Yuletide Protector (Love Inspired Suspense) (17 page)

As he sprinted, dodging piles of scrap metal and cubes that used to be cars, he gauged the distance between the crane and car crusher and knew he would have to either be superhuman or granted a miracle from God to make it in time.

Blood pumped through his veins as he saw the car lifting into the air, saw the sneer in Dawson’s eyes as he ground gears to move the mammoth arm of the crane to position the car above the crusher.

Kevin ran, his eyes darting from the vehicle, to the man in the seat of the crane, to the ground he had left to cross. He wasn’t going to make it. The magnet holding the car released and the compact dropped into place between the thick walls of steel. His lungs burned, his chest pounded. Daria. His sweet, stubborn, wonderful Daria.

“No!” he screamed from somewhere that sounded outside his body. A shot rang out and then another just as the walls slammed in around the car. “Daria!”

Jake appeared, pushing a limp Dawson out of the driver’s seat. He took the controls of the crusher, but it was already too late. Metal squealed as it compacted into an object nearly one-third the size of its original form.

There was another scream, harsh and loud and deafening that came from Kevin’s body. He felt the horror of what he’d just seen rip itself from his lungs and explode into the night as he fell to his knees.

“Oh, God,” he cried. “No, please, God. This isn’t happening.”

Kevin was vaguely aware of the sound of feet hitting the ground around him as he stared at the mangled metal, listening to the faraway sounds of
sirens and tires screeching to a halt. Somehow, after all the noise and destruction, the world had gotten eerily quiet except in his head. The noise there was too unbearable.

Kevin climbed to his feet and pushed forward, but was held back by force.

“No. Don’t do it,” Jake said. “You can’t do this to yourself.”

“I’ve got to help her,” Kevin cried. “She’s in there. Get out of my way.”

“She’s gone, Kev. If she was in that car, there is no way she could have possibly survived.”

“No, I have to get to her. What are you doing?” Kevin pushed against Jake until he stumbled. But his partner held on tight.

“I’m not letting you do this,” he said.

Tears streamed down Kevin’s cheeks, making it impossible to see Jake. But he heard the anguish in his partner’s voice and knew his words were true. Daria was gone. Unable to stand it, he collapsed back to the ground.

His whole body went numb and his arms felt so achingly empty.

He swallowed a sob, but it managed to break free. “I love her.” He loved Daria and now she was gone.

Swarms of police officers scurried around them, but Kevin didn’t care. He’d failed and lost the one person who’d meant the world to him.

Carlisle was on his feet, being ushered into the back of a police car. From somewhere near the crane, Kevin heard another officer shout that Dawson was dead of a gunshot wound. The cavalry
had
arrived. But it was too late to save his Daria.

Daria couldn’t think beyond the pain in her body. Her wrists ached from pulling at the ropes for so long. But when they’d finally slipped from her hands, she’d been able to open the car door enough to get out.

The fall from the car hadn’t seemed all that long until she was actually airborne. But what choice had she really had when looking back at the compacted steel blocks around her, knowing she was startlingly close to being crushed inside one of them?

She must have blacked out for a moment upon impact with the ground. She didn’t know for how long. All she knew now was that her face hurt as well as her shoulder and hips. Her body screamed at her to the point that she really didn’t want to open her eyes and move for the next hundred years. The cold from the snowbank she’d fallen into made her body shiver violently. But if not for the snow, the fall might have killed her.

Kevin’s tormented voice pealed into the dark night. “God, please! No.”

Relief washed over her and she could hardly hold back the choking sob that was lodged in her throat. She had to get to Kevin. But with each attempt to roll over, pain shot through her body.

“Kevin!” she called out weakly, wondering if he could hear her over all the commotion. The night sky flashed with blue-and-white lights, but inside her little corner of the yard, she lay undisturbed.

The soul-gutting sobs from Kevin broke her heart and had her wanting to cry out to him to tell him, no, she was not dead. But she couldn’t form the words. “I’m here,” she called in a weak voice.

A beam of light swept over her as she rolled to her side.

“I found her!” the officer yelled.

