* * *
Nora’s lungs burned and she was pretty sure she’d broken more than one rib. Her entire body convulsed in pain. She tasted blood in her mouth but she was alive and bullet-free. Ainsley had missed. But she thought she’d heard another gun go off.
Which meant Rush might be dead, but Nora wasn’t going to lie here and do nothing. She wasn’t going to burrow into the snow and let it rob her of her life. She wouldn’t cut loose now. Army crawling toward the side of the mountain, she gripped a tree branch and pulled herself up, clawing and struggling to make it to the top.
Soaked hair, clothes and feet, her fingers and toes numb, she kept fighting to reach Rush. She’d take a bullet, a knife, being mowed over by a car even; it didn’t matter. All she could think about was falling into his arms.
Dead or alive.
God, let him be alive.
She had skidded and slipped down the mountain, losing a boot and ripping her dress, her skin frostbit and everything that wasn’t numb ached, but she forged ahead until she made it to the top.
Ainsley stood over Rush.
A tree! He was pinned down.
Wind howled. Trees swayed until they nearly touched the ground. She hunted for something. Found a large piece of wood and snatched it up as she fought for every step; every breath felt like knives stabbing her as she inched closer and closer to Ainsley. But she would not leave even if he’d begged her to go. She’d die fighting for Rush. For them.
For love.
* * *
“No, Ainsley. I’m sorry,” Rush said. “I’ve always loved Nora. It’s always been her. It will always be her.” It didn’t take much light to see the fire in Ainsley’s eyes at his rejection. At his truth. Maybe he should have lied. But Ainsley would have seen that too.
A shadow behind Ainsley caught his eye.
“I hoped your answer would be different.”
She aimed.
The shadow from behind raised its arm and brought something down hard on Ainsley’s head. She toppled into the snow, unmoving.
“Rush!” Nora cried, and fell to her knees beside him.
“Nora?” She was alive. She was the shadow. “How? Wait...get the gun, Nora Beth.”
She scurried through the snow and grabbed Ainsley’s gun. “Tell me what to do, Rush.” She studied the tree. “I don’t know if I can move it. But I’ll try.”
This woman had climbed half a mountain bloodied and broken for him. Instead of making herself scarce like he’d told her to, she’d saved him. On her own.
“Get my radio. It fell.” She felt under his legs until she found it lodged in the snow. She gave him the radio and he called it in. Nora ran her hands through his wet hair. “Go get in the car, Nora Beth. Turn it on and try to get warm.”
“No,” she protested.
“Nora, you’re injured. It’s freezing. Go get in the car.”
“No!” She stroked his cheek. “I’m not leaving you again. No matter what. Understand? I’m. Not. Leaving.”
“Not even for Florida?” he asked and tried to smile, but even that hurt.
“Not even for Florida. I want to stay. If you can forgive me. If you love me enough to try one last time.” She sniffed. “Because I love you. I don’t want to keep secrets or hide things away. And I don’t want to run. Not anymore. Not even to your car. I’m done running from everything. From you, especially.”
He grabbed her hand and kissed it. “I love you, Nora Beth. Don’t go to Florida. Stay here. With me. For always.”
Sirens wailed.
“For always.”
“Nora Beth?”
“Yeah,” she whispered, and tottered.
“Merry Christmas, love.”
“Merry Christmas,” she said, and collapsed in the snow.
SEVENTEEN
Nora stood in Dad’s kitchen. Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve and Nora was thankful that in this new year she would live and so would Rush and Hailey.
Hailey had emergency surgery, spent several days in the hospital, but she was home now, resting in bed. Nora carried a cup of tea to her, limping with the lovely black boot she was stuck with for a while. They’d taped up her ribs, given her pain meds and diagnosed her with a mild concussion. But she’d made it.
So had Rush. Broken leg. Bruised femur. But alive and recovering.
Nora knocked on her sister’s bedroom door.
“Come in.”
She opened the door. Hailey lay in bed, pale but smiling. Nathan sat next to her. He kissed her forehead and scooted off the bed. “I’m going to check on Dalton. Make sure he’s not sitting in cold bathwater. Him and his boats.” He patted Nora’s shoulder and left.
“I brought you tea.”
“Thanks.”
“I’m sorry,” Nora said.
“You say that every time you look at me. Stop. It’s over, and the truth is that while I’m not thanking God I got shot and almost died, I am thanking Him for causing some good to come from it. Nathan has been by my side since I woke up from surgery. It was a wake-up call for us, and we’re going to work things out. We love each other, Nora. I’m not sure we would have let ourselves feel that again had I not almost been gone for good. So stop the sorry bit. Okay?”
