Mountain Ambush

MARKED FOR MURDER

A search-and-rescue mission turns deadly when Dr. Kyle Spencer is nearly killed by an assailant in the mountains. And when EMT Maddie McBride saves the doctor just in time, they’re both targeted—but no one knows why. One thing’s clear, though—from the moment Maddie finds Echo Mountain’s most eligible bachelor left for dead, she can’t stop thinking about him. But she’s always been wary of the town’s Dr. Dreamboat. And Spence’s scarred heart’s been shuttered since a childhood tragedy. As someone stalks the injured doctor’s every move, though, Spence realizes that he needs the determined Maddie in his corner. However, he can’t be sure their partnership will be enough to save them...especially against a seemingly all-knowing foe who’s got them both in his deadly sights.

“Why am I in a room?”

“They’re keeping you overnight for observation.” She tapped her forefinger to her own forehead. “Concerned about the brain trauma.”

“I’m fine.”

“So you’ve said. If the MRI comes back clean, you’ll be good to go. I think it’s scheduled for tonight.”

Kyle felt bad for keeping her from her life.

“You should go.” That didn’t come out right, and the thought of her leaving him alone twisted his gut with fear. What was wrong with him? Maddie was nothing more than a paramedic he occasionally ran into at the hospital.

“Oh, so you’re dismissing me?” she said in a strange tone.

Had he offended her? “I meant you don’t have to stay and babysit me.”

“I came with you in the helicopter, so I’m waiting for a ride.” She redirected her attention to her phone.

Good to know that she wasn’t hovering at his bedside because she cared about him, that he’d have to worry about her developing feelings for a man who had no interest in love.

Love? He was surely suffering from brain trauma.

Dear Reader

Running away from problems can sometimes seem like the right thing to do, but it’s not necessarily the best choice. Feeling both joy and pain is part of the human experience.

Dr. Kyle “Spence” Spencer has been running most of his life, ever since he lost his brother in a tragic accident when they were kids. He shoulders the full responsibility of his brother’s death. Yet instead of processing his grief fully, he chooses to save as many lives as possible, and run when a situation gets too intense.

Maddie McBride has always cared so much for her family, and even hoped that her nurturing personality would keep her parents from splitting up and moving away, but it didn’t. No matter how much you care about people, you can’t control their choices. Maddie guards her heart, fearing a painful outcome of loving too fiercely.

Will Maddie’s love for Spence and promise of God’s forgiveness encourage Spence to stop running? And if he can’t stop running, will she be able to let go of her pain and open her heart to God’s healing?

Life isn’t always easy or simple. Relationships are complicated thanks to all the baggage we carry with us from our experiences. I hope you are able to process your experiences with love and then let them go. Holding on to guilt, shame or resentment only impedes our path to grace.

Wishing you peace on your journey,

Hope White

An eternal optimist, HOPE WHITE was born and raised in the Midwest. She and her college sweetheart have been married for thirty years and are blessed with two wonderful sons, two feisty cats and a bossy border collie. When not dreaming up inspirational tales, Hope enjoys hiking, sipping tea with friends and going to the movies. She loves to hear from readers, who can contact her at hopewhiteauthor@gmail.com.

Mountain Ambush

Hope White

www.millsandboon.co.uk

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

—Psalms 56:3

This book is dedicated to ER doctor Jim Keen, Fire Chief Chris Tubbs and Deputy Fire Chief Rich Burke for their help and patience.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

SIX

SEVEN

EIGHT

NINE

TEN

ELEVEN

TWELVE

THIRTEEN

FOURTEEN

FIFTEEN

SIXTEEN

Extract

Copyright

ONE

I’m going to die.

The text shot adrenaline through Dr. Kyle Spencer’s body. In less than a minute he’d packed his gear and was heading into the mountains.

Can’t make it down on my own.

Spence sprinted up the trail, his muscles burning from the strain of carrying the pack across his shoulders. He couldn’t think about that now, couldn’t be concerned about his own discomfort when Gwen Taylor was stranded in the mountains, cold, immobile and most likely terrified.

