The Protector's Mission (Alaskan Search and Rescue, 3) - Softcover

Daley, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 037344690X ISBN 13: 9780373446902

Verlag: Love Inspired Suspense, 2015

Inhaltsangabe

DEADLY EXPLOSION 

Lydia McKenzie is the only living witness to a serial bomber's latest threat. Surviving the explosion at the café, Lydia is rescued by police sergeant Jesse Hunt and his K-9 partner, a Rottweiler named Brutus. She's struggling to remember details of the incident. But one thing she'll never forget is how she once felt about Jesse—the high school sweetheart she left to marry another. In charge of her protection, the guarded cop believes the bomber's after her, and he promises to keep her safe. But as more of Lydia's memories return, the more the vicious killer wants her dead. 

Alaskan Search and Rescue: Risking their lives to save the day

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Margaret Daley, an award-winning author of eighty-three books, has been married for over forty years and is a firm believer in romance and love. When she isn’t traveling, she’s writing love stories, often with a suspense thread, and corralling her three cats that think they rule her household. To find out more about Margaret visit her website at http://www.margaretdaley.com.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Lydia McKenzie swung open the door to Melinda's Bistro and plowed right into a middle-aged man wearing a navy blue hoodie that shrouded his gray eyes and the scar slashing his cheek. "Sorry."

The guy, holding one of the restaurant take-out sacks, mumbled something and scurried away.

Lydia spied Bree Stone, a doctor and friend from childhood, and headed toward her table. "Sorry I'm late. Had an emergency at work. I hope you got my text." After several hours in surgery at the veterinary hospital, Lydia finally eased into a chair and relaxed.

"I certainly know what an emergency is. We're a doctor short at the hospital, so I'm taking an extra shift to fill in." Bree gathered her purse and put money on the table to pay her tab. "What kind of emergency?"

"It involved one of the rescue dogs from the bombing at the church. A police K-9." Right now she could use a neck and shoulder massage. Pain radiated down her back. "A few days ago, I tended to two rescue dogs that had been injured while searching for survivors at the church, but one of them took a turn for the worse this morning. I had to remove his left hind leg in order to save him. The decision broke my heart because it ends his career, but he'll live."

Bree started to rise but sat back down. "Jesse Hunt's Brutus?"

The mention of Jesse made Lydia's breath catch. She tried to avoid seeing him as much as possible, which was hard since she worked with Northern Frontier Search and Rescue and went to SAR sites to be there if a dog needed medical help. Jesse was often there with his Rottweiler. "No, Officer Nichols with the Anchorage K-9 Unit. He sometimes works with your husband at search and rescue sites."

"Yes, Nichols was brought into the ER last Friday. David was upset. He came to the hospital as soon as he could to see how he was."

"How's he doing?" Lydia shook the image of Jesse Hunt, once a friend, from her mind. When she returned to Anchorage last year, she renewed several friendships, but not with Jesse, whom she'd betrayed right after she'd graduated from high school.

"He's still on the critical list. His accident shows me how dangerous my husband's job is, but David wouldn't do anything else." Bree rose. "I wish I could stay. But I have to be in early because the other doctor is sick."

"We'll catch up later." Lydia rolled her shoulders and released a long breath.

Bree smiled. "When we both slow down. Tell Kate hi for me. She's been asking me about being a doctor."

"She has?" She should know that, but she and her seventeen-year-old sister had clashed a lot since she'd become her guardian last year.

"Yes, she doesn't think she can work with animals like you and your dad, but she's interested in the medical field. See you."

Lydia watched Bree weave through the tables starting to fill up with people coming in for an early lunch. She scanned the bistro, trying to decide whether to stay and eat or order and take it back to the Aurora Animal Hospital down the street, the veterinary practice she inherited from her father when he died last year. They treated large and small animals as well as the Northern Frontier SAR dogs and the K-9s that worked with the police.

Her gaze settled on Melinda, the owner of the restaurant, talking to a man with dark brown hair sticking out of a black ball cap. The guy took Melinda's hand and moved closer. Was this Todd, the boyfriend she'd been telling Lydia about this past month?

Lydia started to look away to give them some privacy when she spied the man lean toward Melinda, a furious expression on his face. Melinda jerked her hand from his grasp, and the guy pivoted and stormed away, passing Lydia's table.

She averted her look toward a man and a young woman sitting at the table next to her. She knew the guy. He worked at the drugstore—

"Sorry you saw that, Lydia."

She looked up at Melinda. "I'm the one sorry for staring. Are you all right?"

The bistro owner waved her hand. "Boyfriend problems. He isn't too happy with me at the moment." Melinda slipped into the chair next to Lydia. "How have you been?"

"Tired. I had to operate on one of the K-9 dogs that was hurt at the church bomb site. It's been all over the news."

"That's what everyone's been talking about. Two bombings close together."

Lydia shivered when she thought about the pictures she'd seen on the news. "I know some police officers, and they're working overtime."

"Yeah, I heard there's no connection between the hardware store and the church, but they were only ten days apart. Do you think it's the same person? Have you heard if it's the same MO?"

"It sounds like it. Both times there was a laugh track that sounded seconds before the bomb went off."

"What a sick person!" Melinda rose. "Are you going to eat lunch here or order takeout since Bree left?"

"Takeout. The veggie wrap."

"It shouldn't take too long." Melinda headed for the kitchen in the back.

Glad to be sitting for a few minutes, Lydia glanced at the different people coming into the bistro. Some she recognized because they were regulars, like herself, but a couple were new to her—a young, petite woman with an older gentleman, a young man with long brown hair and a bald man about thirty-five or forty. She loved to people watch. She'd once considered being a writer, but her love of animals clinched her decision to be a vet and follow in her father's footsteps. She'd hoped that decision would reconcile them. It hadn't.

Before Melinda brought her takeout, she made her way down a long hallway to the restroom. A man slipped out the exit door at the end of the corridor. Odd, it wasn't used much.

A few minutes later as she came out of the woman's bathroom and paused, she panned the dining area, pleased to see the restaurant doing so well. But one of the new customers had left. Maybe the bistro didn't serve what he wanted. She noticed Melinda carrying a takeout bag toward the table where she'd been sitting.

But before Lydia moved forward, a blast of maniacal-sounding laughter resonated through the restaurant. Melinda dropped the sack, a look of horror on her face. Lydia took only two steps back into the hallway before her world exploded.

Sergeant Jesse Hunt took Brutus out of the back of his SUV, secured his leash and walked toward the rubble of the church he attended. One person still remained missing and two were found dead in the bombing last Wednesday. He was on duty and had only stopped by to see David Stone, the head of Northern Frontier SAR, at the bombing site to assess it after the two people were hurt searching it Friday.

"Have they stabilized the structure?" Jesse asked as he approached David.

His friend turned toward him, a grim expression on his face. "Yes, this morning. At least this time I hope nothing else happens. I don't want any more people hurt, but we need to check thoroughly for the one missing."

"Yeah, I've seen people found days later and I heard of someone who lasted a week in the wreckage. That's why I'm here. I can help later after my shift."

"Good. It's nice that late August still gives us long days."

"Is Pastor Paul around?"

"No, he went to a parishioner's house. They're making plans for holding a church service here on Sunday."

"That sounds like him. Someone bombing his church...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Love Inspired Suspense
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2015
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 037344690X
• ISBN 13: 9780373446902
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 224
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: HarperCollins Publishers Ireland; enquiries@harpercollins.ie; ; Mayor Street Upper 39/40; Dublin; D01 C9W8; Irland