Daniel Read Online Free PDF Page A

and now I’m telling you, leave me the fuck alone.” She nearly hung up
when he didn’t speak right away.
    “I don’t really want to speak to you so
much as I’d like to murder you.” She looked over at Benny and hoped he didn’t
hear the person at the other end. “You have something that belongs to me, and
I’m going to get it. Do you remember what I did to your sister? I’m going to do
much worse to you.” He laughed, and the phone went dead. She gently put the
phone in the cradle and stepped back. She hadn’t realized Benny was speaking
until he handed her the phone again.
    “Please don’t hurt him. I don’t know
what you want from me, but please don’t hurt Benny.” She whispered softly and
nearly choked on a sob. “I don’t want him hurt.”
    “Who threatened you?” She closed her
eyes when she realized who was on the phone again. Mr. Hunter had called back.
“I’m coming over there. Let me in the gate.”
    “No. I don’t want…stay away. You…you
have no right…. I’m not letting you in and if you…if you show up, I’ll have you
arrested.”
    She nearly screamed when Benny touched
her. She leaned into his small chest and let him hold her. He didn’t like to be
hugged, and she was going to absorb as much of it as she could while he was in
the mood.
    “He doesn’t give up, does he?” She looked
up at him, terrified he’d heard. “I wonder who he is. He seemed like he was an
okay guy at the florist, but I guess he’s as bad as the rest.”
    The man, Daniel Hunter, had said he’d
come there. To do what, she wasn’t all that sure. He’d sounded so concerned and
worried. She shook her head.
    After all this time, she still didn’t
trust, and now this. She got up to check the doors and windows without letting
Benny realize it, and then she waited until he went to bed before she walked
down to check on the gate. It was locked. Walking back up to the house, she
wondered what to do.
    She could change her number, but wasn’t
sure that would help. Reilly thought changing the number would be more hassle
than it would more than likely be worth. She’d just have to figure out who it
was…not that she didn’t have an idea, just not exactly why he thought she had
something of his. She had figured long ago it was Benny and that maybe Benny
was his son.
    Her sister had been dead for nearly four
years now. She and Benny had driven to her little apartment, and he’d hidden
away during the day while she worked in her studio. She’d been less cautious
then. And it wasn’t until she received her sister’s things that she realized
she might have led them, whoever her sister was telling her about, right to her
nephew.
    The house was quiet when she went
inside. She made sure it was locked up and then walked to the studio. She could
lose herself in there and decided to work on the kiln she was building until
she couldn’t think anymore. The backhoe sat in the side-yard, waiting to go
back into the barn. She smiled when she thought of all the things she could do
now that she couldn’t when she started this…building an outside kiln being one
of them.
    She had wanted to do this for some time…build
a kiln right into the hillside and use most of nature to make it work. She
would be able to get a lot more pottery in this one than her other kilns, and
she would be able to fire it using wood. She was putting some of the kiln
bricks inside it when she thought of the man from that day.
    He was gorgeous. She wondered if he was
as large as he looked under his suit coat, and tisked herself for thinking of such
things. She had a kid to raise, not play around with a rich guy who had the
manners of a…well, she wasn’t sure what sort of manners he had, but she’d bet
his mother was a poor example. Reilly thought maybe if she ever had the chance
to meet her, she’d have to smack her. It was nearly sunrise when she entered
the house. She went to her room and showered, then started breakfast for