Christmas Cover-Up

by Eason, Lynette

  “Frank? Arrested?” She sounded dazed.

  Katie bit her lip. The news was too much. She should have had Mrs. Banks call her husband right away. She slid over and took the woman’s hand. “We’ll wait for your husband to get here to finish this.”

  She nodded and for the next twenty minutes, they sat. Just when Katie thought she couldn’t bear the silence a minute longer, the front door opened and Mr. Banks bolted into the house. “Linds? Where are you?”

  “Here, Bill.” Mrs. Banks stood and her husband whirled. His salt-and-pepper hair was askew, as though he’d run his hands through it repeatedly on the drive home. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “They think Lucy is—” She couldn’t say another word as sobs overtook her.

  Bill Banks looked at Katie and Jordan. Katie introduced herself and began the story once more.

  When she finished, the couple simply stared at her in shock.

  “So you’re saying my birth family is still alive?” A soft voice from the dining room grabbed their attention. Katie jumped to her feet.

  Mrs. Banks cried out. “How much did you hear?”

  “All of it. Daddy called and said there was something wrong at home and he wasn’t sure what, but it sounded serious. I came right here. I heard you talking and didn’t want to interrupt and—” she spread her hands “—I heard everything.”

  Katie stared at the young woman. A stranger and yet...familiar, too. “Lucy,” she whispered.

  Lucy looked at her. “So I was kidnapped?” She stared at her parents. “You told me they were dead. That they all died.” She wrinkled her brow. “I remember them, you know. In snatches and bits and pieces, but I remember them.”

  Mrs. Banks sobbed against her husband’s shoulder.

  Katie sucked in a deep breath. “Lucy, what do you remember about that day?”

  “He took me from the yard. He was very nice, but very firm. He was a police officer and told me I had to go with him. So I did.” She swiped a hand through her hair. “He became my uncle. Uncle Frank. I remember being sad and missing my family. My sister. Katie.” She whispered the name, and Katie bit back a sob.

  “That’s me. I’m Katie,” she said softly.

  Lucy’s brow rose and her eyes narrowed as horror entered them. “You’re my sister?”

  “Yes.”

  “I was kidnapped.”

  Katie nodded. “And I’ve been looking for you ever since.”

  Lucy’s gaze flew from Katie to Jordan to her parents and back to Katie. “I need to sit down.”

  She slid to the sofa next to her mother, and Katie restrained herself from reaching out and touching the girl. Lucy hugged her mother, then crossed the room to her father and wrapped him in a tight hug. She looked at Katie. “I want to see your evidence. If what you say is true, I want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt.”

  Katie nodded. It seemed to be all she could do.

  Tears in her eyes, Lucy smiled, then moved to wrap Katie in a tight hug. “I’ve missed you.”

  Katie let a sob slip out as she hugged her sister back. “And oh, how I’ve missed you.”

  Lucy drew in a deep breath and looked at her parents. Katie followed her gaze. They looked shell-shocked. Katie knew what she had to do. She looked at her sister. “Take your time and reassure them, then call me.” She pulled a card from her pocket and slid it in her sister’s hand.

  Lucy’s tears spilled over, but she simply nodded as Katie turned to leave.

  Jordan slipped his hand over hers and gave her a squeeze. She squeezed back and made it out the door and into the car before she turned, wrapped her arms around his neck and cried her happiness into his shoulder.

  And bless the man, he let her do it.

  After about ten minutes, he started mopping her face with a tissue. “Come on, Katie, I’m going to need an oar to steer the car if you keep this up.”

  She sniffed and sat away from him, taking the tissue and finishing the job. “I’m sorry, I’m just so happy and almost unwilling to believe it’s true. We found her.”

  He handed her a bottle of water. She eyed it suspiciously. “How long has this been in here?”

  He laughed. “Since last night. It won’t kill you, I promise.”

  She took a swig and sighed. “I need to call my parents.”

  “Yes.”

  Katie took out her phone and dialed her parents’ number. Her mother answered on the second ring. “Hi, Mom. I’ve got some news for you.”

  “News? What kind of news?”

  “We found Lucy.”

  EPILOGUE

  Katie looked around the dinner table. Christmas Day had arrived with snow flurries and cold temperatures, but inside her parents’ warm house, Katie marveled at her mother’s bright eyes and happy smile. She kept coming back to the sight of Lucy sitting between her birth parents, with the parents who’d raised her sitting across the table.

  Jordan sat to her right. And wonder of wonders, his parents had agreed to join them. His father wasn’t falling over himself to be pleasant to Katie, but at least he could be in the same room and not cast blame.

