Maybe It's You (Crisis Team)

Maybe It's You (Crisis Team)

ER nurse Sloane Ferrell escaped her risky past―new name, zip code, job, and a fresh start. She’s finally safe, if she avoids a paper trail and doesn’t let people get too close. Like the hospital’s too-smooth marketing man with his relentless campaign to plaster one “lucky” employee’s face on freeway billboards. Micah Prescott’s goal is to improve the Hope hospital image, but his role as a volunteer crisis responder is closer to his heart. The selfless work helps fill a void in his life left by family tragedy. So does a tentative new relationship with the compassionate, beautiful, and elusive Sloane Ferrell. Then a string of brutal crimes makes headlines, summons responders . . . and exposes disturbing details of Sloane’s past. Can hope spring from crisis? Changing her name and moving to a new city, emergency room nurse Sloane ¬Ferrell hopes to put her dark past behind her with a new start at Los Angeles’s Hope Hospital. Enter Micah Prescott, a marketing consultant seeking to find “the face of LA Hope” for his new campaign, and he believes Sloane is it. The two clash immediately, as Sloane wants to stay out of the spotlight. Then a string of violent crimes threaten to expose Sloane, and a relentless reporter is hoping for a big scoop. Adding to her anxiety is her growing attraction to Micah. VERDICT: This third installment in Calvert’s “Crisis Team” series (after Step by Step ; By Your Side ) features fully rounded characters, medical drama, and plenty of suspense. Calvert’s former career as an ER nurse lends authenticity, and her themes of God’s grace, forgiveness, and redemption will inspire readers seeking spiritual ¬encouragement. Library Journal ER nurse Calvert (the Crisis Team series) intertwines a mob drama with the frenzy of a hospital emergency room in this explosive page-turner. . . . Calvert adeptly intertwines drama, passion, hope, and her medical expertise to deliver a suspenseful tale that will leave readers guessing until the end. Publishers Weekly Maybe It's You By Candace Calvert, Sarah Mason Rische Tyndale House Publishers Copyright © 2017 Candace Calvert All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4143-9036-9 CHAPTER 1 "Your relation to the inmate?" Sloane Ferrell's stomach tensed. "He's my stepfather," she confirmed, lips brushing her cell phone in a whisper. "It was ... manslaughter." She glanced past a grouping of palm trees toward the peach stucco entrance to Los Angeles Hope hospital's emergency department. Would she ever stop peering over her shoulder — watching her back? This past year it had felt as necessary as breathing and was the biggest part of why she'd left San Diego. New zip code, new living space, new job ... a paper trail painstakingly shredded. She'd done all that, and thankfully, the last few months had been uneventful. Right now Sloane was simply concerned that a fellow ER nurse would join her at any moment. She'd said something about taking their break together. This return call from California State Prison couldn't have come at a more awkward — "We don't have you listed," the office assistant announced. Her tone was as friendly as the slam of a cell door. "It had to be arranged in advance and approved." "I did that — and I was," Sloane insisted over the distant whine-hum of saws; preliminary work had begun on the new hospital wing. "I was promised a chance to speak at the parole hearing. My name has to be on the list. Could you check again?" "Hang on." Sloane closed her eyes and let the late September sun warm her face, a light breeze sifting strands of her dark hair. She pretended the construction sounds were ocean waves, imagining salt-laden moisture on her skin and the keening calls of gulls. She missed San Diego, even if it had started out as a place to escape to — and ended up as one more place to run from. Her fingertips found the still-pink scar around her left eye, from the accident that could have killed her. The short time in San Diego had changed her life, but how that would play out remained to be seen. Nothing was guaranteed. Especially not for someone like Sloane. Life had taught her that in strokes as bold as freeway graffiti. But right now all that mattered was — "Nope," the woman reported. "I've checked twice. Nobody by the name of Ferrell on the list." Sloane blinked. "It's ... Wilder." "You said Ferrell." I did? Sloane bit back a groan. "It's Ferrell now. When I filled out the paperwork, it was Wilder." New zip code, new name. "I'm sorry; I forgot. But I'm sure you'll find me under that name. Wilder. W-i-l-d —" "Sloane!" She turned, saw her friend waving. Harper Tatum strode forward, long hair tossed by the breeze and stethoscope swinging against her watermelon-red scrub top. A Los Angeles native — an "Angeleno" — she was honey blonde, long limbed, and as effervescent as a shaken can of soda. Nothing at all like Sloane. This nurse's smile appeared in a TV commercial for whitening toothpaste, and she'd recently been signed as