Cowboy & the Captive Read Online Free PDF

begun using the youngest twin, almost unconsciously, as though it was Melina’s job to keep her sister from facing the consequences of her actions. Now, Maria had sunk to new levels, uncaring of the harm she created because she knew her parents would use Melina to get her out of it.
    Joe had enough the day he learned Melina was in jail in Maria’s stead. Melina had tried calling her parents for days with no success. If it hadn’t been for Johann and Melina’s call to Joe’s secretary, he would have never known the danger Melina was in.
    “I must return to Mr. Angeles then.” Johann stood slowly to his feet, his expression weary and grief stricken. “Each day, Mr. Joe, I think more often of retirement, hearing them disown that child…” He shook his head painfully.
    “If you decide to do so let me know, Johann.” Joe nodded respectfully. “I’ll make certain there are no repercussions.”
    Johann drew in a hard, tired breath. “It is a shame, Mr. Joe. A shame. Once, your parents were good people. Good people. Now…” He tucked his hands in his pockets and moved for the door. “Now, I just don’t know…”
    And Joe agreed with him. Like Johann, he had no idea what had happened to his parents, but more to the point, he had given up on them ever returning to the caring, decent people they had once been. If they had ever existed.

Chapter Four
     
    She had been kidnapped. Melina fought to hold back her terror as she awoke to realize her hands and feet were bound. She was lying on a surprisingly comfortable bed. Not that comfort meant anything. She was certain even serial killers could have comfortable beds. But she knew it wasn’t a serial killer who had kidnapped her. Damn, the more she thought about it, the more she was beginning to fear that her chances could be better with a nutcase than they were with the man she had glimpsed in one blinding second the night before.
    She fought to still the fear as she remembered the face of her kidnapper. For one, heart-stopping moment she had stared up at him and realized that once again, despite all her efforts, she was going to pay for Maria’s sins.
    This was great. Like he would believe she wasn’t Maria. How many people knew her parents had two daughters? She could count them all on ten fingers and have a few left over. Since she was a child, she had been content to be left alone with her dolls, her books, her various hobbies, rather than be the social butterfly her sister had started out as. And her parents had been willing to leave her behind. The fewer people who knew Maria had a twin, the easier it might be to get the older twin out of trouble later. That lesson had been learned early.
    She opened her eyes, her senses groggy from being drugged, her mind sluggish. She needed to think clearly, to clear the fog out of her head and figure out how to handle this one. There was no doubt Jardin was out for revenge. And she couldn’t blame him. The surprising part was that he had let her live long enough to wake up.
    “Awake, are you?” His voice sounded behind her.
    His voice sent shivers up her spine. It was deep and rough, like the growl of a hungry predator. It sent a chill of dread through her and had her licking her dry lips in response to the nervousness suddenly flaring through her body.
    The man most likely to kill you shouldn’t sound so damned sexy seconds before doing so. Melina swallowed tightly. She should be more frightened and less aroused by that voice.
    Her darkest fantasies had been filled with the image of him for two years. She had often awakened in the middle of the night, her hips lifting, reaching for the dream vision ready to impale her. She was as sick as Maria, she thought in disgust. The way she lusted after him made no sense.
    “I assume you are at least reasonably clear-headed,” he drawled mockingly. “Pretending to sleep won’t save your ass, little girl.”
    Melina winced at the pet name. She wasn’t a little girl,