Nanny Witness

by Hope White

  “Yeah? What’s that?”

  “Private security.”

  “For...?”

  “For my family, for starters, then we can branch out.”

  “Ah, you’re feeling sorry for me.”

  “Hardly. You protected my daughter. You’re great at what you do.”

  “Carly deserves some credit. If she hadn’t left the house with Mia the day you were taken...” Whit’s voice trailed off and he shook his head.

  “She’s a special woman and we’re blessed to have her in our lives. I’m also feeling very blessed, sitting here, drinking coffee with my big brother. There was a time when I didn’t think that would ever happen.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry?”

  “For being the negligent brother. You got hurt on my watch. I figured that’s why you kept your distance from me, from the family. Why you were so angry with us.”

  “I was angry because you abandoned me.”

  “I felt guilty that I’d failed you.”

  “Brody, you were seventeen and I was a dumb kid trying to impress his big brother. I got hurt, and you left. Therefore, it was my fault that you abandoned us. After you did great things in the army and joined the police force, Mom constantly talked about what a hero you were. I couldn’t live up to your reputation, and I grew resentful because you were out there taking care of other people, but you didn’t have time for your little brother. It was eating away at me. Susan convinced me to pray, to ask God for guidance. Through my faith, I learned that resentment destroys us, whereas forgiveness is the path to grace. I forgave you and had to forgive myself for holding a grudge. A few months later I was still trying to figure out how to reach out to you when you called.”

  “Man, I’m glad I did.”

  “Me, too. Can you forgive me for being such a blockhead?”

  “That’s a silly question,” Whit said. When he glanced up at his brother, Harry looked like a kid again, desperately needing his brother’s approval, and love. “Of course I forgive you, Harry.”

  Harry visibly exhaled. “Good, good.” He placed his hand on Whit’s shoulder. “Consider my offer about private security?”

  Whit nodded that he would.

  “Well, I’d better go up and kiss my daughter good-night.”

  When Harry stood, he paused, and the men embraced, something they hadn’t done in years. Tears burned Whit’s eyes. Tears of joy.

  * * *

  Carly came out of the testing facility and breathed in the fresh Colorado air. She was proud of herself for managing to do her best work given the trauma she was still processing from the kidnapping case.

  As she headed down the sidewalk, she noticed a familiar figure sitting on a bench up ahead.

  Whit.

  Holding a bouquet of flowers. How curious. He’d distanced himself from her in the past few weeks, and every morning she fully expected to wake up and hear he’d gone back to Dallas. She assumed that he’d decided their intimacy was born of the high-adrenaline time they spent together protecting Mia.

  That it wasn’t real.

  “Hi, Whit. What are you doing here?” she said.

  “How’d it go?”

  “I think okay.”

  He stood and handed her the bouquet. “Congratulations on finishing the exam.”

  “Wow, thanks. They’re beautiful. I’ve gotta say, I’m kind of surprised.”

  “You don’t think I’m a classy enough guy to give a girl flowers?”

  “No, I thought you’d lost interest. We haven’t spoken much since, you know.”

  “I didn’t want to distract you from your studies.”

  “You should’ve said so.” She playfully slugged him in the arm, then quickly withdrew her fist. “Sorry, sorry. Just what you don’t need is me making your injury worse to prevent you from returning to work.”

  “You didn’t hit me that hard,” he said lightly. “Besides, I’ve been offered a new job, here in Colorado.”

  “What kind of job?”

  “My brother wants me to start a security branch of his company, so we’ll be working closely together. Let’s hope we don’t strangle each other,” he teased. “You be sure to spray us with the hose if you find us fighting in the yard.”

  “Will do.” She could hardly contain her excitement. He was staying in Miner?

  He handed her a white envelope.

  “What’s this?” she said.

  “Your sister’s contact information.”

  Carly froze and looked at him. “I didn’t ask you to do that.”

  “I know. I hope you’re not angry. I figured, well, if I was able to mend things with my brother, you could, too. When you’re ready.”

  She studied the envelope in her hand. “Now I have to do something.”

  “No, you don’t. But you don’t have to be tormented either. She’s done well for herself, Carly. She’s okay.”

  Carly nodded. “I’m glad.” She slipped the envelope into her purse and they walked side by side. Knowing Greta was okay almost made Carly burst into tears of relief and gratitude.

  “Uh-oh. I blew it, didn’t I?” Whit said.

  “What?”

  “You and me, keeping my distance so you could concentrate on the test?”

  “No.” She smiled. “I get it now.”

  “Great. So, how about that dinner?”

  “I have to get back to the house.”

  “Actually, you don’t. I negotiated a night off. I thought we could celebrate.”

  “What, me taking the test?”

  “Nah, I thought we could celebrate this.” He leaned forward and kissed her.

