Skip to main content

Excerpt - DANGER ON THE MOUNTAIN by Lynette Eason

Danger on the Mountain
By Lynette Eason


After making a new life for herself and her infant daughter in Rose Mountain, widow Maggie Bennett thought they were safe. Getting caught in the middle of a bank robbery changes everything—and introduces her to policeman Reese Kirkpatrick. He seems to be everything her abusive late husband wasn't…just the man she needs to help her through the growing list of sinister occurrences. But Reese has his own baggage—and when a shocking betrayal puts Maggie at risk, Reese must decide if protecting his heart is worth losing a chance at love.

Excerpt of chapter one:

Deputy Reese Kirkpatrick stiffened when he felt something hard jam into his lower back. He started to turn when a voice whispered in his ear, "Get on the floor or the baby's mama gets a bullet."

Stiffening, his adrenaline in sudden overdrive, Reese looked around and saw a young woman with a baby in a carrier standing in front of the teller's window. As his adrenaline spiked, details came into focus. The teller's nameplate said Lori Anglero. The woman with the baby had soft blond hair that fell to her shoulders in pretty waves. The man behind him had bad breath and needed a shower.

Reese's time as a cop on the streets of Washington, D.C., now served him well. He didn't even blink. "You think this is going to work for you?"

"Yep. You're the only man in here. I don't need you having a hero complex because I'm trying to do this without killing anyone. But I will if I have to. On the floor. Now."

The door chimed one more time, and Reese caught sight of two more masked men entering the First National Bank of Rose Mountain.

"Everybody down! Now!" The man behind Reese gave him a hard shove.

Reese dropped, grateful he wasn't wearing his uniform and that the gun hidden under his coat in the small of his back had gone undiscovered.

Screams echoed and Reese saw the woman in front of Lori's window drop down to become a human shield for the baby.

"Down! Down!" The man who'd taken Reese by surprise aimed his gun and pulled the trigger.

The bullet slammed into the wall above Maggie Bennett's head. With a scream, she tightened her protective stance over her eight-month-old daughter's carrier.

Terror spiraling through her, Maggie whipped her head to the left to see three gunmen in black masks. One stood by the door, his broad shoulders and tight grip on the pistol in his left hand saying he'd be a force to reckon with. Another, tall and lanky, hovered in a threatening stance over the man on the floor. The third held his weapon in a way that said he knew how to use it—and would. The tall, skinny one with his weapon trained on the man on the floor grunted, "Charlie, get the cash."

Charlie leaped over the counter. As he did, his foot caught the nearest silver pole holding the red velvet ropes used to separate customers into lines. The pole crashed to the tile floor with a loud clang, and Maggie cringed. Charlie cursed, regained his footing and pointed the gun in bank teller's terrified face. "You deaf? I said get down!"

The teller dropped.

So did Ashley O'Neal, the other teller who'd been so friendly to Maggie last Sunday at church.

At three o'clock on a Monday afternoon, Maggie and the man now on the floor were the only customers in the bank. She watched his hand angling under his heavy suede jacket.

What was he doing?

Her eyes darted from robber to robber, to the door then back to the man on the floor.

There was no security guard and no help in sight.

The broad-shouldered one who stood by the door appeared to be in charge. He jutted his chin toward the man on the floor. "Cover him, Slim. He looks like he might be thinking he wants to put up a fight."

Still hunched over Belle's carrier, Maggie felt strangled by her fear and she wasn't sure what to do. She was frozen in place, watching the incidents playing out before her as though they were on a big screen and she was in the audience.

But she wasn't. This was real. And it was happening to her.

Her first reaction was to look for a way to protect Isabella. Her second to silently screech out a desperate prayer as she slumped to the floor next to the fallen pole, keeping herself between the men and her baby. Her foot became entangled in the rope now snaking the floor, but she ignored it. Her only thought was to keep her cool and survive. Old instincts surfaced, and a chill that matched the November air outside the bank swept through her.

