow. Everything is over, Ella.” Thomas smiled. “Now you two can get on with your lives.”

  His best friend zeroed in on Josiah’s face, his look practically shouting what he meant, especially when he looked back and forth between Ella and Josiah.

  “We’re leaving,” Josiah said. With Ella beside him, he walked into the hallway.

  Out in the parking lot, he grasped both of Ella’s hands to stop her from getting into her Jeep. “You’re a sight for sore eyes, and I really mean sore. I didn’t sleep an hour last night. I couldn’t rest until any danger of Keith’s weapons being found by someone and being used illegally was taken care of.” He inched closer. “Now you and I need to talk about our future.”

  He half expected her to say, “What future?” but she grinned, her eyes bright. She cupped his cheek. “I like the sound of that. I was a little late because I went to church to pray and ask God to help me let go of my anger toward Keith. By the time I left, I felt it lifted from me. He paid the price for his evil. I won’t give him the satisfaction of influencing my life for one more second. I want to spend that life with you. I love you.”

  He brushed his lips over hers and whispered against them, “I love you, too, with all my heart.”

  Ella wound her arms around him and deepened the kiss. When she finally pulled away, she said, “I’m here for you. I know with help you can move on—”

  He pressed his fingers over her lips. “I came to that conclusion when I saw the extremes a person can go to for revenge. It takes over your life and destroys it as much as you want to destroy the other person.”

  “No matter what, you would never turn into Keith. You aren’t capable of that. You want to help others. He wanted to harm them. You two are worlds apart, and I know that now. For a long time I doubted my ability to really know a person. I thought I did with Keith, and look what happened.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose. “I want to marry you. We can wait as long as you need, though.”

  “I don’t want to wait any longer. I’ve been waiting a lifetime for someone like you.”

  He lifted her against him and swung her around, laughter pouring from him. “Then we aren’t waiting anymore. Let’s go let Alex and Robbie know to prepare for a wedding soon.”

  EPILOGUE

  Two months later

  Josiah put his arm around Ella and approached the elegant restaurant. “We’re finally having that special dinner I promised you at Celeste’s.”

  She looked at him, a smile deep in her eyes. “Special is the right word. This was the perfect place to have our wedding reception, but you didn’t have to buy out the whole place for the night.”

  “Yes, I did. We have a lot of people who care about us.”

  When they entered, a sea of familiar faces greeted them with a round of applause and a few loud whistles.

  Robbie broke away from Ella’s parents, who had come to Alaska for the wedding, and hurried to his mom and hugged her. Then Robbie threw his arms around Josiah. “What took you all so long?”

  “You couldn’t have been here long. You left the church with your grandparents ten minutes before us.” Josiah clasped his shoulder. “Are you going to be all right for a week with your grandparents while your mom and I are away on our honeymoon?”

  Robbie grinned. “Yes, I’m going with them to show them the sights of Alaska. I warned them about seeing bears and moose. It didn’t seem to bother Grandpa, but Nana isn’t so sure about the trip now. Grandpa said that she’d change her mind.”

  “It’s hard to come to Alaska and not see the wonders. I think she’ll come around, too.”

  Robbie signaled for Josiah to lean down, then whispered in a serious voice, “Can I call you Dad now?”

  The question stunned Josiah. He’d hoped Robbie would want to one day, but he hadn’t expected it so soon. “I’d be honored if you would.”

  “Thanks, Dad.”

  “Josiah, we need to greet our guests.” Ella touched his arm, the elated look on her face indicating she’d heard what her son had said.

  In front of two hundred people, Josiah couldn’t resist kissing his wife of an hour. He drew her into his arms and kissed his bride for a second time that night before an audience.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from FUGITIVE TRACKDOWN by Sandra Robbins.

  Dear Reader,

  To Save Her Child is the second in my Alaskan Search and Rescue series. The state has such contrasts and covers a huge area. Alaska is a great setting for a series centered on search and rescue missions. I’ve had fun researching different places and scenarios in connection to this story and ones for future books in the series. So many secondary characters are demanding their own stories.

  I love hearing from readers. You can contact me at margaretdaley@gmail.com or at PO 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,

  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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  ONE

  There hadn’t been any movement inside the cabin for the past hour. Claire Walker pulled her coat tighter to ward off the chill of the October night and peered around the tree trunk where she’d decided to conduct her surveillance of the house.