  It felt completely natural, like they’d kissed before, many times. Gentle and warm and perfect.

  He broke the kiss and continued walking. “Do you have a preference?”

  Sure, she had a preference. She wanted him to kiss her again.

  “Of restaurants?” he prompted.

  “It doesn’t matter as long as I’m with you, Brody Whittaker. As long as I’m with you.”

  And this time, it was her turn to kiss him.

  * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Cold Case Secrets by Maggie K. Black.

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  Dear Reader,

  In my experience I’ve learned that it’s never too late to forgive someone—or ourselves for that matter—even if we’re not sure they are worthy of it. After all, if God forgives, then who are we not to forgive, especially when it ultimately leads to emotional peace?

  Our mistakes in life are just that, mistakes. Those misjudgments create our life experience and make us who we are. Mistakes can teach us valuable lessons and show us how to be humble, a very important trait.

  Carly and Brody suffer from deep emotional wounds born of guilt. They each shoulder a lot of regret over decisions they made years ago. Throughout the course of the book, they are challenged to put aside their guilt and open their hearts to forgiveness. These two wounded souls are able to help each other grow and embrace the serenity that is on the other side of forgiveness.

  My goal in writing this story was to share with you my belief that it’s never too late to forgive, and to illustrate how the power of forgiveness can heal emotional pain and guide us to the beauty of grace.

  Peace be with you,

  Hope White

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense story.

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  Cold Case Secrets

  by Maggie K. Black

  ONE

  The thrumming of the helicopter rotors were like a steady drum beat pounding through Jacob Henry’s mind as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police detective scanned the monitor for any sign of life in the dense Ontario forest below. Outside the cockpit window, the summer sun was just beginning its descent behind thick and oppressive clouds. Silvery outlines of opal raindrops traced streaks down the windshield. Tense words between the young Search and Rescue pilot sitting beside him and the testy East Coast detective in the back seat filled his headset.

  “I’m just saying that when the wind picks up and the rain hits for real, we’re going to be forced to turn back,” the pilot, Kevin Faust, said. “I don’t want to crash.”

  “And I’m just saying when you’ve flown as many flights as I have, you know what you can get away with,” Detective Warren Scott shot back.

  “As a hobby pilot,” Kevin said. “Not a professional with Search and Rescue.”

  Jacob focused on the black-and-white screen ahead of him, searching for the bright glare of a human heat signature.

  Wherever the escaped convicts are, Lord, and whoever ultimately finds them, please may those killers be recaptured tonight.

  Authorities were scrambling across Ontario to find three convicted killers who’d overpowered their guards and forced the prison van transporting them to crash on the Trans-Canada Highway almost twenty miles north of the maze of trees and towering rocks that made up Algonquin Provincial Park. While local police searched nearby towns and buildings, and provincial police checked the roads, Jacob and Warren had volunteered for the aerial search of the almost three-thousand-square mile provincial park. Home to over two thousand lakes and seven-hundred-and-fifty miles of river, it was a haven for the kind of off-the-grid campers who enjoyed hiking and canoeing for days into the middle of nowhere.

  They might as well have been searching for a quarter in a cornfield.

  “They’re probably not even out here,” Kevin argued, speaking into his headset microphone to be heard over the sound of the rotors. “If I’d just escaped a concrete box, the last place I’d be hiding out is somewhere with no running water or electricity.”

  Maybe not. But moments ago, there’d been a blip, a heat signature, that had lit up the screen for a fleeting moment like a beacon. They just had to find it again.

  Jacob focused on the infrared monitor. “Just give me five.”

  “You can have a whole twenty,” Kevin said, “if the rain doesn’t get worse before then. But in twenty minutes I’m turning around, one way or another, because otherwise we’re running out of fuel.”

  “Heard that.” Jacob’s eyes didn’t flicker from the screen.

  Lord, help me see what I need to see.

  Nothing but his own pale face reflected back at him, reminding him of an entire summer spent indoors, reading evidence on screens. The light brown scruff that brushed his jaw was more from lack of shaving than intention and tinged with a bit more white than he liked admitting.

  “I just don’t want to head back with nothing,” Warren said, then muttered, almost as if to himself, “I gave up a date for this.”

  Jacob cut his eyes in the detective’s direction. He’d vaguely known Warren from their large regional high school, before the other man had moved out east for college, so he knew he was also getting close to forty. Warren had only transferred back to Ontario in the spring and already he was dating? How did people even date now? Where did they even meet? Jacob couldn’t remember the last time he himself had so much as gone out with anyone for coffee. At two years away from the big four-oh himself, Jacob had been in the business of stopping killers long enough to know that saving other people’s lives and having a life of your own didn’t mesh. Despite the fact that Jacob’s three younger brothers had recently all decided to prove him wrong.