He had to get to her.

He’d read desperation in the teenager’s eyes when she’d been brought in with a drug overdose a few weeks ago. No matter how hard she’d tried to push people away, Spence’s gut told him she wanted help, she didn’t like using drugs and alcohol to manage her depression, and the overconsumption had been an accident.

Her last text message had confirmed his suspicions: I don’t want to die.

He’d given her his cell number in case she had any questions after she’d been released from the hospital. That wasn’t his usual practice, but he occasionally felt it necessary. Now he was glad he’d given it to Gwen.

Spence called to speak with her, calm her down, but she didn’t answer. Had she taken drugs with her into the mountains, planning to end her life, but changed her mind and had injured herself?

Wiping sweat from his forehead, he inhaled the crisp scent of mountain air and hoped the search-and-rescue team was close behind. He’d left a voice mail for his friend Police Chief Nate Walsh, alerting him to Gwen’s situation. He wasn’t sure how long it would take Search and Rescue to assemble, but Spence couldn’t wait for his team. Gwen could be seriously injured.

An image of his little brother sparked across his mind. His boots slipped on the wet ground and he skidded toward the edge of the trail. Arms flailing, he caught hold of a nearby tree branch and stopped his momentum. He paused and took a calming breath before continuing up the trail.

The memory of his brother’s injuries had disrupted Spence’s concentration. It had happened twenty years ago, yet felt like yesterday. He resented the distraction. He couldn’t let his personal failure affect his ability to save Gwen.

Helping people, saving lives, lessened the guilt about Bobby’s death. Maybe if he helped enough patients he’d be able to release the torturous thoughts that kept him up at night. And maybe, God willing, he’d find peace.

God willing? It was simply an expression. Spence didn’t believe in a God who could let his brother die at only eight years old.

A gust of wind shoved him against the mountainside but he held his ground, slowing down a bit to ease the resistance. Spence was no good to the team if he ended up needing to be rescued himself.

The sound of a woman’s scream echoed across the mountain range. He hesitated.

Listened.

The wind howled back at him.

Had he imagined it?

A second ear-piercing scream sent him into action, running uphill against the blustery wind. Hyper-focused, Spence controlled his breathing for maximum efficiency and sidestepped every rock and tree root popping up on the trail.

He rounded a corner and spotted Gwen flat on her back, motionless. Rushing to her side, he felt for a pulse. It was weak. Blood oozed from her scalp and her skin was cool and pale.

The first sixty minutes after a patient suffered a trauma were critical to her survival. That was why ER doctors called it the golden hour.

I don’t want to die.

Spence automatically did his ABCs: airway, breathing and circulation. Her breathing seemed labored, which meant an occluded airway and that intubation would be necessary.

He pulled out his phone to call for help. They’d need a helicopter rescue, no question.

Something smashed against the side of his head and he flew backward, hitting the ground. Spence struggled to make sense of what was happening. Firm hands grabbed his jacket collar and dragged him toward the edge of the trail.

And the steep drop down the mountainside.

Through the haze of a possible concussion, Spence wondered if his attacker was a drug dealer, one of Gwen’s troubled friends? Had he sold Gwen drugs she may have overused, and the criminal didn’t want to get caught and go to jail?

“I don’t care what you’ve done,” Spence said. “Just let me take care of Gwen.”

The guy pressed what felt like the barrel of a gun against the back of Spence’s head.

“You’re done taking care of people,” the man threatened, and continued dragging him across the hard ground.

Anger seared its way up Spence’s chest. This couldn’t be his last day on earth. He hadn’t saved enough lives, wasn’t anywhere close to earning redemption.

Spence fought off his attacker, reaching for the guy’s arm.

The man pistol-whipped him. Pain seared through Spence’s brain.

The ledge loomed closer...

“Listen to the sound of His glory,” a woman’s voice echoed.

Momentarily distracted, the assailant loosened his grip.

