Rocky Mountain Sabotage

WILDERNESS PERIL

When the plane Lauren Carter is traveling in crash-lands near an abandoned mining town, pilot Kent Garland is convinced the charter jet was sabotaged. And one of the other injured passengers may be responsible. Struggling to keep their group safe, Lauren and Kent fight the elements—and the ill-timed feelings they are developing for each other. But as a string of “accidents” pit survivors against each other, exposing a deadly traitor means looking beyond appearances. Who can be trusted? With someone determined to kill off all the plane’s passengers, they must catch the murderer in their midst if they hope to leave this town alive.

The fuel was gone. His Challenger 350 had bled out in mere minutes.

He could just barely buy that something might go wrong with one of the engines. But both of them at once? Something was seriously bent about this flight emergency. There was nothing normal about it.

Somehow he had to radio in a mayday. But there was no way he could release the stick with even one hand in order to use the radio. Unless... He glanced sideways at the passenger in the copilot seat. Her torso quivered, and her gaze was fixed straight ahead, but at least she wasn’t hysterical.

“Any chance you know how to operate a two-way radio?”

“Y-yes. W-we use one in the hospital for medevac emergencies.”

“Put out a distress call. Frequency one-two-one-point-five.”

She did as he asked. She performed the mayday drill once...twice...three times. Dead air met every attempt. A spasm visibly gripped her throat. “The radio is dead.”

Kent clenched his jaw. “This has to be sabotage, pure and simple,” he muttered. But who? Why? Did someone want to kill one of his passengers badly enough to take the life of everyone aboard?

Dear Reader,

How deeply does it affect us when someone intimately close abandons us? Does such abandonment plant seeds of rejection and bitterness deep within our hearts? How could it not? Even many who have faith in God struggle with the tragic legacy of abandonment.

Broken families—fathers or mothers walking away from their responsibilities as parents—is an epidemic in our society. We need look no further than today’s news, the neighbors down the street, or perhaps our own households to see the consequences in terms of unhappy lives, inability to trust in others or God, or even a myriad of addictions or criminal behaviors.

In this story, Lauren needs to work through serious abandonment and trust issues that have deeply affected her. It wouldn’t be truthful to say that she’s figured it all out and all wounds are healed by the end of the story, but she’s headed in a healthy direction.

Health and wholeness, my friends, is God’s will for each of us—if we will put our trust in Him. The alternative is to become in some fashion like Rolly and Ray (Neil/Marlin). I pray that you experience God’s faithfulness and walk the healing road.

I enjoy hearing from readers so feel free to contact me through my website at www.jillelizabethnelson.com. You can also connect with me on Facebook at Facebook.com/JillElizabethNelson.Author.

Abundant Blessings,

Jill Elizabeth Nelson

JILL ELIZABETH NELSON writes what she likes to read—faith-based tales of adventure seasoned with romance. Parts of the year find her and her husband on the international mission field. Other parts find them at home in rural Minnesota, surrounded by the woods and prairie and four grown children and young grandchildren. More about Jill and her books can be found at jillelizabethnelson.com or Facebook.com/JillElizabethNelson.Author.

Rocky Mountain Sabotage

Jill Elizabeth Nelson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

A father of the fatherless and a judge for the widows,

is God in His holy habitation.

—Psalms 68:5

For all who suffer the pains of rejection and abandonment. May you find your healing in the One who will never leave or forsake you.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

ONE

Lauren Carter ground her teeth together as she glared down at rugged Rocky Mountain scenery. Her breath formed patches of milky condensation on the window of the charter jet she’d boarded a little over three hours ago in New York. Thousands of feet below, cloud-wreathed peaks stabbed toward the plane’s belly. A little lower, snow-whitened troughs outlined with black ridges resembled an enormous, raggedly striped quilt. Quite breathtaking. She might actually start enjoying this impromptu fall vacation trip to California if not for her mother’s annoying question rattling around her brain like a rogue ping-pong ball.

What do you think of our handsome pilot? Why couldn’t the two of them have a relaxing getaway—try to rebuild some of the closeness they once shared—without Mom angling to set her up with any male old enough to shave but not yet eligible for a midlife crisis?

Fortunately, that criteria left out the other five passengers on the plane. The executives from three different investment corporations were transportation-pooling to some convention in San Francisco. All of them appeared old enough to be the father Lauren had barely known. One even looked old enough to be her grandfather. And since the copilot, who doubled as cabin attendant, was a female of about Lauren’s age of thirty-one, that left Kent Garland on Mother’s list—the pilot with sun-streaked brown hair, a chin like one of these rocky ridges, and a gray gaze as cool as one of the snowy peaks. Handsome? Sure, if a woman liked the rugged type.