As her eyes jumped from one robber to the next, she let her gaze land on the other bank customer. He lay still, left hand away from his side, right still hidden by his jacket. His sharp green eyes took in the unfolding scene. Maggie could see the tension in his shoulders and face and prayed he didn't do something stupid, like try to be a hero.

He'd get them all killed.

"You!" Charlie yelled at the teller who'd been helping Maggie. "Stand up!"

The woman obeyed, tears tracking her cheeks, hands raised as she backed up away from her station. "D-don't shoot me. Take what you want."

Slim continued to hold his gun on the man on the floor while Charlie threw a large bag at Maggie's teller. "Load it up. Now."

The woman caught it, fumbled it, shot a terrified glance at the man, then went to work. Even from her spot at the last teller station next to the wall, Maggie could see the woman's hands shaking.

"Hurry up!" The lookout man next to the door shifted, the chink in his calm demeanor grabbing Maggie's attention. So he wasn't as cool about this as he'd first appeared.

Charlie shot him an aggravated look, his eyes piercing and hard behind his mask. "Just watch the street."

Then he turned back to jab the teller with his weapon. "Move! Move! This ain't a tea party!"

Lori's hands shook so hard Maggie was afraid she'd drop the cash and the man would shoot her. She almost offered to help but bit her tongue. As long as Lori was getting the money in the bag, Maggie would stay quiet and keep her body covering Belle's. She darted a glance in the direction of the offices. One door was closed. The bank manager in hiding?

She prayed that no one else would walk in and this would all be over in a few seconds. Dark spots danced before her eyes, and she realized that she was holding her breath. She gasped in air. The dancing spots disappeared, but Belle started to cry. Maggie froze.

The lookout lifted his gun and pointed it at her. "Shut the kid up."

Immediately, Maggie knelt and unbuckled Belle from her car seat. Picking her up, she settled the baby against her and turned her back to everything going on. Belle sniffed and lay her head on Maggie's shoulder, thankfully content to be out of the carrier and to suck on the pacifier Maggie shoved in her mouth.

Maggie glanced over her shoulder as Charlie hauled himself back on the other side of the counter and held up the bag. "Got it!" His gaze landed on Maggie and she stilled, not liking the look in his eyes.

Slim spoke. "Get the other drawer."

"We don't have time for that, Slim," the lookout protested. So maybe Slim was the one in charge?

Charlie ignored his partner and slung the bag back at the teller who moved to the next drawer.

Sirens sounded and the three masked men exchanged a glance. Slim growled, "Who tripped the alarm? Who?"

The robber nearest the door immediately turned and disappeared through it.

Maggie saw the well-built customer on the floor clench his jaw even as he slowly moved his hand back under his jacket.

The door burst back open. "The cops are almost here! I got the car! Let's get this done!"

Slim looked up and his gaze slammed into Maggie's. "Get over here."

She froze once again, arms gripping Isabella too tight. The baby hollered her displeasure, and Maggie shushed her even as her eyes met the narrowed brown ones of the man who'd ordered her to move.

"My name's Reese Kirkpatrick. I'm a cop. You've got what you want, you'd better leave while you can."

Maggie jerked her gaze to the man on the floor. He'd been silent throughout the whole ordeal. Silent and watchful. Slim raised his gun and brought it crashing down toward Reese's head. Reese rolled. Slim missed and stumbled, his finger jerking the trigger. The weapon bucked in his hand, the bullet shattered the tile floor beside Reese's left leg.

Reese now had a weapon pulled and aimed at Slim. Without a word, he pulled the trigger.

Slim screamed and jerked as his gun tumbled to the floor.

Charlie whirled and dropped the bag of money as he moved toward his wounded partner. He lifted his weapon, aiming toward Reese who was now moving across the floor toward Slim. Charlie's left leg stepped in the midst of the red velvet ropes.

Without thinking of the possible consequences, Maggie jerked on the rope.