Spence grabbed his wrist and yanked hard. The attacker lost his balance, stumbled and fell to the ground.

The gun sprang from his hand.

Spence dived on top of him and pulled his arms behind his back, wishing he had something to bind his wrists.

A gasping sound drew his attention to Gwen. Her airway was closing up. Not good. He had to get to her before she stopped breathing altogether.

The attacker swung his fist backward and nailed Spence in the jaw. The guy scrambled out from under him, jumped to his feet and began kicking Spence in the ribs.

Spence rolled, hoping to get to the gun before the attacker did. But his head snapped back and slammed against a rock. More stars sparked across his vision.

A shot rang out.

This was it. The end.

Yet Spence didn’t feel the burn of a bullet ripping through his flesh.

He didn’t feel much of anything as he stared up at the gray sky.

I’m coming, Bobby. I’m coming...

* * *

“Freeze!” Maddie McBride ordered the attacker.

Maddie obviously knew her way around a gun better than this birdbrain who was kicking the stuffing out of Dr. Dreamboat.

As she aimed the weapon at the attacker’s back, she heard her father’s voice from childhood: never aim a gun at something you aren’t prepared to destroy.

Well, this might be the day she destroyed another human being. Not something she wanted to do, but she might not have a choice. Her priority was to save the doc and the injured female on the ground.

The guy stood very still for a few seconds, and then kicked the doc again.

“I said freeze, turkey, or the next one’s going in your back.”

He slowly turned, and she swallowed a ball of fear knotting in her throat. Talk about creepy-looking. The guy wore a black face mask that covered everything but his dark gray eyes. More like black—they looked black as coal.

“Not another step,” she said, but even Maddie could see her hands were trembling from the adrenaline rush.

“You wouldn’t shoot me.” He took a step toward her.

Maddie fired off a round at his feet, coming dangerously close to taking off his big toe in those ridiculous blue sneakers.

He jumped back, his eyes darkening even more.

She didn’t have the patience for this, she really didn’t. She’d been on a hike, saw the text go out, and decided to stop by and offer medical assistance.

Things got a lot more complicated.

“Down on your knees,” she said. “Interlace your hands behind your head.”

She calmed her breathing. If he lunged at her, she’d have to shoot him. Time froze in those few seconds.

She thought a smile curled his lips.

Her finger braced against the trigger.

Then he spun around and took off.

“Hey! Get back here!” She fired a shot into the air.

The guy instinctively ducked, and tripped. He hit the ground, rolling...

Over the edge of the trail into the abyss below.

She rushed to the edge and looked down into the lush green forest. There was no sign of him or any movement at all. Great, now they’d have to send a second team to rescue that jerk.

At least he was no longer a threat and she could concentrate on the injured doc and unconscious female. Maddie engaged the safety and shoved the gun into her waistband.

“Hey, Doc, you okay?” She knelt beside him.

He blinked and looked up at her. His eyes were bloodshot and glassy. He struggled to sit up.

“Whoa, whoa, take it easy.”

He waved her off and sat up, shaking his head as if to clear the cobwebs. Glancing beyond her he said, “You shot him?”

“Yeah, I shot him,” she quipped, then read his worried expression. “Doc, I’m kidding.”

He didn’t look convinced.

“I fired to get his attention and he fell off the trail.” She handed him the gun. “Hang on to this in case he comes back.”

His eyes widened as he stared at the gun.

“Or maybe not.” She tucked the gun back into her waistband and shucked her backpack.

“You shot at him?” Dr. Spencer was frowning at her. Really? She’d saved his life and he was judging her for discharging the weapon?

“What’s the status of the victim?” Shoving his judgment aside, she went to the female lying motionless on the ground. “Hang on, I know this girl.” As a paramedic, Maddie and her partner Rocky had rushed this girl to the hospital for a drug overdose a few weeks ago. “This is—”

“Gwen,” he offered.

“What have we got, forty, forty-five minutes left?”