Within seconds, a flurry of activity overwhelmed her. It was Kevin’s face she searched for and finally saw come into view before she slipped into darkness.

Thank You, Lord,
was the only thing on Kevin’s mind as he held Daria. He couldn’t ever remember going from such utter terror to such complete joy in the span of seconds. He thought he’d lost Daria forever. And the thought of that had leveled him.

But his sweet Daria wasn’t dead at all. She was here and she was very much alive in his arms. His tears of rage transformed to tears of joy as he knelt beside her.

Jake was behind him. “The ambulance is on the way. Is she okay?”

“I don’t know,” Kevin said, carefully brushing the dirt from her face, afraid to touch her and wanting to blanket her in his arms. “She’s freezing. I need a blanket. But she’s alive. For now, that’s all that matters.”

Looking over his shoulder at the arm of the crane, Jake said, “Man, that fall alone could have killed her. It’s a good thing we had all this snow to cushion her fall.”

Kevin leaned down and brushed his lips against Daria’s scraped forehead in an effort to shut out the images colliding in his brain of what might have been. He only wanted to feel the relief that this nightmare would soon be over.

He rode with her in the ambulance to the hospital. She’d gone in and out of consciousness, calling his name.

“I’m right here,” he said.

“Thank You, God,” she whispered, drifting in and out of the haze.

She was going to be okay, the doctor had told Kevin after the initial examination. With those few tiny words, relief shot through him, quick and strong.

“Is she conscious? I need to see her,” Kevin said.

“Like I told your captain, she’s not ready to answer questions about what happened. If this can wait at all, I’d prefer you come back in the morning after she’s had a chance to sleep and get some of the fogginess out of her head.”

No, it definitely could not wait. He had to see with his own eyes that she was alive and was going to stay that way for a very long time. Kevin needed to hold Daria in his arms or else he was going to go mad.

“I won’t be long.”

The doctor sighed. “Only for a few minutes.”

This wasn’t police business. Kevin didn’t want to ask Daria anything more than for her to never leave him like that again. Ever.

He had realized pretty fast tonight that he was desperately in love with the woman. If he didn’t know it before, he knew it the moment he thought he’d lost her forever. God had answered his prayers in giving Daria the strength to get out of that car before it was crushed.

He pushed through the hospital-room door and found Daria lying on the bed and he knew the nightmare was really over. They could move beyond this and be just the two of them.

“How do you feel?” he said, pushing back the stray strand of hair that had fallen in her face.

“Sore. Those meds haven’t quite taken effect yet.”

“They will soon. No more pain, I promise.” And no more fear. He’d make sure of that.

She shook her head. “George is in jail now?”

“Yes. And he’s staying there. I’ve already spoken to the D.A. and Martha said with your testimonial and all the other evidence George thought he could use to prove his innocence, she’s sure she can get a conviction. If you hadn’t survived, he might have gotten away with it.”

“I didn’t know what to do when I saw him at the house. It all happened so fast.”

“If he hadn’t been there with Dawson, it would have been harder to prove they were working together. But your testimony and Ski’s will seal it.”

“Ski? I almost forgot. Is he…?”

“They weren’t sure at first, but he’s going to be fine. They took him into surgery to relieve the pressure on his brain from the blow to his head. But the doctor feels they got to him in time.”

“And the other man?”

“Terry Dawson? He’s dead. He was the one who’d been vandalizing your house. Not the kids in the neighborhood.”

“It’s a nice neighborhood then.”

“A great neighborhood to raise a family.”

Daria smiled, leaning her head against the pillow. “You know, the whole time I was in that car I kept thanking God that He brought you into my life. And I prayed that He’d give me the chance to see you again.”

“Then He answered both of our prayers.” Kevin kissed Daria’s hand. “I want you with me for the rest of my life, Daria. I want to marry you.”

A tear trickled down her cheek. “Nothing would make me happier. Even if I have to take Dramamine every day while we sail around the world.”

Kevin laughed and reached forward, kissing Daria on
the lips. “Well, maybe not ‘around’ the world. But a sail down the coast for our honeymoon might be nice.”