Charlie went down hard, the back of his head cracking against the floor. Reese lunged for Slim and snagged the mask. It came off and Slim howled his outrage even as he landed a lucky blow with his good hand to Reese's solar plexis.

Reese grunted and stumbled back, gagging. Slim looked like he might go after Reese again, but the screaming sirens outside seemed to change his mind and with a final glance at the unconscious Charlie, and a hard glare at Reese, he backed toward the door, hand held tight against the wound in his shoulder. "I'll kill you for this!" His gaze landed on Maggie and she flinched when he said, "Her and the kid, too!"

Reese finally got his feet under him, snatched the weapon from the unconscious man on the floor, then stumbled after the wounded robber. But by the time he hit the door, the man was in the car. The door slammed shut halfway down the block.

Reese whirled back into the bank and checked to make sure Charlie was still out cold.

He was.

Next he checked on the woman with the baby. She sat on the floor, eyes dry, jiggling her infant in her lap. He noticed the ringless left hand. And wondered why he would notice such a thing at a time like this. "Are you all right?"

She lifted soul-deep dark brown eyes to his and the fear in them felt like a sucker punch to his midsection. Her low "Yes" vibrated through him. Then she drew in a deep breath and a tinge of color returned to her pale cheeks. "Yes, we're all right. Thank you." Then the baby turned her attention to him, spit out the pacifier, stuck a finger in her mouth and grinned around it.

This time it was a blow to his kidneys.

He nodded and turned, hoping his desperate need to get away from them didn't show on his face. He forced his mind to the matter at hand. Thank goodness she'd kept her cool over the last few minutes. If she'd been the hysterical type, they might all be dead. His ringing ears testified to just how close the gun had been to his head when it went off. He just hoped the ringing wasn't permanent.

"Is it over?" One of the bank tellers—the one named Lori—peered over the edge of the counter, mascara streaking her cheeks.

Grateful for the interruption—and the fact that he heard her, Reese nodded. "All except for the cleanup."

More tears leaked from her eyes and he saw her lips move in a grateful, whispered prayer.

Rose Mountain Police cruisers pulled in. Eli Brody, sheriff of Rose Mountain, bolted from the first one like he'd been shot from a cannon. The man strode toward him and Reese quickly filled him in. Eli snapped orders into his radio and two cruisers immediately headed out after the escaping getaway car. He then marched toward the other two officers, leaving Reese to question the tellers.

"Thank you."

The quiet words captured his attention and he turned to see the woman with the baby gazing up at him. Clearing his throat, Reese said, "You're welcome."

"I'm Maggie Bennett." She shifted and before Reese could gracefully slip away, she blurted out, "Was he serious? Do you think he'll come back and—" She bit off the last part of the sentence, but the fear lingered and he knew exactly what she was asking.

Reese shook his head. "I don't think you have anything to worry about. All those guys care about is getting away."

Doubt narrowed her eyes. "But we made him really mad. And you have one of his partners in custody because I interfered. We saw his face. You honestly don't think they'll be a tad upset about that?"

So she had spunk and she wasn't comforted because he told her what she wanted to hear. She wanted the truth, no matter what. He liked that.

He said, "All good points. The fact is, I don't know. We'll take precautions, get his picture from the bank camera and distribute it around the town. But as for whether he would really come back here.. " He shrugged. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"No, you can't." A sigh slipped out and she placed a kiss on the baby's forehead.

A baby girl with big brown eyes like her mama.

A knife through his heart wouldn't be any more painful. He had to get away. He'd come to Rose Mountain to escape memories of a wife and baby who were no more. Grief was sharp. Growing up in foster families, all he'd ever dreamed of was having a family of his own. And he'd had that for a while. Until they'd died.

"What's your baby's name?" He couldn't help asking.

"Isabella. But I call her Belle."

She said the name with such love that his heart spasmed once again. "That's a pretty name."

Her face softened as she looked at the baby in her arms. "Thanks. It was my mother's."

Was. Past tense. Her mother was dead. He recognized the pain in her eyes. The same pain he saw when he thought about his own mother who'd died when he was nine. Clearing his throat, he asked, "Do you need to call someone? A husband or…?"