She glanced at Dr. Spencer for confirmation. He was looking around as if trying to figure out how he’d ended up out here. Oh boy, maybe it wasn’t judgment she’d read in his eyes a moment ago as much as confusion. Could Dr. Dreamboat be suffering from a head injury courtesy of the masked creep?

She clicked on her small flashlight and checked his pupils. The man had the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. “Do you know where you are, Dr. Spencer?”

“Of course I do. I’m fine.” He batted her hand away and went to Gwen, as if Maddie’s offensive question had snapped him into action.

Good. He was okay. He had to be okay so he could help her treat Gwen.

Dr. Dreamboat, as the ladies in town called him, was not only a skilled doc but he had a charming bedside manner that made young women, old women, pretty much all women line up to date him.

Not Maddie. She wasn’t buying Dr. Spencer’s smooth charm and overconfidence. No one was that perfect. Besides, Echo Mountain was a temporary stop for the cosmopolitan doc, and she belonged here, with her friends and family.

“You need to keep her head steady,” he said.

“Are you sure—?”

“Occluded airway. I don’t see a better option.”

Maddie was about to offer to take over, but the doctor seemed suddenly confident about doing an intubation in the middle of a national forest with a heavy wind swirling around them. Maddie positioned Gwen’s head just right.

“Ready?” he said, making eye contact.

“Are you?” she said.

The doctor ignored her question and used a laryngoscope to hold the tongue aside while inserting the endotracheal tube. Done properly, this would allow air to pass to and from the lungs.

Maddie realized she was holding her breath. It seemed like it was taking forever.

“I think...” His voice trailed off.

Gwen’s skin suddenly looked better, pinker, and her chest began to rise and fall.

“Whoa, what happened?” a man said.

Maddie recognized her cousin Aiden’s voice behind her but she remained focused on the patient. Although employed as Echo Mountain Resort Manager, Aiden also volunteered for search and rescue. Boy was she glad SAR had officially arrived.

“Spence?” Aiden said.

“Occluded airway. Had to intubate,” Dr. Spencer said. “We need...” He hesitated before saying, “A helicopter.”

“I’m on it.” Aiden called it in.

Maddie studied the doctor. He seemed a little off and not acting like his usual charming self.

“Someone needs to monitor her pulse and...” He glanced at Maddie.

Her breath caught in her throat at the confused look in his eyes.

“Bag her,” Maddie offered.

“Yes, bag her,” Dr. Spencer said.

SAR volunteer Luke Marshall knelt and monitored Gwen’s pulse, while local firefighter Sam Treadwell helped her breathe using the vinyl bag.

“Helicopter is on the way, Doc,” Aiden said. “Why does Maddie have a gun in her jeans?”

Dr. Spencer glanced at Maddie as if he wasn’t sure.

“A guy in a black ski mask attacked Dr. Spencer,” Maddie started, hoping the doc would join in. He didn’t, so she continued, not taking her eyes off him. “I got the guy’s gun and he ran. Fell off the trail over there.” She pointed. “They’ll want to send another search team, with police officers.”

“Why’d he attack you, Spence?” Aiden asked.

The doctor shot him a confused look. Maddie’s skin pricked with goosebumps.

“That’s the twelve-thousand-dollar question,” Maddie recovered. She felt protective of the doc, probably because she owed him a debt of gratitude for protecting her cousin Cassie last year from mob thugs.

“What are you doing out here?” Aiden asked Maddie.

“I was hiking and saw the text. The guy was crazed, Aiden, beating Dr. Spencer like they were mortal enemies.”

Aiden narrowed his eyes at the doctor, who was also a good friend. “Who was he, Spence?”

“I,” Dr. Spencer started. “It doesn’t matter. We need to focus on getting Gwen to the hospital.” He stood and wavered.

Maddie jumped to her feet. She and Aiden caught him as he went down. Kneeling beside the unconscious doctor, she took his pulse.

She glanced up at her cousin. “It’s too slow. We need to get him to a hospital!”

