Race to Rescue
Help…murder.Those were her brother's last words before their phone connection was lost. So Anita Teel rushes to Arizona to find her only relative right away. But no one–from his employer to the police–will take her seriously. Except for Booker Scott, the hardened rancher whose heart she broke. Now, Anita has no choice but to put her fragile trust in Booker once again. As they race across the deadly desert, the rescue mission becomes a test–a challenge to see if they can overcome their pride, and their past, in time to save her brother's life.
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“We need to come up with a plan for tomorrow,” Booker said.
“Tomorrow?” Anita repeated. “I want to go look for my brother now. He might be hurt, or worse.”
“No.”
“No? Why not? I know you’re mad at me, Booker, but don’t take it out on my brother.”
He met her intense brown eyes. “We can’t go there at night, not without prior planning. It’s too dangerous. Your brother wouldn’t want you to do a fool thing like that. I’ll take you in the morning.”
She blinked. “Why would you do that?”
Yeah, why would you do that, Booker? He gritted his teeth. Because I’m completely insane, he wanted to tell her. Out of my mind to get involved with you again when the smallest memory of you still makes me crazy. He understood the anger she kindled in him, the hurt.
What he couldn’t wrap his mind around was the strong need that rose in his gut, the need to protect her, in spite of everything.
DANA MENTINK
lives in California with her family. Dana and her husband met doing a dinner theater production of The Velveteen Rabbit. In college, she competed in national speech and debate tournaments. Besides writing novels, Dana taste-tests for the National Food Lab and freelances for a local newspaper. In addition to her work with Steeple Hill Books, she writes cozy mysteries for Barbour Books. Dana loves feedback from her readers. Contact her at www.danamentink.com.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.
—Romans 8:28
To the Lord for setting my feet on this journey and Penny Warner for helping me along the way.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
ONE
There’s nothing wrong, she told herself. There’s a logical explanation.
Anita made an effort to put the worry about her brother away as the darkness closed around her in a moist fist. She took the thermal imaging binoculars from her backpack and tried to find a more comfortable position on the small mat. But no matter how she settled her slender frame, the rock fragments seemed to find her. The whine of mosquitoes sounded constantly in her ears.
Focus on the job, Anita. Do what you’ve waited years to do. She was a hundred yards away from the most exciting moment of her career. Buried deep in this forest in the Seychelles Islands was something she had been hoping to see for a decade.
In spite of the excitement, the worry about her brother crept back. They always connected somehow on July 15, the anniversary of the accident that took their parents’ lives. Even if they were half a world apart, Drew managed an e-mail or a quick text message. It was a pact they’d made and kept faithfully.
Until now.
She mentally calculated the date in the States again. No, she hadn’t made a mistake. It was now July 17, and still no word from her brother. She took a deep breath to release the knots in her stomach as she eyed the sun, sinking slowly into the Indian Ocean in a swirl of vibrant crimson. Pay attention, Anita. Another fifteen minutes, maybe, and they’ll be here.
The tiny island was bisected by a ridge of mountain. The upper region where she was camped was forested and rugged, which saved it from the ravages of residential and agricultural use. Palms rustled in the cool ocean breeze.
Anita swatted at a mosquito that buzzed her ear. She pulled up her long, kinky brown hair and applied another squirt of bug repellent to her neck. Her job still felt surreal to her. She relished the chance to be in a corner of the world that few people saw, to have an opportunity to document one of the ten most endangered species in the world, a species that might be brought back from the brink of extinction with her help.
The sun disappeared and the sky changed to a soft gray. Anita readied her binoculars and trained them on the mouth of the cave. When the animals were dormant yesterday, she’d quietly hacked away the kudzu vine that threatened to choke access to the cave. Her hands still ached from the effort.
After a few more moments of silence, there came a sound like the rush of an angry stream. Anita had just enough time to ready the video camera as the sheath-tailed bats surged out of the cave mouth. They rose as a large, black shadow against the sky, chittering as they flew out in search of insects. She craned her head to watch their progress, counting as quickly as she could.
Then the cloud vanished as the bats disappeared into the night.
Anita leaned back on her mat, her skin still prickled in goose bumps. Unbelievably, the precious bats were alive and healthy here, and she felt more determined than ever to see that this tiny colony survived in the face of a world that seemed equally determined to stamp them out.