"No, no one." A different sort of pain flashed in her eyes for a brief moment and Reese wondered what that story was. Then he blinked and told himself it wasn't his business.

A bank robbery was.

She was saying, "You said you were a cop. I don't remember seeing you around here before."

"It's my first week." He shook his head. "I just moved here from Washington, D.C. One of Eli's deputies quit, he needed another one and asked me if I'd take the job." He lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug. "Eli caught me at the right time. I was ready for a change." Eli said he'd seen something in Reese that had been familiar, something Eli had experienced only a few years before. Burnout.

A weariness of the soul. And grief.

And why was he sharing this with her? There was something about the way she looked at him. As though she really cared about what he had to say.

"Maggie, are you all right?"

Reese snapped his head around, and Maggie's gaze followed his to see Eli bearing down on them. The man's thunderous expression said the bank robbers had escaped.

Order:
Print books:
Harlequin.com
Harlequin.com (Large Print)
Barnes and Noble
Barnes and Noble (Large Print)
Amazon.com
Amazon.com (Large Print)
Christianbook.com
Booksamillion.com
Booksamillion.com

Ebooks:
Harlequin.com
Nookbook
Kindle
Booksamillion.com
Kobobooks.com
iTunes

You can also purchase this book from any of the stores found at CBA Storefinder.

Also, don’t forget that it’s Free Book Friday over at Harlequin.com--if you order two or more books, you’ll get their weekly featured book for free!

This week, the featured book is: Lady Folbroke's Delicious Deception by Christine Merrill

Comments

Popular Posts

Interview with Tamara Leigh

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.13.2006 Multi-published Tamara Leigh has shifted from Medieval romances to chick-lit! Her newest book is STEALING ADDA published by NavPress. It had been a long time since New York Times best-selling author -- and historical romance writer extraordinaire -- Adda Sinclaire had experienced more than a fictional dose of romance, but when publisher Nick Farnsworth walks into her life, everything changes. Life for Adda ironically reads more like a country song than a bodice-bursting, breathless affair. For starters, she has no actual romance in her life. That might have something to do with the fact that her husband -- correction-EX husband -- ran off with Stick Woman, whom everyone knew would never be more than a mid-list author anyway. To add insult to injury (and another verse to the country song), he not only took their dog but gave it to her. If this isn't enough, Adda's come down with a horrible case of writer's block and finds h

In-N-Out from A DANGEROUS STAGE

Source: tumblr.com via Camy on Pinterest In-N-Out, one of my fav burger joints, makes an appearance in the first chapter of A Dangerous Stage . It's a chain on the West Coast and Hawaii, I'm not sure how far east they have restaurants. They don't freeze any of their food, it's all fresh, including the buns and the french fries. When you order, you can see them use this french fry hand-crank machine to make their fries, it's pretty cool. The specific restaurant in A Dangerous Stage doesn't exist at that location, but there's a couple of them near me and I go there way too often than is good for me, but it's oh-so-yummy!

No Cold Bums toilet seat cover

Captain's Log, Stardate 08.22.2008 I actually wrote out my pattern! I was getting a lot of hits on my infamous toilet seat cover , and I wanted to make a new one with “improvements,” so I paid attention and wrote things down as I made the new one. This was originally based off the Potty Mouth toilet cover , but I altered it to fit over the seat instead of the lid. Yarn: any worsted weight yarn, about 120 yards (this is a really tight number, I used exactly 118 yards. My suggestion is to make sure you have about 130 yards.) I suggest using acrylic yarn because you’re going to be washing this often. Needle: I used US 8, but you can use whatever needle size is recommended by the yarn you’re using. Gauge: Not that important. Mine was 4 sts/1 inch in garter stitch. 6 buttons (I used some leftover shell buttons I had in my stash) tapestry needle Crochet hook (optional) Cover: Using a provisional cast on, cast on 12 stitches. Work in garter st until liner measures

