❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅
'Kidnapped in the Woods' (Love Inspired Suspense)
by Deena Alexander
❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅
About 'Kidnapped in the Woods'
To solve a kidnapping case they’ll become the hunted.
Firefighter Pat Ryan is stunned when he hears gunfire and two strangers crash through his door. An anonymous tip led journalist Rachel Davenport to a ramshackle cabin, where she helped an abducted teen escape. With Pat and his K-9 rescue dog’s help, they go on the run with deadly kidnappers in pursuit. But with innocent lives at stake, Rachel and Pat must battle foes and fears to live through the night.
From Love Inspired Suspense: Courage. Danger. Faith.
❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅
EXCERPT:
Creeping around the dilapidated shack in the woods bordering the Great South Bay in the middle of the night with a blizzard on the way and no backup was downright foolish. She never should have agreed to it. Wouldn’t have, if the request hadn’t come from Shannon, a frightened fifteen-year-old runaway Rachel had interviewed for a humanitarian piece about homeless teenagers a year ago. She’d connected with the young girl and given her a business card with instructions to call if she ever wanted help. Knowing how fearful Shannon was of authority, Rachel hadn’t expected to hear from her, but she must have done something to earn the girl’s trust since she kept the card and had finally reached out, her harsh whisper trembling.
Rachel checked her watch. Could it really have been less than an hour ago that Shannon had called, terrified for her missing friend—whom she’d referred to only as Jane, though Rachel had no clue if that was her real identity?
Although Rachel’s first concern at the moment had to be for Jane, whose life was in immediate danger, she couldn’t help fearing for Shannon’s safety as well. If her current boyfriend—for lack of a better term for the loser she’d hooked up with—found out she’d overheard his conversation and relayed the information to Rachel, there was no doubt in Rachel’s mind that Shannon would turn up missing as well. And if Shannon’s information was accurate, which Rachel had no reason to doubt, her boyfriend, Alec, should be showing up anytime now with a more than likely unconscious Jane in tow ready to be sold to the highest bidder. But if Rachel intervened, and the men involved looked for the leak, it wouldn’t be too difficult for Alec to figure out Shannon had been eavesdropping.
So, Rachel did exactly as Shannon instructed, even forgoing calling the police at her insistence. Though she’d only agreed to that because Shannon wouldn’t give her the information unless she did. Besides, even if there had been time, which there wasn’t, and even if she was sure of Shannon’s information, which she couldn’t be, it’s not like the police hadn’t failed Rachel in the past.
And now, Rachel Davenport was in trouble. Big trouble.
Sweat dripped down Rachel’s back, despite the freezing temperature, as she crouched behind a skimpy bunch of branches and twigs that during summer months might have been a bush and actually offered some cover. As it was, if either of the two armed men dragging the slumped teenage girl toward the shack door glanced in her direction, they’d surely spot her and open fire.
Rachel sank lower, hoping the cover of darkness would be enough to shield her presence. She had to make an impossible choice. Risk being caught by turning on her cell phone to check for service and call for help, or chance losing the sixteen-year-old girl the men were currently hauling into the shack to backtrack through the woods and call the police from a safer distance.
The girl’s head lolled forward. Scraggly long brown hair hung in limp strands covering her face, so Rachel couldn’t tell if she was conscious or not. Although the girl was unusually thin, there was no way Rachel could carry her more than a mile back to where she’d parked the car, even if she could find a way to rescue her.
The low rumble of an approaching engine took the decision out of her hands. Once Jane was sold and disappeared, most likely on the approaching boat, there would be no way to find her again. Rachel already shouldered the responsibility for one girl’s disappearance and ultimate death—no way she’d live with the guilt of failing another.
After dumping Jane inside the shack, the two men took up positions on either side of the open door and stood guard, eyes trained on the boat slowing down to dock.
Okay. It was now or never. She couldn’t afford to wait any longer, and she didn’t have time to go for help. At the moment, there were only two men to deal with. If she waited for the boat to dock, she had no clue how many there’d be. And she didn’t plan on hanging around to find out.
She inhaled deeply, the fresh clean scent of the coming storm a reminder she needed to get the girl out of there quickly, and patted the handgun weighing heavily in the holster on her hip to reassure herself it was there—the weapon she always carried for personal protection since her work sometimes put her in dangerous situations, the weapon she’d diligently practiced with on the range but had never fired at another living being. Hopefully, that wasn’t about to change. If she could even manage to grip the gun in her frozen fingers, never mind pull the trigger. Keeping the weapon holstered, she inched forward in a crouch, wincing at the crunch of the brittle, frozen leaves carpeting the ground.
