Private Eye Protector (Heroes for Hire, 5) - Softcover

McCoy, Shirlee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0373674856 ISBN 13: 9780373674855

Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense Larger Print, 2011

Synopsis

After an accident, single mother Rayne Sampson loses her recent memories. Thankfully, her sweet baby girl is front and center in her mind—but so is the terrifying image of a dangerous man. Someone with terrible intent is after her. Private investigator Chance Richardson assures her she's safe. But when her life—and baby—are threatened, the handsome former army chaplain vows to catch the stalker...all while keeping his heart guarded. Until a predator's ultimate betrayal changes everything forever.

About this title

About the Author:

SHIRLEE McCOY 

began writing her first novel when she was a teenager. A busy mother of five, Shirlee is a homeschooling mom by day and an inspirational author by night. She and her husband and children live in the Pacific Northwest and share their house with a dog, two cats and a bird. You can visit her website, www.shirleemccoy.com, or email her at shirlee@shirleemccoy.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:

Someone stood in the open door of the room, his silence more compelling than the steady beep of machinery, more alarming than the agonizing pain that had tugged Rayne Sampson from the velvety darkness she'd floated in for..

How long?

She didn't know.

Had no sense of time passing.

She shifted, the mechanized beep jumping with her pulse. Pain.

In her head. Her joints.

Someone watching. Time stalling. Nothing moving. Not Rayne. Not the figure standing near the door.

Get up. Find Emma.

The command shot through her pain-racked head, and she swung her legs over the bed, trying desperately to figure out where she was, how she'd gotten there.

Where her daughter was.

Emma!

She had to find her, couldn't fail her.

You don't have what it takes to be a mother, Rayne. You're too young. You need to grow up a little, be a wife first. Be my wife. Just like we planned.

Michael's words drifted through her mind, filling her head so that it pounded even harder, throbbed more insistently.

When had he said those things?

A week ago? A month ago?

She had no sense of time passing, and her heart thundered with the knowledge.

"Where's my daughter?" she asked the man who watched, but the doorway was empty, the hall beyond brightly lit. The sound of footsteps and voices drifted into the room. People chatting and laughing, the sounds echoing through Rayne's pounding skull.

Get up!

She pushed to her feet, nearly tripping over an IV pole. A hospital.

She was in a hospital.

But she had no idea how she'd gotten there. No memory of an accident or an injury.

"Where's Emma?" she spoke out loud, trying desperately to cling to the thought as darkness edged in and the floor slid away.

Cold sweat beaded her brow, her limbs trembling as she tried to hold on to consciousness.

You don't have what it takes to be a mother.

"You're wrong," she muttered—not sure if she was in the moment or in the past—her voice raspy, her thoughts fuzzy.

Find her.

She took a step and fell into darkness. Emma!

The name speared through the darkness, and she jerked back to the room, the endless mechanized beeping. The pain.

Overwhelming, mind-searing pain. Cold tiles seeped through cotton and chilled her to the bone. On the floor, but she didn't know how she'd gotten there.

Footsteps sounded on tile. Close. Coming closer.

The man returning?

She struggled to her hands and knees.

Get up.

Find Emma. Hurry.

But, her movements were sluggish and uncoordinated, her efforts futile.

"Rayne? What are you doing?" A voice drifted into the darkness, light splashing across the floor, splashing into her eyes and blinding her, making her turn her head to the side, away from the glare.

She blinked, focused.

Boot-clad feet just inches away.

Hands wrapped around her waist, eased her to her feet.

Warm breath against her cheek, and she was being lifted off the ground, the machine beeping, her ear pressed against something warm and solid.

She let her eyes slide shut, relaxing against the touch that felt so safe.

Someone brushed strands of hair from her cheek.

Her brother or father?

Michael?

Couldn't be Michael. She'd given back the ring, broken things off.

"Dad? Jonas?" She wanted to open her eyes, tried to open them, but they felt so heavy.

"Chance."

She forced her eyes open, looked into a stranger's face. Dark hair, high cheekbones, pale eyes. She knew those eyes. Didn't she? "Who are you?"

"Chance Richardson." He frowned, pressed a button on the bed rail. "We work for the same company. You rent an apartment from my mother. Don't you remember?"

Did she remember?

She tried to pull the information from her mind, found nothing but emptiness and a cold, hard kernel of fear. "I live in Arizona. I work for a women's shelter in Phoenix."

"Do you know what day it is, Rayne?" He looked into her eyes, searching for something, but she had nothing to give. His eyes shimmered blue or green or gray, and she was sure she'd looked in them before.

When? Where?

"I...No."

"Do you know what city you're in?"

A memory surfaced. Packing the U-Haul, strapping Emma into her car seat, leaving everything she knew to take a new job in a new place. "I remember packing to leave. That's it."