  For perhaps the tenth time, she asked herself what was she thinking. Standing in the woods watching a house was the last thing her fellow teachers at Nashville’s Hope Academy would have expected from their shy librarian with the nonexistent social life. But sometimes circumstances call for drastic actions.

  Her teeth chattered, and she thought of the big fireplace in the den at her father’s house back in Memphis and wished she was there curled up in her favorite blanket in front of a roaring fire. She took a deep breath and shook her head. Wishing had nothing to do with it, however. She was on a mission, and she was determined to carry it out.

  She glanced down at the pistol she’d purchased a month ago and tightened her grip on it. Hopefully, she’d be able to remember everything the instructor at the firing range had told her if she had to use the gun. Just the thought of aiming the gun and pulling the trigger made her nauseous, but she could do
it if need be. She’d made up her mind—she would do whatever it took to bring in the fugitives who’d skipped bond, leaving her father’s bail bond business with serious financial problems. Peter Willis would be the first. And for a good reason. When Peter jumped bail, her father had tracked him down, but Peter murdered him in cold blood.

  Her heart pricked, and she blinked back tears. Her father didn’t deserve to die like that, and she intended to see Peter Willis brought to justice. After Peter, she’d tackle the next one on the list, then the next. Then she’d decide what she wanted to do. Go back to the cocooned life she’d built for herself in Nashville or take on her father’s bail bond business in Memphis and the mountain of debt he’d left behind.

  She frowned and shook the thought from her head. This wasn’t the time to be thinking about her options. All she needed to do at the moment was to concentrate on capturing Peter Willis, and now she had him. Right inside that cabin. The only problem was she had no idea how she was going to apprehend him.

  It had all seemed so simple when she’d mapped out her plans at home. All that had gone up in smoke earlier tonight when another man arrived at the remote cabin before she could take Peter into custody.

  Now, instead of a single two-hundred-pound man, she had two to contend with. There was no way she could take both of them by herself. If she could get Peter by himself, she might be able to get him out of there before the other one knew what had happened. She had to be patient and wait for the right time.

  To her left a twig snapped, and she jerked to attention. Was someone else in the forest with her? Her heart pounded, and her stomach roiled at the thought that one of the men had slipped from the cabin without her seeing him or that another friend was about to join them. She froze in place and listened, but she heard nothing else.

  After a moment she relaxed and directed her attention back to the cabin. There had to be something she could do. But what?

  The thought had barely entered her mind when the front door opened, and Peter strolled around the side of the house as if he didn’t have a care in the world. He stopped at his car, unlocked the trunk and pulled the lid up. He bent over to peer inside, and Claire knew it was time to make her move.

  She bolted from behind the tree and covered the distance between them as quietly as possible. Then she pressed her gun against his back. “Hands in the air, Willis!”

  “Wh-what is this?” he said as he raised his hands.

  She took a step back but kept the gun trained on him. “It’s time to go back to jail. Now turn around.”

  The light coming from the room inside the cabin lit his face as he turned, and he frowned. “Who are you and what do you want?”

  “I’m Claire Walker, the new owner of Walker’s Bail Bonds since you murdered my father. I’ve come to take you back to answer for the crime of murdering an employee of the Second Citizens Bank and to have you charged with killing my father.”

  A smug smile pulled at his mouth. “Really? You think you can do all that?”

  “I know I can. Besides the two murders, I know my father found out about some other illegal activities of yours, and I intend to find out what they are.”

  An amused expression lit his face, and he shook his head. “You’d better be careful. What your father found out got him killed.”

  She pulled a pair of handcuffs from her jacket and took a step toward him. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” she ordered.

  An amused smirk crossed his face. “I don’t have any intention of going anywhere with you.”

  She took a step closer. Her hand shook, and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. “Oh, yes, you’ll go with me. On your own two feet or dragged by me after I shoot you. Your choice.”

  He threw back his head and laughed out loud. “Shoot me? You don’t have it in you to shoot me. Besides, the gunshot would alert my friend inside, and you’d be dead before you could get out of this yard.”

  She tightened her grip on the gun to hide how her hands were shaking and cleared her throat. “You don’t scare me.”

  He took a step toward her and scowled. “You’d better be scared because I don’t have any intention of going anywhere with you.”

  She backed up a step and inhaled a deep breath.

  Suddenly she felt the nudge of something against her back. She glanced around to see the man who’d arrived earlier standing behind her with a gun pressed between her shoulders.