Daria sighed and closed her eyes, moving her head restlessly from side to side on the pillow. The meds were taking hold. Soon, she’d be asleep. And when she woke this time, she wouldn’t wake to her nightmare.

“Are you going to be here when I wake up?” she asked quietly.

“I’ll stay as long as you need me to.”

“I think I finally understand why my mother packed her bags and moved around the country with my father. When I was a kid, I thought it was so crazy. But Dad was her home. As long as they were together she had a home. She loved him as much as I love you.”

“I like hearing you say that.”

“I like saying it.”

“I love you, too,” he said softly in her ear. And then he kissed her and gazed into her eyes.

The smile that filled her eyes said it all. She was home.

Dear Reader,

Writing
Yuletide Protector
was exciting as well as challenging. My husband is a police officer and while he’s incredibly supportive of my writing, he doesn’t read my books. This was the first book that he and I really had a chance to work on together while I researched Kevin Gordon’s character. As I wrote the story, I’d come to a part where I needed police information and all I had to do was walk into the next room and he was there to have an hour-long discussion with me about what I was trying to do and whether it would work. I hope there are many more books we can work on together like that.

This book was a surprising challenge for me though. Most of the stories I write feature characters who have either strong faith, have lost faith or have drifted away from their relationship with God. I’ve never written a story about someone who had no relationship at all, good or bad, with the Lord.

I hemmed and hawed and struggled as I wrote Daria Carlisle’s story as she fell in love with her protector, Kevin Gordon, a devoted Christian who couldn’t allow himself to fall in love with a woman unless she shared his Christian faith. I’ll even admit I complained about my plight to my dear friend and fellow Love Inspired author Pamela Tracy, who in her wisdom told me to accept the challenge and that it’ll probably be the best book I’ve ever written.

Well, I’ll leave that to you readers to decide. But I will say that despite the challenge, writing this book required me to dig deeper into my own feelings about faith, solidifying for me why I’m a Christian. And for that I’ll always be happy that I wrote Daria Carlisle’s story. I hope you enjoy it, too.

I love hearing from readers. Please check out the
CRAFTIE
Ladies of Suspense blog at http://www.ladiesofsuspense.blogspot.com or write me at [email protected].

Many blessings,
Lisa Mondello

1. Sometimes there is a fine line between guiding and pushing someone. In
   Yuletide Protector,
   Kevin needs to walk that line. What does he do to help guide Daria in her faith journey without pushing her?
   
 

2. At first, Daria doesn’t believe that her ex-husband would hurt her, even after Kevin explained what he’d done. Have you ever known someone or known of someone who thought a person was harmless only to find out later that they were wrong?
   
 

3. Daria feels very alone and thinks that owning her house will make her feel grounded. Have you ever felt you had no one to turn to? How did you deal with it?
   
 

4. Daria had never known God in her life before she met Kevin. How did she come to know Christ and accept Him in her heart?
   
 

5. Kevin feels responsible for the fact that Daria’s ex-husband is not in jail. Do you think his feelings are justified?
   
 

6. Daria feels a strong attachment to the house she’s renovating. How do her feelings change as the story progresses? What does she learn about “home”?
   
 

7. Daria confesses to Kevin that she doesn’t know any prayers and he tells her that prayer is just a conversation with the Lord. What are your feelings about prayer?
   
 

8. Many people move throughout their lives, such as people in the military. How did moving so much affect Daria and her relationship with others?
   
 

9. Kevin and his family experienced tragedy when he was young. How did that affect him and his decision to be a police officer?
   
 

10. Kevin is so focused on George Carlisle’s quest to murder his ex-wife that he misses the fact that he was being used. Could he have seen this coming and done something differently?
    
 

11. In church communities it’s common to see neighbors reaching out to neighbors. What was different about Kevin’s approach to Daria’s neighbors than her own? Do you think it was a reflection of their personalities, their upbringings or part of his faith?
    
 

12. Have you ever known someone who has taken the same faith journey as Daria, going from being a nonbeliever to accepting Christ in their lives? How did this affect you?