Protecting Tanner Hollow

Lynette Eason

Description

Four nail-biting novellas in one!Lethal HomecomingNolan Tanner never got over Kallie Ainsworth's sudden, unexplained departure. Now when he comes to her rescue after an attempt on her life, all the old feelings come rushing back.Lethal ConspiracyWhen professional fundraiser Lillian Maloney sees her father's campaign manager commit murder, she goes on the run from the men he hires to kill her. A close call brings firefighter Jason Tanner to the rescue, but the killer is closing in . . . Lethal SecretsSomeone wants Honor McBride dead. When Eli Murphy helps her change a flat tire and discovers the danger Honor is in, he longs to help--but Eli has secrets of his own that could get them all killed.Lethal AgendaWhen Detective Derek St. John rescues a woman he's met only once before--and has never been able to forget--he finds himself falling for her. But he'll have to keep Claire Montgomery alive if they're to have a future together.

Sujets

• Romance
• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 05 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781493419371
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Cover
Half Title Page
Books by Lynette Eason
W OMEN OF J USTICE
Too Close to Home
Don’t Look Back
A Killer Among Us
D EADLY R EUNIONS
When the Smoke Clears
When a Heart Stops
When a Secret Kills
H IDDEN I DENTITY
No One to Trust
Nowhere to Turn
Nothing to Lose
E LITE G UARDIANS
Always Watching
Without Warning
Moving Target
Chasing Secrets
B LUE J USTICE
Oath of Honor
Called to Protect
Code of Valor
Vow of Justice

Protecting Tanner Hollow
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2019 by Lynette B. Eason
Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2019
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 978-1-4934-1937-1
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Dedication
To my family, who believes in me 100 percent. I love you.
To Jesus. I love you more today.
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page
Books by Lynette Eason
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Lethal Homecoming
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Lethal Conspiracy
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Epilogue
Lethal Secrets
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Epilogue
Lethal Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Sneak Peek from A New Series
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Back Ads
Back Cover
Lethal Homecoming
One
Bad things happened in the dark.
At least that’s what Kallie Ainsworth had learned. She’d always hated the dark and that childish fear had followed her into adulthood.
Which was why she’d planned to be home in Tanner Hollow, North Carolina, before the sun fell. Unfortunately, the flat tire had delayed her, and now she was on a back-mountain road that led to a place where she was unsure of her welcome. Since she’d been gone for six years, she couldn’t hush the uncertainty that simmered just beneath the surface.
Christmas music flowed from her radio and the words reminded her why she was making the trip back to the place from which she’d run. The place she’d vowed never to return to until it was safe.
And now it was.
A lifetime ago her stepfather’s abusive actions had sent her running, but now he was dead and had no more ability to instill fear in her.
Anticipation hovered.
She’d dreamed of this moment. Not necessarily Rick’s death, but of coming home and being reunited with her family. It had been bad enough that Rick had moved in on her mother and she’d married him, but he’d also insinuated himself into her father’s law firm. She still wasn’t sure how that had happened. It didn’t matter now. He was gone. Forever.
Mature pines to her left led to her family’s backyard, and a sheer drop-off to her right made her nervous in spite of the guardrail. She pressed the gas a little harder, focusing on the road in front of her and not the darkness surrounding her.
A sudden impact from behind threw her forward. Kallie screamed as the car swerved and she jerked the wheel to keep the tires on the road. Heart pounding, she managed to right the vehicle only to feel a second slam, this time to her left rear.
The edge of the road. Again. If she went over, she was dead. Kallie didn’t have to see the drop-off to her right to know it. Fighting the force of the hit, she pulled on the wheel and stood on the brake. Squealing tires finally gripped the asphalt. The vehicle shuddered to a stop and shut off.
Her attacker shot past her and Kallie saw his brake lights come on. Wait—he was coming back?
Tremors shook her. She twisted the key and the engine ground but didn’t catch. She tried again. And again. The car in front of her had turned around and was heading back toward her.
“No,” she whispered. She scrambled out of the passenger door. The cold hit hard, stopping Kallie for a split second. Her heavy winter coat rested on the back seat. She looked back at the car that had hit her, now idling in the middle of the road. The driver’s door opened, but the interior light didn’t come on.
The attacker planned to continue the chase.
Kallie ran to the back of her car and crouched behind it. Darkness covered her, and she hoped he couldn’t see her. At the trunk, she paused, her pulse thundering in her ears. Think, think.
Footsteps.
He was coming for her.
Terror spiking, she looked at the drop-off. It wasn’t as sheer here as it was in some areas, but one misstep could send her to the bottom. There were some trees not too far down. Could she find a hiding place behind one of them?
Her mistake was clear. She should have rounded the back of the car and beelined across the street for the wooded area that led to her backyard.
Now she was a sitting duck.
Footsteps crunched closer.
“I know you’re there,” a voice whispered.
Kallie’s breath caught in her throat. She whispered a prayer for protection. The figure moved along the edge of the street. Kallie could see him looking over the edge. If he looked to his right, he would see her.
Could she move without attracting his attention?
A shudder ripped through her and she tried to think.
She couldn’t stay here. She had to try.
Keeping her eyes on the figure at the front of the car, she took a step back, then another. His focus stayed on the drop-off.
Once on the other side of the vehicle, she paused and looked at the open space between her and the cover of the trees. It was only about ten yards, but it might as well have been ten miles. With one more glance over her shoulder to confirm he wasn’t looking her way, she darted for the trees.
“Hey!”
His shout spurred her on, his running footsteps sending another splash of terror shooting through her. Kallie’s only goal was to escape him and make it to the back door of her childhood home.
She knew this area. She’d played in these woods since the day her mother had finally decided she could explore on her own—within shouting distance.
Now all she had to do was find the path before he found her.

