Jenna Night - Justice At Morgan Mesa

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

Introduction “Police!” Levi called out. “Is anybody in the house?” A woman screamed, “Help me!” from behind a closed door. He moved toward the door. “Who’s in there?” “Show me your badge and police ID,” the woman demanded. He could tell she was terrified by the trembling in her voice. “You’ll see them when you see me.” The door opened a couple of inches. He saw a small woman with platinum blond curls. Her blue eyes, wide with fear, focused first on his face, then on the area behind him and then finally on the badge pinned to his chest. “It’s all right,” he said. “I’m here to help you.” She opened the door all the way. “Are you hurt?” he asked. There were reddish marks on her chin and cheek. “I’m all right.” “What happened?” “Somebody chased me with a hammer. He told me to get out of town or get buried here.”

Dear Reader Dear Reader Contents Cover Back Cover Text About the Author Booklist Title Page Copyright Introduction Dear Reader Bible Verse Dedication ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT NINE TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN Extract About the Publisher , Despite our apparent differences, most of us really do have a lot in common. One of those things might be a few lingering questions in the back of our mind that are not going to be answered in this lifetime. And that can be tough to deal with. In Justice at Morgan Mesa , Vanessa is searching for answers and justice for her murdered father. Faith sustains her during that long, difficult search. That same faith also gives her the strength to move beyond past tragedy and toward a bright future. I hope you enjoyed spending time with Vanessa and Levi and visiting the Silver Horse Guest Ranch. I’d like to invite you to visit me on my Jenna Night Facebook page or on Twitter @Night_Jenna , where I mostly retweet pictures of cute animals. Jenna Night

Bible Verse Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. —Isaiah 26:3

Dedication To my mother, Esther. A source of laughter and strength.

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

Extract

About the Publisher

Vanessa Ford heard footsteps behind her. She turned around, but she didn’t see anyone. Just pine forest beyond a narrow expanse of rocky soil and scraggly grass struggling to come back to life after a harsh winter.

Morgan Mesa, the place where she stood, towered a thousand feet above her hometown of Torchlight, Nevada. As a kid growing up in Torchlight, she’d been in awe of the rich people who lived on the rim of the mesa. The homes up here had looked like palaces to a little girl living in a single-wide trailer down on the flatland below. Since then she’d made something of herself as an attorney in Las Vegas, nearly five hundred miles away in the southern end of the state.

She was back in town for a few weeks to help her grandfather with preparations to open the Silver Horse Guest Ranch. He and his two closest friends had put their life savings into the endeavor. When their financing had come up short, Vanessa had kicked in some of her own money.

And while she was here, she was investigating a murder.

Standing at the edge of the mesa, she was sure she could feel someone’s gaze focused on her. A chilly breeze brushed the surface of her skin, setting the hairs on the back of her neck on end.

Snap.

The sound of a footstep breaking a twig confirmed her suspicion. Somebody was there, hidden in the forest.

A weird whistling sound pierced the quiet. Vanessa tried to convince herself the noise had been made by an animal or some kind of machine. But she knew better. Somebody was hiding in the woods, whistling a creepy melody she couldn’t quite place. Was someone deliberately trying to scare her? Her gut twisted itself into a knot and her heart began to race. Maybe she was on the verge of stumbling across something she wasn’t meant to see.

The whistling sound abruptly stopped and the sudden quiet made Vanessa’s racing heart pound even harder.

Her hands shook as she reached into her jeans pocket for her phone. She glanced toward the edge of the forest where she’d last heard the whistling, but she still couldn’t see anyone.

She held her breath and listened for sounds of somebody moving around. Whoever was hiding in the woods, watching her, could make their move at any minute. If they were armed, they could fire a shot at her without ever leaving the cover of the forest.

She didn’t have a weapon. Her car was parked a mile away. And the hiking boots she wore weren’t designed for running. Her best option was to call the police and pray they got here fast.

She’d already started punching in 9-1-1 on her phone when she glanced down at the screen. Her heart sank. No bars. No cell service. She was on her own.

She was also still close to the rim of the mesa with a one-thousand-foot drop straight down. She could not stay there. Not if some lunatic was watching her with evil intentions in mind. The rustling of the breeze through the tops of the pine trees could easily mask the sound of footsteps. Maybe the creepy whistler had moved around and was no longer in the direction of where she’d last heard him.

In the late afternoon’s blue-gray shadows, she couldn’t see if anyone was there. Whichever direction she went, she ran the risk of running directly into the lurker she was trying to avoid.

There was always the chance that it was just some fool with a twisted sense of humor taking a shortcut through the woods. Maybe he was already gone.

Or maybe not.

“Hello?” she called out. “Anybody there?”

Nothing.

And then, from among the trees, a mocking, exaggeratedly falsetto voice repeated her words. “Hello? Anybody there?”

Goose bumps dimpled the surface of Vanessa’s skin. It was time for her to leave.

She had to go through the woods to get away from the edge of the mesa. So she started walking quickly, trying to aim herself away from the direction of where she’d heard the voice. She was afraid if she ran it would trigger the person stalking her to run after her.

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