Rising Darkness (Finding Sanctuary Book #3) , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Nancy Mehl

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

137 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Romantic Suspense to Keep Readers Guessing Until the Last PageSophie Wittenbauer left her strict Mennonite hometown under a cloud of shame and regret. After a rough childhood, her teenage poor choices harmed others, leaving her with no choice but to change her life. Her entry-level writing job at a newspaper puts her in the right place at the right time to overhear office gossip about a prisoner who has information on a decades-old unsolved crime. While the other reporters write off the tip as the ravings of an angry criminal, Sophie can't ignore it because she knows the name of this prisoner from her old life. Upon learning from the man that one of the other suspects is hiding out in the Missouri town of Sanctuary, she takes on a false identity to investigate and meets the young pastor of a local church--the very man she'd loved as a troubled teenager. As she gets closer to finding the suspect, will the truth of her own past come out before she discovers the identity of the criminal--or the very person she's seeking puts a fatal stop to her investigation?

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	27 octobre 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441228864
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0240€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2015 by Nancy Mehl
Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com
Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan
www . bakerpublishinggroup . com
Ebook edition created 2015
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-2886-4
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible or from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design by Dan Pitts
Nancy Mehl is represented by The Steve Laube Agency.
Dedication
To the One who takes away our ashes and gives us beauty instead.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
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
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Books by Nancy Mehl
Back Ads
Back Cover
Prologue
The look on Snake’s face when the bullet hit his chest was burned into Terry’s mind. No one was supposed to die. They had planned it so carefully. He silently ran over the list in his head: Wait for the guard. Follow him inside. Tie up the guards. Get the money. Get out. It had seemed so easy. One of the guards was working with them, and they’d assumed the other guard would hand over the money without a struggle. But that hadn’t happened. Now two guards were dead, and Snake was barely clinging to life.
Terry looked down at his own arm. Thankfully, the bullet had gone right through. It was still bleeding, but he would recover. Snake had caught the worst of it. He couldn’t even remember Snake’s real name. Did he have a family? He seemed to remember him mentioning a sister, but he had no idea where she was. Did the guards have families? He swore under his breath. Of course they did. Everyone had a family, didn’t they? Except for him.
He suddenly noticed his speed. Ten miles over the limit. He slowed down, allowing other cars to whiz past. He couldn’t risk being pulled over.
He glanced again at Snake. He was pale and breathing quickly. What could he do to save his partner? Where could he get help? Had the car been reported stolen yet? How much time did he have?
Although it was risky, he decided to take Snake to a doctor he trusted. He’d convince him to help the injured man, if it wasn’t too late. He’d seen death before, and Snake was as close to the abyss as anybody could get. He hoped the doc would be quick. He needed to clean up, divide the money, ditch the car, and lie low for a while. Thankfully, he had a friend who’d agreed to hide him until the heat died down. Then he’d buy another car and head to his next destination. A place where he could disappear. A place so safe no one would ever find him.
He had no intention of letting Snake know where he was going. If Snake lived, he couldn’t risk giving him too much information. His crimes had graduated beyond theft now. He could face the death penalty.
He ran over everything in his mind once again. Even though he was almost sure he hadn’t left anything behind that could lead to his capture, he was smart enough to know that nothing in life was certain. All it took was one slip. One forgotten detail. If he could just get through the next few days while the city of St. Louis buzzed with the story of one of the greatest crimes it had ever seen, his plan would play out. Once he got to Sanctuary, he could fade into the background, disappearing until the world forgot all about him.
Chapter One

