Stolen Identity

WHO WOULD WANT HER LIFE?

Danielle Corbit doesn’t understand why someone would want to steal her identity. A single mother running a small business—nothing special, right? But after discovering a dead body on the Oregon coastline, she’s attacked by a dangerous hacker who will stop at nothing to frame her. Only her former fiancé, Jason Ryan, is willing to help. Years ago she broke his heart, but he can’t walk away from a woman in need. He’ll do anything to protect her from their unseen adversary. But is there enough time to work together and untangle this twisted web of fraud and deception?

“There’s a truck behind us. It’s been following us the whole time.”

“I noticed,” Jason said. “I saw it when we left town. Let’s see what happens if we speed up.”

The truck behind them accelerated as well, further closing the gap between them. Suddenly the truck slammed the rear bumper of their vehicle.

Danielle smashed against the door as Jason struggled to keep the car on the road.

“He’s coming at us again.”

With the truck still on their tail, Jason pumped the brakes and skidded off the road onto the widened shoulder. The truck flew past them as Jason’s car came to a stop inches from the twenty-foot drop to the shoreline.

“You okay?” Jason asked.

“Besides the fact that my world has suddenly spun completely out of control? I guess I’m okay. What about you?”

“I’ll live. Thankfully. If the driver’s plan was to scare us, he succeeded.”

What had just happened was clearly deliberate. Now all Danielle had to do was figure out how she was connected to a scam that had cost Garrett his life—and could have easily just cost them their own.

LISA HARRIS

is a Christy Award finalist and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 from RT Book Reviews. She has more than twenty novels and novella collections in print. She and her family are missionaries in Africa, where she homeschools, works with women and runs a nonprofit organization called The ECHO Project, which “speaks up for those who cannot speak for themselves…the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice” (Proverbs 31:8, 9). When she’s not working she loves hanging out with her family, cooking different ethnic dishes, photography and heading into the African bush on safari. For more information about her books and life in Africa visit her website at www.lisaharriswrites.com or her blog at http://myblogintheheartofafrica.blogspot.com

Stolen Identity

Lisa Harris

Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you had received no mercy;

now you have received God’s mercy.

—1 Peter 2:10

To my three sweet children.

May you always find your identity in Him.

Contents

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

Dear Reader

Questions for Discussion

ONE

Jason Ryan snagged his cell phone from the kitchen table, then fumbled to answer before the caller hung up. The muscles in his jaw tightened as he checked the ID. Great. So the long lost prodigal had finally decided to check in.

He took the call, skipping any formalities with his best friend and business partner. “Where are you, Garrett?”

“Listen, I just have a minute. Some things have come up, and I...I need a few more days off.”

“A few more days to do what?” Jason shoved the last file into his briefcase then slammed the lid shut. He didn’t have time for more of Garrett’s excuses. Not today.

“I can’t tell you.” His friend’s voice faded in and out with the choppy connection.

“You can’t or won’t tell me? Come on, Garrett. I’ve put up with your excuses for weeks, and now you won’t even answer my phone calls or respond to my emails. What am I supposed to do?”

“You don’t understand—”

“No...” Jason let out a loud humph and started pacing the kitchen’s mosaic tiled floor. “You’re the one who doesn’t understand, Garrett. I need you here. I just finished our final analysis of Simon’s company and discovered another million dollars’ worth of misappropriated funds. Do you realize how much work we have ahead of us?”

“I’m sorry, for everything, but I’ve gotten involved in something...something serious.”

“Tell me what’s wrong, and I’ll help you fix it,” he insisted, trying to reason with his friend.

“I don’t think this can be fixed.”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck. He could read the aggravation in his friend’s voice, but he wasn’t buying the excuses anymore. They might have become close friends over the past seven years, but even that didn’t make up for Garrett’s recent erratic behavior. Or the fact he’d been AWOL from his job the past two weeks. “Convince me why I shouldn’t terminate you.”

“Because I need you to trust me.”

Jason frowned. As far as he was concerned, trust wasn’t one of his friend’s fortes at the moment. “It’s a woman, isn’t it?”

“Yes... No... It’s not what you think.”