  Claire whirled around, but the man was quicker. He grabbed her pistol, wrenched it from her hand and hit her across the face with his gun. The handcuffs flew out of her hand as she fell to the ground. She lay there with her head pounding as if a freight train were passing through it. Before she could catch her breath, Peter reached down, kicked the handcuffs and her gun away, and hauled her to her feet. A sharp pain shot up her leg from her ankle, and she groaned.

  The man holding the gun glanced at Peter. “Who is she?”

  “Her name is Claire Walker,” Peter said. “She’s the daughter of that old bail bondsman we took care of a few weeks ago.”

  Claire twisted from the man’s grip and tried to fight back the tears at hearing her father referred to in that way, but it was no use. Before she realized what she’d done, she turned to Peter and slapped him across the face. “How dare you talk like that about my father? He was a good man, and he gave you a chance to stay out of jail until your court date. And how did you repay him? You killed him! I intend to see you spend the rest of your life in jail.”

  Peter rubbed his cheek where she’d hit him and doubled up his fist. Claire cringed from the blow she knew was about to come. He pulled his arm back, and then lowered it as he laughed. “I don’t think you’ll talk so big without your gun,” he taunted. “Now I want you to answer some questions for me.”

  “What?”

  Claire tried to inch away from him, but he reached out and grabbed her by the arm. “Oh, like who else knows you were coming here tonight?”

  She tried to pry his fingers from her arm with her free hand, but it was no use. She glared at him. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  The two men looked at each other, and Peter tightened his grip. “I’ll ask you one more time. Who else have you told about your suspicions that I had something to do with your father’s death?”

  Claire ignored the pain shooting up her arm and took a deep breath. “Let go of me.”

  Peter smiled and relaxed his grip. “Well, it seems like you’re not going to cooperate. I think we can handle that okay.” He glanced at his partner. “I think it’s time for our visitor to disappear.”

  Fear curled in Claire’s stomach, and she darted a glance at each of the men. “Wh-what do you mean?”

  The man holding the gun laughed. “It means we’re the only two leaving here. The only thing that remains to be decided is where that leaves you.”

  Claire swallowed the bile that poured into her mouth and tried to speak. “What are you going to do?”

  Peter shrugged and glanced at the other man. “Kill her. We can’t let her run to the police.”

  Claire tried again to pull free from Peter’s hold, but she couldn’t. “No, don’t do that. Just let me go, and I won’t tell anyone I found you,” Claire screamed.

  Peter released her with a shove. “Oh, really?” he said. “Somehow I don’t think I can believe you.”

  The man holding the gun aimed at her again, but before he could fire, a bullet hit the edge of the roof and ricocheted off a shingle. He spun around and fired into the forest in the direction the bullet had come from. Two more shots kicked up dirt at his feet. Stunned, Claire dropped to the ground and crawled out of the line of fire toward the far side of Peter Willis’s car.

  Peter climbed into his car and called over his shoulder “Let’s get out of here!”

  “
What about her?”

  “Leave her. We’ve got to go.”

  Another bullet whizzed past the car. The man who’d been about to shoot Claire ducked and ran toward his car parked in front of the cabin. Desperate to stop them, Claire tried to push to her feet, but a sharp pain in her ankle shot up her leg. All she could do was groan and sink back to the ground. She landed flat on her stomach.

  Both cars roared out of the yard, and Claire watched helplessly from her prone position as the taillights disappeared in the darkness. She pounded her fists into the ground. “No!”

  She heard running footsteps, and then someone crashed out of the forest and stopped next to her. “Are you all right?” She could hear concern in the man’s question.

  Claire flattened her palms on the ground and tried to sit up. “I—I think so. Thanks to you.”

  “Let me help you.” He leaned down, gripped her arm and helped her sit up.

  “Thank you again,” she said. “If it hadn’t been for you...” The words froze in her throat, and she stared up at the last person in the world she would have expected to meet outside a cabin in rural Mississippi.

  * * *

  “Adam? What are you doing here?”

  Adam Knight released Claire, blinked and then shook his head. An angry growl came from his throat, and he bent over her until their noses almost touched. “Me? I think the question is what are you doing here?”

  Claire scooted a few inches away and propped her hands on her hips. “I was trying to bring Peter Willis back to Memphis. He killed my father.”

  Adam’s eyes grew large. “What?”

  “You heard me. My father posted his bail, Willis left town and my dad went after him. Then Willis killed him. Now, what about you?”

  “I was after the other guy, James Lester. The company that posted his bond hired the Knight Agency to bring him in after he jumped bail on an attempted murder charge.”