Susan Sleeman: Holiday Secrets

DEADLY HOLIDAY REUNION

When his ex is thrust into the crosshairs of a deadly syndicate, FBI agent Gavin McKade will do whatever it takes to protect her. Even work the case with his stubborn sheriff dad. Gavin’s holiday homecoming isn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, but he must set aside the past to make sure Lexie Grant survives. As if protecting Lexie from professional killers isn’t difficult enough, the unlikely reunion has rekindled their complicated romantic connection. But if Gavin can’t untangle Lexie from this dangerous web, the blurring line between duty and love may not matter...because this Christmas could be their last.

“Gavin!” she screamed. “Hurry.”

Gavin pushed Lightning into a gallop, his breath coming in hard puffs as he quickly closed the distance between them. To be safe, he drew his weapon as he dismounted.

“Lexie,” he said, afraid he was wrong, that she’d turn, it wouldn’t be her and he’d learn she’d perished in the explosion.

She looked up from doing CPR on a man lying prone.

It was Lexie. His Lexie. No...not his. Not anymore. “Are you okay?”

She stopped her compressions, held up blood-covered hands and peered down at the man lying in front of her.

“It’s Dad. He...he’s gone.” A sob tore from her throat. “Gunshot wounds. I saw it all. I tried to help Dad and failed.”

“Oh, sugar, I’m so sorry.” Gavin didn’t think of the years that had passed...of the turmoil when they’d broken up. Instead, acting on pure instinct, he drew her into his arms. She needed his comfort, and he was only too happy to hold her.

“This can’t be happening. Not really. Can it?” She suddenly grabbed Gavin’s arm. “The killer can’t get away with this. We have to go after him.”

Dear Reader,

There’s nothing I like more than starting a new series and I hope you enjoyed the first book in my McKade Law miniseries. This family is like so many I met in the time I lived in Texas. Hardworking. Honest and God-fearing. And yet their lives are invaded with turmoil and challenges just like yours and mine, and their faith is tested.

In this story, Lexie feels abandoned and unloved. Gavin feels misunderstood and guilty. Yet, through it all, they recognize the strength and compassion of the McKade family, and both long to be part of this strong family unit once again. I hope that you will enjoy getting to know the McKades and enjoy all four books with this family as much as I am enjoying writing them.

If you’d like to learn more about my other books, please stop by my website at www.susansleeman.com. I also love hearing from readers, so please contact me via email at susan@susansleeman.com, on my Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/susansleemanbooks, or write to me c/o Love Inspired, HarperCollins 24th floor, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

Susan Sleeman

SUSAN SLEEMANis a bestselling author of inspirational and clean-read romantic suspense books and mysteries. She received an RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award for Thread of Suspicion. No Way Out and The Christmas Witness were finalists for the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence. She’s had the pleasure of living in nine states and currently lives in Oregon. To learn more about Susan, visit her website at susansleeman.com.

Holiday Secrets

Susan Sleeman

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in Me will not be disappointed.

—Isaiah 49:23

For all the families waiting for their prodigal son or daughter to return home.

Acknowledgments

A special thank-you to Amanda Williams for naming Kendall’s horse Beauty. To Leslie McKee for naming Gavin’s horse Lightning. And to Lizzi Rizzi for naming Lexie’s horse Misty. Your help was greatly appreciated!

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

Acknowledgments

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

SEVENTEEN

EIGHTEEN

NINETEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

ONE

Lexie Grant’s father had to pick today, of all days, to come back from the dead.

“Not a word from you in over a month.” She glanced at his prop plane rumbling in the distance on the abandoned airstrip, the winds from a blue norther howling across the field. “I thought you had to be dead.”

“Why in the world would you think that?” Her father raised his chin in his usual haughty manner.

“Your house and office. They were ransacked. Then you go missing. The sheriff couldn’t find you, and he suspected foul play. What else was I supposed to think?” She sighed and wished her father cared enough about her and her fourteen-year-old brother, Adam, to have told them he was leaving town. “Where have you been?”

He stepped closer to the crumbling maintenance building shielding them from the harsh wind racing through the Texas Hill Country. “There’s no time to explain. I have another appointment and have to leave.”

Right. Leave. He’d left her and Adam to be raised by their mother’s sister, Ruth, when their mother died giving birth to Adam. Why should Lexie expect him to stay and give her an explanation?

“So why are you here, then?”

“To give you this.” He held out a large manila envelope, his hand trembling.

She watched him for a moment, trying to determine if he was shaking from the twenty-five-degree temperature drop in the last hour or if it was more. He stood strong as usual, but something was off. Maybe something to do with his disappearance.

Thankfully, her fears for his safety had been unfounded, and he was alive. Tears of gratitude sprang to her eyes, surprising her, what with their troubled relationship.

He shook the envelope. “Take it.”

She might be glad he was alive, but she wanted nothing from him. Nothing at all. She shoved her hands into her pockets.

“The envelope.” He glanced over his shoulder to make a furtive sweep of the area.

“If you’re worried that someone is watching us, I should tell you Gavin is coming out here to meet me. He needed to talk to me tonight, too.”

“You’re meeting your old boyfriend? Here? Tonight?” His voice rose as he cut his gaze over the towering copse of bald cypress trees shadowing the abandoned property.

“Yes,” she replied, trying not to think about seeing the man she’d once thought she’d spend the rest of her life with, before he’d bailed on her three years ago.

“He’s FBI now... I can’t... I have to go.” He waved the envelope. “C’mon, take it. Everything you need to know is inside. It’s insurance to make sure you’re safe.”

“Safe? Why wouldn’t I be safe?”

He opened his mouth to respond but a rumbling noise sounded from the far side of the field, taking his attention.