PRIME SUSPECT
Mia Sandoval’s friend is murdered under mysterious circumstances—and the single mother is a suspect. Her only ally is a man she isn’t sure she can trust. Search and rescue worker Dallas Black has a past as harrowing as Mia’s own, and the police are suspicious of them both. With no choice but to work with secretive Dallas, Mia discovers he’s as complicated as the murder they’re forced to investigate to clear her name. Yet as a flood ravages their small Colorado town, a killer is determined that Mia, Dallas and their evidence get swept away to a watery grave.
Stormswept: Finding true love in the midst of nature’s fury
Hands shaking, Mia sprayed the water vigorously, but there was simply not enough flow to combat the hungry fire.
She retreated to the front porch, skin stinging from the poisonous air.
Dallas appeared at the upstairs window. He shouted something to Mia, but she could not understand. The fire was nearly upon her, heat scalded her face and hands, smoke filling her lungs. She backed farther away, praying the fire engine would arrive soon to douse the flames.
Finally, Dallas came out carrying Cora and led her away from the burning house.
Mia put her mouth to the woman’s cheek, praying for a reassuring puff of air. Panic swirled through her veins as she felt nothing at all. Starting CPR, she pressed her hands to Cora’s chest.
“Come on, Cora,” she said. “You’re not going to leave me now.”
Dallas dropped to his knees and performed the rescue breaths at the end of her compression cycles. After a full minute, Dallas checked her pulse.
He shook his head.
Tears trickled down Mia’s cheeks as she began the next cycle.
DANA MENTINK
is an award-winning author of Christian fiction. Her novel Betrayal in the Badlands won a 2010 RT Reviewer’s Choice Award, and she was pleased to win the 2013 Carol Award for Lost Legacy. She has authored more than a dozen Love Inspired Suspense novels. Dana loves feedback from her readers. Contact her via her website at www.danamentink.com.
Flood Zone
Dana Mentink
MILLS & BOON
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Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
and he will show you which path to take.
—Proverbs 3:5–6
To my Mike, who is always there through the floods.
Contents
ONE
Forget meeting tonight. Must speak to you and Dallas now. URGENT.
Mia risked another peek at the cell phone screen as she guided her battered Toyota up the steep mountain grade to Cora’s country house just after six in the evening. She’d thought Cora’s proposed after-hours meeting at the medical clinic where they both worked was odd in the first place. Now the message to cancel. Stranger still. But Cora had been acting oddly, excusing herself to take phone calls, peeping into file folders squirreled away in her desk for weeks. On this particular day, Cora had left at lunch time. Strange.
Her gaze darted to the rearview mirror. Dallas Black drove his truck behind her. Something about the tall, tousle-headed rebel made her stomach flip, no matter how sternly she chided herself.
Look what the last dark-eyed charmer did to you, Mia.
Stuffing that uncomfortable thought back down into the secret place where she kept all her worries, Mia focused on navigating the winding, wet road, finally pulling onto Cora’s graveled drive. Dallas got out, long and lean in jeans and a T-shirt, a couple of months overdue for a haircut. Somehow, the hair spidering across his face suited him, refusing to play nicely.
She knew he’d finished patching Cora’s