Dana Mentink - Dangerous Tidings

SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH

Coast Guard rescue swimmer Brent Mitchell wants only one gift for Christmas: to find his sister. When he discovers that her disappearance is tangled with the death of private eye Bruce Gallagher, he joins forces with Bruce’s daughter Donna to investigate. Grieving Donna is as tough as the determined military man…and both will stop at nothing to find the truth. But the duo soon discovers that a murdered father and a missing sister merely top a looming pyramid of secrets on Coronado Island. Deadly secrets. These unlikely partners have vowed to stick together until their most important case is closed—but they may pay with their lives.

Pacific Coast Private Eyes: Sisters Fighting Crime

“Was he the one that attacked you at the office?”

“I don’t think so. He sounds different.”

Brent took Donna by the shoulders. “Are you sure?”

Her hands closed over his. “Right now, I’m not sure of anything.”

And there it was, the twin strands of courage and fear shining in her expression. There was such strength in those eyes, yet at the same time she was fragile, vulnerable. He pulled her close.

“You could have been hurt,” he murmured.

He heard her breath catch. For a split second she relaxed into him, her cheek grazing his, lighting a glow inside him before she pulled away.

“I’m okay.”

Two blooms of pink appeared on her cheeks. He looked away at the cloud-cloaked horizon to regain his composure and let her find hers.

“I don’t care what she left or didn’t leave. I need to know what he’s done to my sister.”

DANA MENTINK is an award-winning author of Christian fiction. Her novel Betrayal in the Badlands won a 2010 RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award, and she was pleased to win the 2013 Carol Award for Lost Legacy. She has authored more than a dozen Love Inspired Suspense novels. Dana loves feedback from her readers. Contact her via her website at danamentink.com.

Dangerous Tidings

Dana Mentink

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us

and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

—1 John 4:10

To the One who left the throne to walk among us.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction “Was he the one that attacked you at the office?” “I don’t think so. He sounds different.” Brent took Donna by the shoulders. “Are you sure?” Her hands closed over his. “Right now, I’m not sure of anything.” And there it was, the twin strands of courage and fear shining in her expression. There was such strength in those eyes, yet at the same time she was fragile, vulnerable. He pulled her close. “You could have been hurt,” he murmured. He heard her breath catch. For a split second she relaxed into him, her cheek grazing his, lighting a glow inside him before she pulled away. “I’m okay.” Two blooms of pink appeared on her cheeks. He looked away at the cloud-cloaked horizon to regain his composure and let her find hers. “I don’t care what she left or didn’t leave. I need to know what he’s done to my sister.”

About the Author DANA MENTINK is an award-winning author of Christian fiction. Her novel Betrayal in the Badlands won a 2010 RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award, and she was pleased to win the 2013 Carol Award for Lost Legacy. She has authored more than a dozen Love Inspired Suspense novels. Dana loves feedback from her readers. Contact her via her website at danamentink.com .

Title Page Dangerous Tidings Dana Mentink www.millsandboon.co.uk

Bible Verse This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. —1 John 4:10

Dedication To the One who left the throne to walk among us.

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

TWENTY

TWENTY-ONE

TWENTY-TWO

TWENTY-THREE

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

ONE

Dark shadows drifted across the tiny office window. Even the lights strung along the ferryboat across the way could not chase away Donna Gallagher’s tickle of unease as she gazed out at San Diego Bay. Rain beaded on the glass, a winter storm. The vessel was already crowded in spite of the weather. In the upcoming three weeks, the number of visitors would swell as eager Christmas shoppers came over from the mainland and overnight guests arrived for the Hotel del Coronado’s holiday festival. Twinkling white lights, ice-skating, fireworks and hot cocoa. The perfect Christmas in the beautiful island town of Coronado.

Every year since she could remember, her father, Bruce, had accompanied Donna, her three sisters and their mother to the festival. Every year, until now.

The pain in her chest started up again and tears pricked her eyelids. In the corner of the office stood a small pine tree, decorated with handmade ornaments. Each daughter had taken great pains to craft the perfect ornament for their father’s office tree, except two years ago when Donna hadn’t made one. The unfairness of it burned in her. This year, she was fully recovered and ready to make up for lost time. It was the holiday that would finally erase her disastrous rebellion, bury it firmly under a pile of happy memories.

The Gallaghers were all healthy, Candace finally on her feet after her husband’s death in Afghanistan five years prior and Donna recovered from the crash, physically, anyway.

She had not yet put the finishing touches on her wooden cable car, a remembrance of their trip to San Francisco, where she’d turned back to God and decided to start living again, thanks to her father. But now it was too late. Christmas held no joy for Donna this year, and she wondered if it ever would again.

Besides the grief, something dark and frightening poked at her instincts. Bruce, her father, her hero, had been murdered, she was certain of it. All around her, on every inch of floor and the sleek wooden tabletop, lay stacks of files that she’d extracted from the cabinet. The answer to his death lay inside, she was positive. Wind rattled the office windows. She jumped.

She could not shake the sensation that someone was watching her, waiting to make sure she didn’t find her answers. Paranoia? Exhaustion? Her sisters would probably say both. They thought she was in denial, her imagination exacerbated by grief and stress. And guilt, her heart added. There was no murder, they insisted, just an accident.

And her impulse to sift through her father’s cases and play the part of a private investigator, as he had been?

A ludicrous attempt to take control of her grief. She was a veterinarian, after all, not a detective. But ever since she’d started looking through Bruce Gallagher’s paperwork, there had been hints of danger.

Nerves, she told herself. The vehicle that appeared in her rearview mirror too often, the repeated hang-up phone calls on the office line. She looked out onto the darkened street. A truck drove slowly along, pulling to the curb outside. Was it the same truck she’d imagined was following her? Heart thudding, she stood behind the screen of the curtain, watching. A soft glow from inside, the flicker from a cigarette. Who would stop for a smoke here? Stomach tight, she watched.