  Jordan said his parents had spent many hours working out the fact that his mother had chosen to keep Neil’s secret. They were going to counseling to deal with everything, including accepting that Katie didn’t deserve Paul’s blame. And he was beginning to see the light.

  Katie just shook her head. Never in a million years would she have pictured this scene. And yet here they all were.

  Tears threatened and she rose on the pretense of carrying some empty dishes into the kitchen.

  Jordan followed her. She put the dishes into the sink and felt his hands fall on her shoulders. He turned her to face him. “All you all right?”

  She looked up into his eyes and felt her heart kick into overdrive. “I’m more than all right. I don’t have the words to describe how I feel right now. I feel overwhelmed with how everything worked out.” A tear slipped down her cheek and he brushed it away. “This isn’t the normal ending to a kidnapping.” She blinked. “I really believed she was dead, Jordan.”

  “I know. I did, too.”

  “And I keep having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that we found her.”

  “I know.”

  “You know how Lucy’s other mother said that Lucy was her gift from God? Well, reuniting our family is another gift.”

  “God’s done some amazing work over the last few weeks. One of those things was keeping you alive to enjoy this moment.” He pulled her to him and buried his face in her neck. “I don’t know what I would have done if you’d been killed.”

  She pushed him back and cupped his cheeks with her palms. “I think I love you, Jordan.”

  He blinked, then gave a laugh and grabbed her around the waist to lift her so they were nose to nose. “I know I love you, silly woman.”

  He kissed her, a long, thorough kiss that left her breathless. She grinned. “I’m so thankful God sent me to Finding the Lost.”

  “Will you marry me?”

  She gaped. “Marry you?”

  “What? Too soon?”

  “No. Yes. Maybe. No.”

  He grinned. “So which one do I pick?”

  She laughed through her tears. “Yes.”

  “Soon?”

  “Soon.”

  “Awesome.”

  He planted another kiss on her lips, and she clung to the happiness and blessings God had chosen to bestow upon them.

  She pulled back. “Not every day is going to be this wonderful, you know.”

  “I know, but let’s enjoy while it lasts.”

  “I’m good with that.”

  She kissed him again, knowing her future was bright and God’s love was enough
to get them through whatever came their way. God’s unconditional love. A love she couldn’t earn, but which was freely given.

  A love she accepted with a grateful heart. A love she planned to pass down to her children and her children’s children. Children. The thought made her weepy again. Oh, yeah, she wanted children. Jordan’s children.

  Jordan pulled back and kissed her nose. “Merry Christmas, Katie.”

  “Merry Christmas, Jordan.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from FORCE BY NATURE by Dana Mentink.

  Questions for Discussion

  Katie Randall’s little sister disappeared from their front yard fourteen years ago. She has blamed herself ever since. Do you think she was irresponsible in leaving her sister to help her neighbor? Have you made a mistake in your past that had serious consequences you still blame yourself for?

  Jordan Gray only works cold cases. He has his own past mistakes to overcome and forgive himself for. He feels like it’s his fault a child died, which is why he no longer works current abductions for the FBI. He joins Finding the Lost and meets Katie. Do you think the timing is coincidental, or do you think God sometimes places people in our lives at just the right time for a specific purpose?

  Katie has dedicated her life to finding her sister. She feels like she is unworthy to have happiness until her sister is found. Is there something you’re so passionate about that you would put your life on hold to “fix” it?

  Jordan is attracted to Katie, but his parents blame her for Neil’s death. He doesn’t want to do anything to upset his parents, so he has to fight his attraction for Katie. Have you ever been in a situation where you didn’t want to hurt someone so you put your own feelings aside?

  More than anything, Katie wants to be loved. Why do you think she feels the way she feels?

  Katie does her best to earn her mother’s love and each time she does something her mother still doesn’t love her. It’s like being rejected over and over. If you were in Katie’s shoes, would you keep trying or would you give up? Why?

  What is your favorite scene in this story?

  Who is your favorite character in the story?

  Detective Frank Miller was going through a very hard time, with his marriage crumbling and his niece dying. He made a decision to kidnap a child in order to save his sister’s life and pull her out of her depression. What did you think about Frank after you found out his reasons for taking Lucy? Did you feel sorry for him at all? Why or why not?

  Were you surprised Katie’s sister, Lucy, was still alive?

  When Katie finally finds her sister and has to tell her sister’s “parents” that they have “adopted” a kidnapped child, they are devastated. Did you feel compassion for this couple? Why or why not?