One of the men glanced toward her.
She held her breath and lowered her face, willing herself invisible.
He continued to scan the area for a moment, then returned his attention to the boat with at least two men on board.
The breath shot from her burning lungs, and she lowered herself to the ground, lying flat on her stomach. As stealthily as possible, she crept forward, resisting the urge to move faster.
Half the boards on the shack’s walls had rotted away, and most of the windows were broken. If she could circle around the back of the building, she might be able to get to the girl and get her out without being seen. How she’d get her from the shack back to the dirt road where she’d parked the car, she had no idea. But she’d cross that bridge when she came to it. If she came to it.
Trying to stay completely quiet, she inched forward. She took shallow breaths, wishing there was something she could do about the puff of vapor that accompanied each exhale. The odor of mold, dirt and dried leaves tickled her nose as she belly-crawled toward the side of the building, keeping her head low, resisting the overwhelming urge to sneeze.
The instant she was out of view of the guards, she sat up and scooted her back against the shack’s side wall, then paused to take a few deep breaths of the frigid air. Between her heart hammering against her ribs and the lungful of ice-cold air, her chest ached.
The sound of the engine grew louder.
As she peeked around the corner, a light shone across the front of the shack from the bay, illuminating the guards.
They started across the clearing toward the dock, their attention drawn away from her.
Knowing it might be her last chance, Rachel shoved herself to her feet and bolted around the back and onto a rotting deck. A broken sliding door allowed a view through the interior of the shack and out the front windows. She tried the door. Locked. She reached in through the broken glass, fumbled around for the latch and released the lock. With a clock ticking away in her head, she yanked her arm out too quickly, slicing the back of her hand.
She almost cried out, caught herself just in time and hissed a few breaths through her teeth. The door didn’t slide open easily, but she managed to wrestle it open far enough to squeeze through, wincing when it squeaked. Thankfully, the guards had walked far enough toward the dock, and the wind had picked up enough to cover the sound. Rachel called out in a harsh whisper. “Jane.”
The wind carried the sound of men’s raised voices to her. They were coming back. She was out of time.
❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅
A fast-paced thrill ride filled with deceit, courage, and compassion . . .
This heart-pounding inspirational romantic suspense novel is filled with engaging characters—human and canine—and kept my attention from the beginning to the dramatic ending.
Deena Alexander is a skilled author who builds a strong foundation for her stories with her descriptive passages about the setting and the characters. The male lead in this plot, Pat Ryan, is a firefighter who has been hiding out from the world in his uncle's remote cabin. When journalist Rachel Davenport and a teen girl literally crash through his front door, he does not hesitate to assist them. I enjoyed the addition of Pat's search and rescue canine, Shadow, to the cast.
The three characters face numerous encounters with their pursuers and sometimes it seems they are losing more ground than they are making in their efforts to flee the villains. Their dedication to protecting the victim and escaping with their lives ignites Pat's and Rachel's previously shaky faith.
Fans of this genre will relish the rich action scenes and dialogue this author provides to her readers. The story is completely clean in language and content.
I received a copy of this book from the author through Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours. All of my opinions and thoughts shared here are solely my own.
About Deena Alexander
Publishers Weekly bestselling author, Deena Alexander grew up in a small town on the south shore of eastern Long Island, where she met and married her high school sweetheart. She recently relocated to Florida with her husband, three kids, a son-in-law, and four dogs. Now she enjoys long walks in nature all year long, despite the occasional alligator or snake she sometimes encounters. Deena's love for writing developed when her youngest son was born and didn't sleep through the night, and she now works full-time as a writer and a freelance editor.
❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅
PURCHASE LINKS: Amazon B&N Kobo Harlequin
❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅❄🔦🐕🐾💓❆❅
Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?
Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today!
I liked the excerpt.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rita! I'm so happy you enjoyed it. :)
DeleteThank you so much for such a wonderful review! I'm so happy you enjoyed it. :) And thank you for sharing the release of Kidnapped in the Woods!
ReplyDeleteThank You for sharing Love the cover of the book sounds like such a great book!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book! Deff wanna read added to my tbr!
ReplyDelete