Lynette Eason - Hide and Seek

SHE WON’T GIVE UP

Erica James has spent the past three years as a skip tracer, hunting down others and hoping one day it will lead to her kidnapped daughter. Now she has a new suspect—Max Powell’s missing sister. Max, a private investigator, has found evidence that connects the two missing girls, and together, he and Erica search for answers. The closer they get to finding answers, the stronger their feelings for each other become. But the kidnapper will stop at nothing—including murder—to keep them from finding Erica’s daughter.

Family Reunions: Bringing loved ones back together

Max gave the family photo another look. “You seem like a close family.”

A snort slipped out before Erica could stop it. At his surprised look she shook her head. “Looks can be deceiving. We’re not close. It’s been months since I’ve seen or talked to my parents. Things changed after Molly was taken.”

He lifted a brow. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It is what it is. Maybe one day things will be different.” Only if you make an effort to change them, said that little voice that was always right about such things. She cocked her head. “And maybe one day I’ll tell you about it.”

Max nodded and made his way to the door. “I’ll see you in the morning. Sleep lightly and be careful,” he said before he left.

She knew what he meant. He was worried about Peter.

Erica got that—she was worried, too.

I’ll sleep with one eye open.

Not to mention with my bedroom door locked and my gun close by.

LYNETTE EASON

makes her home in South Carolina with her husband and two children. Lynette has taught in many areas of education over the past ten years and is very happy to make the transition from teaching school to teaching at writers’ conferences. She is a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America), FHL (Faith, Hope, & Love) and ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers). She is often found online, and loves to talk writing with anyone who will listen. You can find her at www.facebook.com/lynetteeasonauthoror www.lynetteeason.com.

Hide and Seek

Lynette Eason

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

—Matthew 6:26

To my wonderful Savior, who lets me write for Him. I also want to dedicate this book to my sweet niece, Willow Dorris, and my nephews, Jonah Dorris and Liam Dorris. Thanks for being such great kids and good friends as well as cousins to my kids. You guys rock!

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my family for all their support. This is my fifteenth Love Inspired Suspense book. I’m so thankful that you understand about deadlines and the desperation of pulling a plot and scenes from thin air—or your lives. (I suppose I should thank you for your forgiveness in this regard.) I love you all so much. I thank God for blessing me with you.

Thanks to Emily Rodmell, my Harlequin editor, for all her hard work on every single book I’ve written for Love Inspired. We made it to fifteen!

Thanks to Officer Jim Hall, who critiques and corrects all of my police procedural. If there’s anything wrong in here, it’s not his fault! Jim, you’re awesome. So glad God dropped you into my life when you were living in North Carolina. God bless you!

Thank you to the ACFW Romantic Suspense loop and all of you who brainstormed this book and the next one with me. Thanks to Mary Lynn Mercer, Michelle Lim, Terri Weldon, Beth Ziarnik, Misty Kirby, Jeff Reynolds and Jessica Patch. You guys gave me some fabulous ideas, and even if I didn’t use them all, you gave me some direction and inspiration. God bless each of you in your own personal writing journey.

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

EPILOGUE

DEAR READER

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

EXCERPT

ONE

Searching for a crack house had not been in Erica James’s plans for the evening. However, Detective Katie Randall had uttered the one sentence that could send her into one of the worst neighborhoods in the city.

“We’ve found new evidence in Molly’s disappearance.”

Erica let the words ring through her mind as she drove, looking for the address of the crack house that had been raided two days ago.

New evidence. New evidence.

“It’s been three years,” Erica exclaimed. “What possibly could have come to light now?” she’d asked, hating the shakiness in her voice, the desperate hope that she knew was carved on her face.

Detective Katie Randall had shown her a photograph of a crime scene. Even now, Erica’s fingers curled around the steering wheel as she remembered the little outfit clearly pictured amidst the trash and rubble.

The outfit three-year-old Molly had been wearing when she’d disappeared from the day-care field trip to the zoo. Erica touched the picture with a shaking finger.

“That’s her hair bow.”

“We got a fingerprint from it. A girl by the name of Lydia Powell. Her prints are in the system for a shoplifting charge two years ago.”

“So what does she say? Did you ask her about Molly?”

“We haven’t been able to find her,” Katie admitted.

“Then I will.”

Now, two days later, on a cold Tuesday evening, Erica glanced at the sky. The sun would set in about ten minutes and she still hadn’t found the address.

In this dark, dank part of town.

Drug deals on one corner, the selling of bodies and souls on the other. Her heart shuddered at the thought of her child being in the middle of all of this. And yet at the same time, her heart ached for the innocents trapped in this cycle of crime and abuse. For those who wanted out, but didn’t know how to accomplish that. Or were too young to try.

Narrowed, suspicious eyes followed her progress down the trash-strewn street. The sun crept lower and her pulse picked up a notch.

As daylight disappeared so did the people on the street. One by one, everyone in a yard or on a porch made their way behind a closed, locked door.

She hadn’t counted on it being dark by the time she got here. Then again, she hadn’t counted on the place being so hard to find, either. Her GPS had led her down one street and up another until she was so twisted around she’d never find her way back out.

For the first time since Katie had told her the news, fear started to replace the hope she’d allowed herself to feel. She’d taken the information and run with it. Straight into one of the most dangerous parts of town.

What was she doing? Was she crazy?

After another hesitant second, she picked up the phone and dialed her brother, Brandon. Nerves on edge, she watched the street as she waited for him to answer. Finally, she heard, “Hello?”