She handed Hailey her tea and squeezed her hand. “Okay.”
“Nathan told me that Gary Plenk admitted his affair to his wife. She left him. I hope they can work it out.”
“I do too.”
“And the money in Mom’s trunk. Will you be okay not knowing why it was there, Nora?”
Nora sighed. “I’ve had to learn the hard way that not every question comes with an answer. Some things we have to carry through life not knowing, but trusting that God does and He’s got it. Was she blackmailed? Was she taking it to vanish? To abandon us? I don’t know. I have to find peace there. We all do. And even if that was what was happening, I know God never leaves us. Never abandons us. He loves us so much. I’m going to rest in that knowledge. Find who I am in the light of who Jesus is. I’ve never attempted that before.”
Hailey snickered and moaned. “What about Billy Arnold?”
“His parents have been notified of his death and that he was being blackmailed by Ainsley. Everyone is grieving in one way or another. But it’s a new season. A New Year is upon us.”
“And you’re staying.”
“I am.” She’d confessed her debts to Dad and he’d canceled them. Paid it all for her. No strings attached. Nothing but grace. “I think I’m going to do some private meteorology work. For mountain climbers, et cetera, and I’ll keep up the forensic meteorology. Dad said I can stay in the chalet as long as I’d like.”
“And Rush?” Hailey asked.
“Rush and I haven’t talked turkey yet.” She laughed. “We love each other. So far that’s enough. I didn’t used to think so.” She stood.
“What changed?”
“I learned that love truly does cover a multitude of sins—not condones but covers. It can cover faults, flaws and mistakes. God’s love. And if His love can do that and He can continually stick with us, then His love can do that through His people to one another.” Nora blew Hailey a kiss. “Get some rest.”
“Ditto.”
Nora left and entered the living room. Rush stood by the hearth. “You feel like a sleigh ride?” He motioned with his chin to the front door. Nora spotted a sleigh outside.
“If you’re going. I’ll go anywhere with you.”
His eyes lit up and he hobbled over. “We’re peas in a pod, aren’t we?”
“We’re something.” She grabbed her coat and they managed to get outside and into the sleigh, laughing at their injuries and lack of grace.
Rush covered them with a blanket and took her hand. “Troy’s going to have to go to prison, Nora. I know what he did was wrong, but it kills me.”
“I’m going to be interim sheriff until it’s time to run in the fall.”
“You’ll make a great sheriff.”
He shifted and looked deep into her eyes, stirring an old longing and dream in her heart. “You think I’ll make a great husband?”
She swallowed as he reached into his pocket.
“I think you’ll make the greatest husband. And father.”
He raised an eyebrow playfully. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Nora Beth, I’ve loved you my whole life. I want to finish it out loving you. Would you marry me?” He opened a velvety box to reveal a round solitaire diamond with small diamonds on each side.
Nora gasped at the beauty of the ring, but more so at the love Rush had for her and the journey it had taken to bring them to this point. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted, Rush. Yes.”
He placed the ring on her finger, kissed her knuckle, then framed her face. “You’re all I’ll ever want.” He claimed her lips, gingerly, then more possessive. Pouring into her promise and hope. Like a guarantee of their future together. No running away. Only to each other and to God.
He nuzzled her nose. “I was thinking a Christmas wedding.”
“I don’t want to wait one more year, Rush. I don’t even want to wait another day.”
Laughing, he kissed her nose and cheeks. “What I meant to say was, I was thinking of a New Year’s Eve wedding. Me, you, our family outside under the pines and my dad officiating. If we can get a license that fast.”
“It’s Tennessee. Got a valid picture ID?” She laughed. A few poinsettias around the glorious snow. Family surrounding them. “It’s how I want to start the new year, Rush. Married to you. I don’t care if we’re in boots and bruised. We can have a reception at the lodge in a few weeks and take pictures then. I just want to be your wife. Finally.”
“I can’t think of anything I want more. I’ve been praying for this day. Can’t say I loved the waiting period, but it was worth it. So worth it.”
He gazed into her eyes. The love shining in them reached deep into her soul, warming it like a cozy fire. Life wouldn’t always be sunny skies and warm breezes. Storm clouds would roll in. Cold fronts. Maybe even hailstorms.
But Nora would remember when storms came. When the cold crept up, she had a place to run for shelter. In the arms of God.
And into Rush’s arms.
For always.
* * *
Don’t miss these other Love Inspired Suspense books by Jessica R. Patch:
Fatal Reunion
Protective Duty
Concealed Identity
Final Verdict
Deep Waters
Secret Service Setup
Dangerous Obsession
Available now from Love Inspired Suspense!