TWO

“Bobby!” Spence peered over the edge onto the cliff below. His younger brother’s body lay motionless, his eyes closed. Spence had to get to him, but he had to get help.

Spence glanced down the trail. No, he couldn’t abandon his brother.

“Help!” Spence shouted. “Somebody help!” His voice echoed back at him.

The wind whistled through the dense forest. He didn’t know what to do.

“You know what your most important job is in the whole world? Take care of your baby brother,” his mom said on a weekly basis. Bobby was a trouble magnet, everyone knew it. But still...

Spence shifted onto his stomach hoping to climb down to the ledge where his brother had landed. With a solid hold of a tree branch, he lowered his left foot to a knot in the mountain wall.

The branch snapped.

And he fell the remaining ten feet onto his back. The wind knocked from his lungs, he struggled to breathe as he stared up at the pine and cedar trees filling his line of vision. He forced himself to breathe, rolled onto his hands and knees and looked at his brother.

“Bobby?” he gasped.

He hadn’t a clue what to do, how to help him. What had he seen on that medical show Mom always watched? Spence tipped Bobby’s head back to keep him from swallowing his tongue. He grabbed his brother’s wrist and felt for a pulse.

“Where is it?” he muttered, trying the other wrist.

Panic coiled in his gut.

“Bobby! Wake up!”

* * *

“Wake up!”

Spence gasped and opened his eyes, struggling to get his bearings. The lush trees and whistling wind were gone.

His brother...

Was gone.

A ball of pain knotted in his throat.

“Breathe,” a woman said.

He blinked, and Maddie McBride’s round face framed with rich auburn hair came into focus. She offered an encouraging nod and squeezed his shoulder.

He glanced past her and realized he was in a hospital room, but he wasn’t the attending physician. He was the patient.

“You’re okay,” she said.

There was something in her voice that didn’t sound so sure. Her green eyes studied him with concern.

“Who’s Bobby?” she asked.

Right, he’d been sucked down into the childhood nightmare. He shook his head and closed his eyes, hoping she’d leave him alone with his shame.

“Are you in pain? Want me to call the nurse?”

“No and absolutely not.” His response was more clipped than he’d intended, but he didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to be a patient.

“Okay then,” she said with that same note of sarcasm she’d used in the mountains. “Do you remember how you got here?”

“I...” He shook his head. Had they carried him down?

“What’s the last thing you do remember?”

“Some guy assaulted me. Then you—” He opened his eyes. “You shot him?”

“No, I fired off a round to make a point. And—” she paused before continuing “—you’re welcome.”

He must have looked puzzled.

“For saving your life?” she prompted.

He nodded. It all seemed so unreal.

“How’s Gwen?” he asked.

“Much better. Breathing on her own. You did good work out there, especially considering your condition.”

“My condition?”

“Yeah, your brain trauma,” she said as if it was the obvious answer. “Intubating with a concussion? Gutsy.”

She started to slip her hand off his shoulder and he caught it in his own. He wasn’t sure why, but the feel of her warm skin eased the panic in his chest. Her bright green eyes widened and her head tipped slightly.

“I... I think...” He struggled for the right words, wanting to thank her for coming along when she did, and for being here to wake him from the torturous dream.

A knowing smile eased across her lips. “How about I get you some water?”

She slipped her hand from beneath his palm and took the plastic pitcher to the sink. He sensed she knew that he struggled to find words, to make sense of the thoughts jumbling around in his brain.

Man, his head hurt. Maybe he should call for the nurse. No, the last thing he wanted was for hospital staff to think of him as broken and unable to do his job. He needed to appear strong, even if he felt weak. He wanted respect, not pity from his peers.

“What happened to the man you shot?” he asked.

“Shot at,” she corrected, walking back to the bed. “They’re still searching for him.” She handed him a cup of water. “Chief Walsh said when they find him they’ll charge him with assault and question him about what happened to Gwen.”

“She texted me, wanting my help, but I assumed she was alone.”

Maddie’s brow furrowed. “Poor kid. She seemed so lost when we brought her in.”