All for Hope Read Online Free PDF Page A

face, the trusting way one tiny hand clutched at her shirt as if the little one needed to be sure someone was there.
    Her fingers lightly brushed the feathery golden hair on the perfect head, and the baby reached out searching, disturbed by the touch.
    Carefully Hope placed Michelle on the bed, looking up when Brennan burst through the door. A quivering sigh of relief escaped her lips and she turned her eyes down, covering the baby with a blanket.
    “ Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you,” he murmured as he dropped two bags of food and some Cokes on the table.
    “ You didn't,” she lied and grabbed some clothes from one of her bags. “You go ahead and eat. I'm going to take a shower.”
    “ Sure.”
    Hope twisted her long hair up on top of her head then stripped off her clothes. The little room filled with steam as she stepped into the hot shower. A moaning sigh escaped her as the water enveloped her body and she reached up, diverting the hot stream to flood over her face.
    Slowly all of the day's tension drained from her, just like the water that drizzled down her body. Each day she felt closer and closer to breaking, her mind overwhelmed by all that she had to worry about. She wondered how long it would be before she could relax completely. Probably never , she admitted to herself, accepting that fact with a curt nod.
    When she emerged from the bathroom, she found Brennan curled up in a chair, a blanket around him, and his feet propped up. He watched her closely as she placed her clothes in a bag.
    She grabbed her drink and took a large swallow without looking at him. “You should sleep in the bed. You're driving tomorrow and will need more sleep.”
    He ignored her, slipping his hands from under his blanket and folding them behind his head as he watching her. “Your hair. When did you do that to it?”
    Absently she tugged at a red clump of the locks. “The night I left.”
    “ Hmmm. Did you do it at your apartment?”
    Hope didn’t want to look at him and felt waves of heat course through her veins. “Why are you asking?”
    When she looked at him, she saw him shrug. “Just seems like they’d be able to find a trace of it. Where did you get the Camry? Is it yours?”
    She chewed her food a few moments before answering. “No, I bought it about a month ago.”
    “ Cash, I presume?”
    “ Of course.” She took another swig of cola, scolding herself for the caffeine that would keep her up all night. “No papers. It runs fine and should get me wherever I’m going.” She had even done a search online of the “least distinctive” cars on the market. The Camry was common, and she figured it would be most easily blend in.
    “ What if you get pulled over? Do you have fake id?”
    She didn’t. It was the one thing she wasn’t able to get her hands on.
    Discomfort churned in her stomach as he scrutinized her actions. She’d thought she had covered all her based. She’d left her car in Louisiana the day before she left town with Michelle. In the yacht, she’d left maps indicating her plans to hug the coast until she reached Louisiana.
    Faking her death hadn’t been her first plan. She knew enough about marine navigation that she was confident she could make her way to the next state, throw off authorities and give her a head start. Then one morning, she had overheard another boater talking about the insurance claim on his boat a few years back. The moorings came loose during a storm and carried the little vessel out to sea.
    That was when Hope began to research and ponder a new plan. It might have taken months for a good tropical storm to hit the Texas gulf coast, but as luck would have it, just a few weeks later, a weather system came near. By then, she didn’t have time to make arrangements for identification.
    Forcing her thoughts aside, she shook her head and glared back at her new companion. “The bed, Bren. You just made my point for me. I should drive as little as possible, so you need to sleep so