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Keep reading for an excerpt from Perilous Christmas Reunion by Laurie Alice Eakes.
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Dear Reader,
When I think about Jesus, I think about how He was born into scandal. How many people believed that a young girl who was betrothed to another man really was carrying the Son of God? I’m sure there were whispers all His life about how His mother must have “stepped out” on Joseph. Yet Joseph married her anyway—thanks to a dream from God. He loved her amidst the rumors. I wanted to write about that.
Nora was born into scandal. She lived in that shadow for so long. Rumors. But not only did Joshua—her adopted father—love her as his own, God loved her as His very own. God loves you. You are His very own. No matter what your background, what you were born into or what happened to you that you had no control over. You can come out from under that shadow and live in the light through the sweet, healing love of Jesus. You can be free to be who you are meant to be in Christ.
I love to hear from readers. Please email me at: [email protected] and visit my website at www.jessicarpatch.com. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter, Patched In, to receive book news, sales and freebies while you’re there!
Merry Christmas,
Jessica
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Perilous Christmas Reunion
by Laurie Alice Eakes
ONE
Lauren Wexler spied the man the instant he stepped from beneath the shadowing tree branches and into the clearing. Moonlight reflecting off snow lit him like a stage spotlight, highlighting the chiseled bones of his face and dark hollows of his eyes, his long form more skinny than lean.
Heart thudding hard enough to make her sick to her stomach, Lauren left the picture window and flung open the door. A gust of wind seized it from her hand, sending it slamming back against its stopper and flames hissing and roaring in the stove. Knowing the gusts from the coming storm would snatch away her words, she stepped onto the deck and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Ryan Delaney, I told you not to come here.”
“Lauren, you’ve got to help me.” He started racing toward her, his footfalls crunching through the ice-topped snow. “Please.”
“I can’t.” She stepped over the threshold and reached for the door handle.
Ryan might be her older brother, but he was also a wanted man.
“You need to turn yourself in.” She started to close the door.
Ryan had nearly reached the deck. “But, Lauren, they’re going to—”
A shot rang out from the nearby trees, and Ryan landed on the deck’s bottom step, hand scrabbling at the ice-coated wood.
“Ryan!”
Wounded or making himself a lower profile for the shooter?
“Ryan?” She called his name again.
“Help me.” He tried hauling himself up the treads, but slipped back to the piled snow at the foot of the steps. “Help me.”
He must be wounded. She couldn’t leave him there in the cold, in danger. But she could get shot herself if she went to him.
Criminal or not, he was her brother, her half brother to be precise, and needed help.
Crouching below the deck rails to make herself a more difficult target, she crawled to the steps. Lying flat, she reached down the steps to grasp Ryan’s hand. “Can you crawl up the steps? I can—”
Another gun blast reverberated over the frozen lake and leafless trees. This time, she heard the buzz of a bullet not far enough over her head for comfort. Her heart stuttered.
Ryan grasped her wrist. “Go bac
k inside before they...hurt you.”
“Who?”
“Get inside...now.” Ryan squeezed her hand, then scrambled to his feet and pounded across the lakeshore to the woods on the other side of the clearing. Even the clouds beginning to obscure the moonlight could not blot out the dark stain on the snow where Ryan had lain, nor the patches left in his wake.
He was injured and running for his life, leading the shooter away from her.
After he’d pressed something small and hard into her hand.
She shoved the plastic rectangle into her pocket and stared after her brother’s retreating form. She wanted to follow, to bind up his wound. She knew locking herself in the house made more sense. Sending away a fugitive brother was one thing. Sending away a wounded fugitive brother without offering aid first was quite another.
Two more shots in rapid succession decided her action. She started to rise enough to creep back into the house.
“Freeze! Deputy US Marshal.” The voice rang through the night, shooting into Lauren’s heart like one of the flying bullets.
Deputy US Marshal. Of course, they were hunting Ryan. Thousands of marshals existed. He could be any of them. It didn’t have to be him.
Heart racing, Lauren charged toward the still-open door. Bullets whizzed past her head. One slammed into the doorjamb, the other soared into the house’s interior. Lauren dived for the floor of the deck and rolled behind the woodpile.
More gunfire exploded.
This time not from the trees.
A whimper escaping her lips despite her best efforts, Lauren curled into a fetal position behind the cords of wood stacked at the end of the deck. She shivered so hard from cold and fright she feared her chattering teeth would chip. If someone didn’t shoot her, she was going to die from exposure. If only she had stayed in the house, closed the shutters, pretended she hadn’t seen her brother racing across the lakeshore...
“Drop your weapons.” Nearby, the authoritative voice cracked like breaking icicles—cold, sharp, familiar.
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