Detective Nolan Tanner stood in the living area of the Goodlette home and scanned the solemn faces before him. Kallie Ainsworth’s family.
Sharon Goodlette, Kallie’s mother, was still beautiful in her early fifties. If he remembered correctly, her youngest daughter, Megan, was twenty-three and the exact opposite of Kallie in physical appearance. While Kallie had straight blonde hair and blue eyes, Megan had dark curls that reached to her mid back. Her eyes shone like black onyx and her full lips showed a permanent pout.
And then there were the stepchildren. Rick’s two grown sons and one daughter—James, Richard, and Shelley.
Right now they all stared at him like he’d grown an extra head.
Rick Goodlette, Kallie’s stepfather, had been dead for three days, and his funeral was the day after tomorrow. The reading of the will would take place immediately afterward, and the family had swooped in like the vultures he’d heard them to be.
“I hate to deliver this news at this point, but it might mean you have to delay the funeral.”
“What?”
“No!”
“Are you crazy?”
The chorus of objections met his announcement as he’d predicted. He sighed. “Look, I’m sorry, but the evidence says that Rick’s death was not an accident.”
“But it was a car wreck.” Sharon stood and paced to the mantel. She turned. “A car wreck. On a curving mountain road.”
“There was a bullet hole in the windshield.”
Her jaw dropped and several gasps echoed around the room. “What?”
Sharon Goodlette was either an Academy Award–winning actress or she truly had no idea her husband’s death could have been anything but an accident. She stumbled back to her seat and slumped into the wingback chair. “But . . . no. What?”
“Someone reported hearing a gunshot about the time of the wreck. I didn’t connect the two until just this morning and, on a hunch, had the vehicle examined a little closer. Initially, the broken and cracked windshield looked like the result of the wreck, but when we went looking for it, the bullet hole was there.”
“I can’t believe this.” She raked a hand through her hair.
“I know this is hard,” he said, “and I promise to do my best to wrap this up as quickly as I can.”
“Kallie will be here soon.”
Nolan’s heart thudded. “Kallie?”
“Yes, why?” Megan asked. She sidled up next to him.
A hint of spicy perfume reached him, and he thought it was the same scent she’d worn in high school. He hadn’t been fond of it then and found his opinion hadn’t changed.
He stepped back. “Ah, I just suppose that surprises me. I didn’t think they were that close.”
“They weren’t.”
But she was still coming home for her stepfather’s funeral? Probably to be support for her mother. Rumors of Rick and Kallie’s arguments rolled around in his head. And the fact that she’d just up and left one morning with no word to anyone, not even him.
He’d missed Kallie. They’d been friends since high school. Friends, then more. But she’d left and taken his heart with her. He gave his head a slight shake. He couldn’t think about that right now. “Do you know when she’ll be here?”
Sharon looked at the clock on the mantel. “She should have been here about an hour ago but texted and said she would be delayed because of a flat tire.”
Nolan frowned. “Is she all right?”
“Yes. At least she didn’t say she wasn’t.” She pulled her phone from the front pocket of her black slacks. “I’ll try calling her again.” She dialed the number and listened. Then shook her head and hung up. “Nothing.”
Megan walked ove