SHE WONâT GIVE UP
Erica James has spent the past three years as a skip tracer, hunting down others and hoping one day it will lead to her kidnapped daughter. Now she has a new suspectâMax Powellâs missing sister. Max, a private investigator, has found evidence that connects the two missing girls, and together, he and Erica search for answers. The closer they get to finding answers, the stronger their feelings for each other become. But the kidnapper will stop at nothingâincluding murderâto keep them from finding Ericaâs daughter.
Family Reunions: Bringing loved ones back together
Max gave the family photo another look. âYou seem like a close family.â
A snort slipped out before Erica could stop it. At his surprised look she shook her head. âLooks can be deceiving. Weâre not close. Itâs been months since Iâve seen or talked to my parents. Things changed after Molly was taken.â
He lifted a brow. âIâm sorry.â
âDonât be. It is what it is. Maybe one day things will be different.â Only if you make an effort to change them, said that little voice that was always right about such things. She cocked her head. âAnd maybe one day Iâll tell you about it.â
Max nodded and made his way to the door. âIâll see you in the morning. Sleep lightly and be careful,â he said before he left.
She knew what he meant. He was worried about Peter.
Erica got thatâshe was worried, too.
Iâll sleep with one eye open.
Not to mention with my bedroom door locked and my gun close by.
LYNETTE EASON
makes her home in South Carolina with her husband and two children. Lynette has taught in many areas of education over the past ten years and is very happy to make the transition from teaching school to teaching at writersâ conferences. She is a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), FHL (Faith, Hope, & Love) and ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). She is often found online, and loves to talk writing with anyone who will listen. You can find her at www.facebook.com/lynetteeasonauthor or www.lynetteeason.com.
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
âMatthew 6:26
To my wonderful Savior, who lets me write for Him. I also want to dedicate this book to my sweet niece, Willow Dorris, and my nephews, Jonah Dorris and Liam Dorris. Thanks for being such great kids and good friends as well as cousins to my kids. You guys rock!
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my family for all their support. This is my fifteenth Love Inspired Suspense book. Iâm so thankful that you understand about deadlines and the desperation of pulling a plot and scenes from thin airâor your lives. (I suppose I should thank you for your forgiveness in this regard.) I love you all so much. I thank God for blessing me with you.
Thanks to Emily Rodmell, my Harlequin editor, for all her hard work on every single book Iâve written for Love Inspired. We made it to fifteen!
Thanks to Officer Jim Hall, who critiques and corrects all of my police procedural. If thereâs anything wrong in here, itâs not his fault! Jim, youâre awesome. So glad God dropped you into my life when you were living in North Carolina. God bless you!
Thank you to the ACFW Romantic Suspense loop and all of you who brainstormed this book and the next one with me. Thanks to Mary Lynn Mercer, Michelle Lim, Terri Weldon, Beth Ziarnik, Misty Kirby, Jeff Reynolds and Jessica Patch. You guys gave me some fabulous ideas, and even if I didnât use them all, you gave me some direction and inspiration. God bless each of you in your own personal writing journey.
ONE
Searching for a crack house had not been in Erica Jamesâs plans for the evening. However, Detective Katie Randall had uttered the one sentence that could send her into one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.
âWeâve found new evidence in Mollyâs disappearance.â
Erica let the words ring through her mind as she drove, looking for the address of the crack house that had been raided two days ago.
New evidence. New evidence.
âItâs been three years,â Erica exclaimed. âWhat possibly could have come to light now?â sheâd asked, hating the shakiness in her voice, the desperate hope that she knew was carved on her face.
Detective Katie Randall had shown her a photograph of a crime scene. Even now, Ericaâs fingers curled around the steering wheel as she remembered the little outfit clearly pictured amidst the trash and rubble.
The outfit three-year-old Molly had been wearing when sheâd disappeared from the day-care field trip to the zoo. Erica touched the picture with a shaking finger.