Jane M. Choate - Inherited Threat

Hazardous Legacy...

Her mother’s mistakes have made her a target.

After her estranged mother is killed by a crime syndicate, army ranger Laurel Landry knows she’s next...and she needs help from ex-ranger turned bodyguard Mace Ransom. While Mace is used to doing things his way, their best chance of staying alive is relying on each other. Their enemies aren’t backing down...but together Laurel and Mace might be able to stop them for good.

JANE M. CHOATEdreamed of writing from the time she was a small child when she entertained friends with outlandish stories complete with happily-ever-after endings. Writing for Love Inspired Suspense is a dream come true. Jane is the proud mother of five children, grandmother to seven grandchildren and staff to one cat who believes she is of royal descent.

Also By Jane M. Choate

Keeping Watch

The Littlest Witness

Shattered Secrets

High-Risk Investigation

Inherited Threat

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.

Inherited Threat

Jane M. Choate

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09688-1

INHERITED THREAT

© 2019 Jane M. Choate

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2020-03-02

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

Change of font size and line height

Change of background and font colours

Change of font

Change justification

Text to speech

“We’re working together. No more going off on your own.” Laurel tapped a finger against Mace’s chest. “Got it?”

Mace caught her hand, stilled it. “What I do on my own time is my business.”

A zing of awareness raced up her arm. “You and I are joined at the hip until we figure this thing out.”

“You’re a hard lady.”

“No harder than I have to be.”

He nudged her to the truck. “I want you off the streets. Don’t forget, the Collective has put a bounty on you.”

Laurel snorted. “And here we go again, back to where we started. I’m sticking with you. Get used to it.”

Laurel didn’t hear Mace’s response—the rapid report of M4s reverberated through the night. The hiss of a bullet between her and Mace was too close for comfort. It buried itself into the dashboard.

“Stay down.” Mace was already reaching for his Glock.

But Laurel didn’t bother responding. She drew her weapon and opened the door.

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed reading Laurel and Mace’s story. In many ways, this is also Sammy’s story. With his missing leg, Sammy, like others of us, does not measure up to the world’s standards of perfection.

The world’s ideals of beauty and value, as evidenced by awards ceremonies, magazine covers and other superficial criteria, will never be the Lord’s. He asks that we give of ourselves—of our hearts, our minds and our spirits—to serve others, for when we serve others, we are serving Him. When we do this with compassion, faith and love, we find favor in His eyes.

Missing legs or other physical imperfections matter not nearly so much as missing or unused hearts. I pray that we can each offer our hearts to the Lord, for He will turn our weaknesses to strengths, our flaws to honor, our sins to virtue.

With gratitude for His love,

Jane

If God be for us, who can be against us?

—Romans 8:31

Dedicated to America’s unsung heroes: military dogs. Military dogs save lives, sometimes at the expense of their own. These courageous animals provide comfort and companionship to American troops, detect explosive devices and even shield soldiers from flying bullets. A military dog was deployed by navy SEALs in the mission to capture Osama bin Laden. In 2009, a Silver Star, one of the navy’s highest awards, was awarded posthumously to a dog named Remco after he charged an insurgent’s hideout in Afghanistan.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Introduction

Dear Reader

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

Extract

About the Publisher

The caw of a crow reverberated through the early morning air, scraping already frayed nerves. Senses spiking, Laurel Landry approached Bernice’s—she had never earned the title mother —storage unit. Bernice’s murder a week ago had brought Laurel to this shabby place at this moment.

Using the key she’d discovered in Bernice’s ancient double-wide trailer, Laurel let herself in and began her search. Sammy, her German shepherd, stood guard.

Buried beneath a stack of boxes, she found a familiar “go-bag.” From the time Laurel had been a small child, Bernice had kept a suitcase for when the two of them had to leave town in a hurry, usually just before the rent was due.