Sweet & Clean Christmas Romance sale

I’m participating in the Sweet & Clean Christmas Romance sale. Check out all the sweet/clean romance books available and stuff your eBook reader! Sweet & Clean Christmas Romance

99c Squeaky Clean Christmas Romance sale

I’m participating in the 99c Squeaky Clean Christmas Romance sale. Check out all the sweet/clean romance books available and stuff your eBook reader! 99c Squeaky Clean Christmas Romance

Clean Romance Deals

I’m participating in the Clean Romance Deals sale. Check out all the sweet/clean romance books available and stuff your eBook reader! Clean Romance Deals

Last chance! Jane Austen sweepstakes

Last chance! Win a Library of 30 Historical Romance Novels + Jane Austen Swag Worth $250! This is a delightful surprise I've been eager to share! Join me and 30 extraordinary authors in an enchanting giveaway where we're gifting a vast array of historical romance novels to two fortunate winners! And the cherry on top: The Grand Prize winner will be treated to an exclusive Jane Austen swag pack, worth an impressive $250! You'll get the chance to win a copy of my book, Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 1: Archer, as well as novels from renowned authors like Laura Beers and Kasey Stockton. (Please be aware that not all the historical novels in this giveaway are Christian or sweet.) To enter, simply click the magical link below. Wishing you the best of luck and a journey filled with delightful reads! Join Our Giveaway

Daniel 9:9

Dear Lord, Thank you for being so merciful and forgiving to us no matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been. Thank you for loving us so much, even when we find it hard to love ourselves. Even if we have rejected you, you still reach out to us and want us to come to you for love and comfort and forgiveness. Thank you for your magnificent grace. Amen 主よ、 私たちが何をしようと、どこにいようと、私たちを憐れみ、赦してくださりありがとうございます。私たちが自分自身を愛することが難しいときでさえ、私たちをこんなにも愛してくださってありがとうございます。たとえ私たちがあなたを拒んだとしても、あなたは私たちに手を差し伸べ、愛と慰めと赦しを求めてあなたのもとに来ることを望んでくださいます。あなたの素晴らしい恵みに感謝します。 アーメン

Year of the Dog serial novel

About Year of the Dog : A month or two ago, I remembered an old manuscript I had completed but which hadn’t sold. It was a contemporary romance meant for Zondervan, titled Year of the Dog . The book had gone into the pipeline and I even got another title ( Bad Dog ) and a cover for it, but eventually my editor at the time decided she didn’t want to publish it, for various reasons. She instead requested a romantic suspense, and so I cannibalized some of the characters from Year of the Dog and thrust them into the next book I wrote, which was Protection for Hire . Honestly, I didn’t take a lot from Year of the Dog to put in Protection for Hire , aside from character names and a few relationship ties. I was originally thinking I’d post Year of the Dog as-is on my blog as a free read, but then it occurred to me that I could revamp it into a romantic suspense and change the setting to Hawaii. It would work out perfectly as (yet another) prequel to the Warubozu series and introduc

Michael’s Scarf knitting pattern

Michael’s Gray and Brown Scarf I had just written a scene in Lady Wynwood’s Spies, volume 5: Prisoner where my character Michael gives the heroine a very significant scarf. When looking for a stitch pattern, I found the one used in “#31 Comfort either for a Lady or Gentleman” in The Lady's Assistant , volume 2 , published in 1842 by Mrs. Jane Gaugain, pages 125-126 (click on the link to view and/or download the free PDF of the digitally scanned book). When I did test swatches, it turned out to be a pretty eyelet pattern that looks like branches or vines winding upward. I tried the pattern as a parallelogram scarf and discovered that the pattern has a changeable orientation, looking vertical or diagonal depending on how you looked at it. So I decided to use this pattern, knitted as a parallelogram, as Michael’s scarf. I decided to use a smaller needle and add a slip stitch in the pattern to make the eyelets a bit more close and less lacy. When paired with a brown an