  Katie finally realizes that she can’t earn her mother’s love any more than we can earn God’s love. We will never be good enough or do enough right things to make God love us. He chose to love us so much that He sent His son to die for us. Katie’s mother finally tells her why she pushed her away for so long and tells Katie she loves her. Her mother’s confession and subsequent offer of love frees Katie up so much. But what if Katie’s mother hadn’t come around? What if Katie had to go through the rest of her life without her mother’s love? Do you think she would have found peace at some point? Especially with Jordan by her side?

  Jordan’s mother kept her knowledge about Neil from her husband because she was scared it would bring on another heart attack. Do you think her reasons were valid? That she did the right thing? Or do you think she should have told him? (Remember, she just lost her son, and losing her husband because she told him the truth about Neil would have destroyed her.) What would you have done in her shoes?

  What about Jordan? Should he have kept the truth about Neil’s activities from his parents? Do you think letting them, most specifically his father, believe that Neil was wrongly arrested was the right thing to do? To spare their feelings? Or do you think it prevented their healing?

  Were you surprised by who the villain was? If so, who did you think was the bad guy?

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for joining me on this journey, not just to find Lucy, but to discover the unconditional love of an amazing God and His free gift of eternal life to those who would accept it. I’m so glad His love is something I can’t earn. Why? Because I could never do enough to earn a love like that. Having to earn God’s love is a setup for failure. Just like Katie couldn’t earn her mother’s love, we can’t earn God’s. Katie had the choice to accept her mother’s love in the end—or reject it—and she chose to accept it. As a result, it set her free in an emotional sense. God’s love sets us free from death. I pray you now have this love and have accepted His priceless gift.

  Again, I hope you enjoyed the story and drew closer to God as a result of reading it. I love to hear from my readers. Feel free to find me on the internet at www.lynetteeason.com and sign up with my newsletter if you’d like to be notified of upcoming dates for my books to be released. I’m also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lynette.eason and Twitter @lynetteeason. God bless you and until next time,

  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

  Something about the man silhouetted on the dock made Antonia Verde’s body hum with tension. His aviator sunglasses caught the waning Florida sunlight as he peered at his sleek cell phone, his mop of sandy hair tousled around his face by a steady breeze. No different than any other tourist basking in the warmth of a late November afternoon, Antonia told herself, eyeing him from the beach below.

  The waves, green-gold and fueled by an approaching storm, slapped at her ankles. The air held a sharp scent of rain, roiling clouds speckling the white sand with shadows. Perhaps it was the threat of inclement weather that made her jumpy. But it was an incoming tropical storm, nothing more, hardly a source of concern for a lifelong Floridian, and she’d wanted a quick sketch of the agitated surf.

  More likely her uneasy feelings were a by-product of what she’d recently survived. Having just returned from San Francisco, where she was almost buried alive in an earthquake-ravaged opera house, she had a right to be jittery. Not to mention the fact that she’d had the uncanny feeling she’d been followed on her way home from the airport by someone in an expensive car. All she’d seen of him was a flash of an arm through the partially rolled-down window, a split-second glimpse of his face. Who would follow an out-of-work artist driving a beat-up Ford?

  I’m just on edge, that’s all.

  Memories from her disastrous trip needled her. So what if San Francisco had been a catastrophe, netting her no job and no money to help her sister set up a new life away from Mia’s terrible soon-to-be ex-husband. She was
alive and ready to find a steady job if it killed her, and nothing—especially not her own paranoia—was going to delay that. Still, she wished she could rewind the afternoon and make a different decision, to choose to linger in the shabby old family home with the cracked tile in the kitchen and the screen door that didn’t quite close. There were plenty of flaws in that house, but the biggest of all was that it was simply a house now, not a home. That was what had driven her out to the beach, the solace of waves, the healing salt air.

  She sucked in a deep breath, pulled her long black hair back from her face and squared her shoulders. Common sense returned in a rush.

  Why shouldn’t she march right out of the water and climb up to the dock where she’d left her sketch pad and pastels? The man with the cell phone was just a tourist, gazing out across the waves toward the tiny resort island accessible only by boat, shrouded here and there by clusters of mangroves. It was the place where Antonia did not dare allow her glance to wander. Isla Marsopa. Porpoise Island.

  Reuben Sandoval was there, she’d heard, still trying to resurrect the dilapidated resort. She knew Reuben was advertising for a painter, someone to create a beautiful fresco for his hotel, but she would rather walk across a bed of burning coals than become involved with him again. There was only a tiny part of her that did not echo with memories of Reuben, and she was desperate to keep that smallest bit intact.

  The man looked up from his phone perusal, eyes flicking across the pristine white sand, then returning to settle on her. What was it about him that struck her as familiar? She bent and made a pretense of examining the ivory perfection of a lady slipper shell. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him dial his phone, eyes glued to her as he did so, and flick a glance toward his watch.