  “I gave up bowling with my league,” Kevin offered, with a grin that implied the twentysomething was trying to lighten the mood in their hovering box. “Canadian-style. Five pin.”

  Well, guys, I’ve risked missing something way more important than that.

  The words crossed his mind, but he had enough self-control not to say them out loud. He didn’t know either man well enough to confide in them and some things just cut too deep to say without thinking. It had been just over twenty-four years since his little sister, Faith, had been snatched off the side of a rural road at the age of twelve and died fighting off her attacker. Jacob had been fourteen, the eldest child and the one who was supposed to look out for his siblings. And while, over the years, his brothers had each found their own ways to make peace with the memory of their sister, for Jacob, Faith’s face was always there, like a picture he’d taped to the corner of his mind’s eye, reminding him of the one killer he had yet to catch. Then recently a fellow detective under very deep cover, named Liam Bearsmith, had reached out to say he’d found a fresh lead in Faith’s case and was willing to risk both his cover and his life to pass that information onto Jacob. They were supposed to meet at a highway coffee shop at midnight, after Jacob went to his brother Trent’s bachelor party.

  And I’m here with you two scanning trees. But he caught his griping before it could grow and instead channeled it into prayer. Lord, please resolve this soon. May the three convicts be caught, help me get back to base in time to meet up with Liam and help me get the information I need to put my sister’s killer away for good.

  “It takes days to walk or canoe across the park,” Warren said. “I know they shut the park down, but it’s possible there could still be campers out there who have no idea there are convicts on the loose. Let alone a serial predator like Barry Cutter who murdered five women, including two ex-girlfriends. Or Victor Driver who went around starting bar fights that put people into the hospital before beating his ex’s new husband to death and her brother into a coma. Or Hal Turner.”

  Kevin shuttered. Jacob noted Warren didn’t bother to give Hal Turner’s crime résumé. There was no need. The dirty cop turned cop killer was notorious in law enforcement for having killed both his partner and an informant. He’d then tried to burn down a building to destroy the evidence of his thriving drug business and claimed he’d been set up by rogue cops.

  Even though Jacob had been a teenager at the time, he’d known even then that God was calling him to a life in law enforcement. Here Turner had achieved everything professionally that Jacob was both hoping and striving for, only to then turn around and betray his brothers and sisters in blue, damage their reputation and give dozens of criminals grounds for appeal.

  “I get it, we’re hunting bad guys,” Kevin said. “But that doesn’t change the weather or how much fuel we’ve got.”

  A small building passed through the frame. It was a ranger cabin by the looks of it. There were a handful of small and very rustic cabins dotted around the expansive park that had been build back in the 1930s to serve some long-abandoned purpose like storage or lookout. Bar
e bones, with no electricity or running water, they still wouldn’t make for a half-bad hideout, if a person were able to find one.

  A bright patch blinked onto the screen near the building. Jacob sat up straight, as he felt the sudden jolt of shock, surprise and relief combined. “We have a heat signature!”

  “Please tell me it’s not another bear—” Warren started.

  “No, it’s a person,” Jacob said. He heard Kevin whistle, but his eyes stayed locked on the screen. The figure was definitely human and female by the looks of it, willowy and slender with long hair and just the hint of curves visible through her jeans and survival jacket. “A woman.”

  “Out there alone?” Kevin asked. Jacob glanced at him just long enough to see the flicker of worry cross his face. “In the middle of nowhere? Why didn’t we see her earlier?”

  Jacob watched as she crept along a tall rock face that ran like a jagged uneven wall between thick trees on one side and a raging river on the other.

  “Camera range isn’t that broad,” Jacob said. “She could’ve been in a cave, or there are some pretty big rock outcroppings that could’ve hidden her heat signature.”

  Kevin’s finger jabbed at Jacob’s screen as a second larger figure stepped into the frame. “She’s not alone.”

  Yeah, and judging by the way she was creeping along the rock face, that wasn’t a good thing. The second heat signature was large, heavyset and barging through the trees. The outline of his jacket did little to hide the telltale shape of a baggy prison jumpsuit or the handgun in his grasp.

  “We’ve got to get down there!” Jacob said.

  “There’s nowhere to land!” Kevin’s voice rose.

  “It’s one of them!” Jacob said. “It’s a lifer. He’s going to kill her!”

  “I know! I just can’t land!”

  They watched, helpless, as the man chased after her, tackled her and brought her to the ground. Something lurched in Jacob’s core as if he were somehow viscerally able to hear her terrified screams. She thrashed and fought back hard. And Jacob realized, for the first time in his life, he was about to watch a woman’s murder. He yanked his seat belt off, pushed himself out of his seat and climbed into the back of the helicopter. “Warren, get into the front and take over for me. I’m going to rappel down.”