"Do you know where you are?" He pressed the button on the bed rail again, and she knew he was summoning a nurse. A nurse couldn't help, though. All that could help was remembering, and that seemed to be impossible.

"The hospital."

"Do you remember how you got here?"

"No."

"You were in an accident," he said, as if he hoped it would spark a memory.

All it sparked was terror.

Emma!

"Where's my daughter?" Rayne tried to sit up, but Chance pressed her back.

"She's fine. She wasn't in the car with you."

"Thank God." She closed her eyes, the prayer swirling through her mind again and again and again.

"He was definitely looking out for both of you. Do you remember what happened?"

No, and that terrified her.

She tried to respond, but her thoughts were clumsy, her eyelids leaden.

"Do you remember the accident, Rayne?" he persisted, pulling her from the edge of sleep.

She scowled, wondering if she knew him well enough to tell him to go away and leave her alone. Not to ask any more questions, because every question she couldn't answer only added to her fear.

"Do you know how it happened? Where it happened?"

"In my car?" There. Finally something she could answer.

"Funny, Goldilocks, but that's not what I mean, and you know it."

"I wasn't trying to be funny, and my hair isn't gold, it's platinum."

"Looks gold to me. Do you know what town you're in?" That she could answer, too.

She'd left Phoenix to work in Spokane, Washington. If Chance was her coworker, she must be there.

"Spokane, but I'm tired of playing twenty questions, so let's stop for a while, okay?" She opened her eyes, looked into his gray-blue gaze.

Eyes she knew but didn't know.

The world spun, and she spun with it, falling back into darkness so quickly she thought she might never escape it. She reached out, grabbed something warm and solid. His hand.

Calloused and rough and oddly familiar.

She knew his eyes, and she knew him, but she had no memory of meeting him, no knowledge of their shared history. How far back did that history go? How much time had passed since her last memory?

Was Emma still a baby?

Had she grown into a toddler?

Something more?

Terrified, she sat up, stars shooting in front of her eyes.

"I need to see my daughter." The frantic edge to her voice matched her racing pulse and the frenzied beep of the machine.

"Calm down, Rayne. Emma is fine. My mom was babysitting her while you worked, and she's still taking care of her." Chance pressed a palm to her cheek, forced her to look into his eyes.

Calm.

Confident.

Not panicked at all.

Then again, he wasn't the one with amnesia.

"Is everything okay in here?" A nurse walked into the room, her dark eyes widening as she saw Rayne. "You're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Aside from having a splitting headache and amnesia? Okay."

"Amnesia? The nurse looked at chance, and he nodded.

"She seems to be missing her recent memories. No idea what day it is, no memory of the accident. She doesn't seem to remember me or the area."

"She's sitting right here, and she can speak for herself," Rayne grumbled, but throbbing pain stole the heat from her words, and she really didn't have the strength to add to what he'd said.

Besides, what would she add?

He'd said it all.

All her recent memories were gone. Trying to find them was like searching through a sea of nothingness.

"I'll page the attending physician. He'll want to ask you a few questions, Rayne. In the meantime, on a scale of one to ten, what's your pain level?"

"Seven." But, compared to her fear and confusion, that was negligible.

She wanted to remember everything. Wanted it with a desperation that made her physically ill.

"When the doctor comes in, we'll see if you can take something for that."

"I don't need anything for the pain. All I want is to go home and see my daughter." Only she didn't know where home was. Didn't know where her daughter was.

Being a parent is a big responsibility. Let someone else take it on. Someone who really wants a baby.

Michael spoke from the past, and Rayne realized she'd closed her eyes, was drifting on waves of distant memories.

Or maybe not so distant.

"What day is it? What's the date?" she asked.

"Friday, November 28th, 2011." Chance answered, smoothing a lock of hair from her forehead.

She'd left Phoenix at the beginning of October. That meant she'd lost nearly two months of her life. Two months of Emma's life.

Better than the alternative. Better than years or decades.

"I need to see Emma." She sat up, ignoring the nurse's protest, ignoring Chance's hand pressed to her shoulder. Michael had been wrong.

Everything he'd said, everything he'd believed about her ability to parent Chandra's baby had been wrong.

Rayne had spent the past eight months proving that.

She wouldn't fail now. Wouldn't leave her baby with a complete stranger.

"Do you really think you're going to do her any good in the condition you're in?"

"I'll do her a lot more good if I'm with her than if I'm away from her."

"My mother has been her babysitter since you moved into the apartment. She and Emma will do just fine together. All you need to worry about is getting...

About this edition

• Publisher: Love Inspired Suspense Larger Print
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0373674856
• ISBN 13: 9780373674855
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 288