There was something about the smell of a prison that made me feel an almost overwhelming urge to run. It wasn’t the high fences that surrounded the facility in El Dorado, Kansas, or the dour-faced security guards, or even the electronic doors that slid shut behind me as I made my way to the room where visitors met with inmates. For some reason, it was the sharp aroma of bleach and disinfectant that made me feel as if something dark lurked beneath the unpleasant smell.
I glanced around the large room at the other visitors who had come to meet with prisoners. Although most of the conversations seemed relaxed, even friendly, there was something about the men who wouldn’t be walking out the front door when their visit was over. The panic in their eyes that came from the reality of knowing there was no way out. I shivered involuntarily and stared down at the cold, white tabletop. Even though it was only March, the air-conditioning in the room was turned up high. I pulled my jacket tighter around me, trying not to shake.
The door to the room opened, and a guard led a man in. I almost didn’t recognize him. Tom Ford had changed. His dark, greasy hair was cut short, and his acne-scarred face had cleared. He was still small, but his matchstick-thin arms now had muscles. It seemed bizarre to think he was actually healthier now than he had been as a free man. He didn’t meet my gaze as he approached the table where I waited for him. When he sat down, the chains around his ankles rattled.
“He needs to be back in his cell in thirty minutes,” the guard said brusquely before he turned and walked over to stand next to another guard who leaned against the wall. I smiled at them but was rewarded with blank stares. I had the distinct feeling they felt the friends and family of prisoners were as guilty as their charges—as if they were somehow responsible for their criminal behavior.
The guard who had led Tom into the visitors’ room watched me with narrowed eyes, his expression bordering on antagonism. His attention made me uncomfortable, so I swung my gaze back to Tom, who appeared to be ignoring me. I began to feel claustrophobic and extremely uncomfortable.
Finally, Tom looked up and frowned at me. “You’re that reporter from the newspaper in St. Louis, right? When you called here, I told you not to come. That I changed my mind.”
I nodded and swallowed several times, trying to calm my ragged nerves.
“Why didn’t you listen? It’s not like anyone’s beatin’ down the doors to talk to me. No one else even bothered to answer my letters.”
I took a deep breath. “I want to hear what you have to say.” My voice was nearly a whisper, and I forced myself to breathe in and out slowly. I had an important task to accomplish. I needed to focus and finish what I came to do.
“I was wrong to write to your paper,” Tom said gruffly. “Terrance Chase is dead.”
“Did your letter have anything to do with that special on TV?” I asked.
He didn’t respond, just stared down at the table.
“That show brought a lot of attention to the robbery—and Chase. What did you see that prompted you to write to us?”
Still no answer. Just a cold glare, probably designed to make me back off.
“Over six million dollars stolen. Two guards dead, along with Chase’s partner.”
No reaction. I met his gaze head-on.
“You don’t recognize me, do you?” I said finally.
“I ain’t never met you. I’d remember.”
I managed a small smile. “The name Sophie Bauer didn’t help?”
He shook his head. “Still don’t know you.”
“I’m Sophie. Sophie Wittenbauer.”
He still looked confused, and I wanted to slap him.
“From Kingdom?” Bringing up the small Mennonite town in Kansas where I’d grown up made my stomach clench. Breaking free from that place had been the best thing I’d ever done, and I was certain everyone in Kingdom felt the same way.
This time his jaw dropped, and recognition chased away his perplexity. “You look totally different. Your hair’s different. And you’re not . . .” He colored and pursed his lips.
“Fat?”
I’d had my ugly, dishwater-blond hair cut short and streaked. Now I wore it in a cute bob I felt looked good on me. Of course, losing so much weight had changed me more than anything else. And trading my one simple, faded, dirty black dress for attractive modern clothes made a world of difference, too. Thinking about the dress I’d worn in Kingdom—two sizes too small and with a hem that reached to my ankles—made my stomach turn over. I would never be that person again. Gone was the unkempt teenager I had once been. And good riddance.
“You look different, too,” I said.
He nodded. “Prison will do that to you.”
“So will changing your life.” I clasped my hands together on top of the table because I didn’t know what else to do with them. “After I left Kingdom, I got my GED. I’m working my way through college and will earn a degree in a little over a year. Right now I’m working for the St. Louis Times .” I neglected to tell him my current assignment was obituaries and the occasional restaurant review. But hopefully, Tom Ford would be my ticket to writing bigger stories. Stories that mattered.
He stared off into the distance. “Yeah, I understand. I’m hopin’ to get another chance someday, too. But right now I’m lookin’ at a long stretch.” His eyes locked on mine. “That’s why I wrote those letters. Thought maybe my information about Terrance Chase might