ESCANTA: A James Thomas Novel (The James Thomas Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

let them win.

CHAPTER FOUR –
JAMES THOMAS
    The street was quiet, the moon casting a soft glow over the night. Most people were afraid of the dark, but James loved the dark—he felt safer in the dark, he always had. He sat silently in his car, looking at the ninth floor. One light was on in Mak Ashwood’s apartment. It had been on all night, and it was nearing sunrise. He had to assume she’d fallen asleep with the light on—she’d certainly been drunk enough.
    Samuel had finally called in with the report and now James knew why it had taken so long. The phone call had come not long after the girls had excused themselves to the bar, and now he wished he’d never asked Samuel for the report. He wished he didn’t know what he did. Her husband wasn’t only missing, he had put money in several offshore bank accounts. A lot of money. Mak Ashwood was $6 million dollars richer than she thought.
    What had her husband been up to? How did a twenty-two-year-old accumulate that kind of money? Six, one-million-dollar deposits made annually that hadn’t been touched. Not a single withdrawal had been made from any of the accounts.
    James had left the party early but he’d only gone as far as his car parked on the street where he sat and read the report over and over again.
    Why was Mak Ashwood on his flight? Why could he not ignore his attraction to her? Why did he ask Samuel for the report? His own behavior was so out of character, and that filled him with apprehension.
    What he was doing now, though, he knew the answer to. After he read the report he’d decided to test her security. She was using a decent firm, but he wanted to make sure they were doing their job because for all he knew, the guys she was prosecuting might not be her biggest concern.
    James had followed her car to her apartment, and they had failed to see they had a tail. And he parked straight outside her apartment and they had failed to notice that as well. That meant she had the minimum possible security on her, and they weren’t surveying her environment. Or they were doing a really shitty job. He wanted to ask Samuel to tap her phone and monitor the communication with her security company, but he drew the line there. This had gone too far already, and if he asked Samuel to do that, Samuel would mention it to Deacon. And that was a conversation James didn’t want to have.
    James sighed, resting his head back against the seat rest.
    Interestingly, Mak Ashwood had never sought to have her husband declared deceased, so she was still legally a married woman. James had seen enough missing persons cases to know that when a spouse goes missing, the other usually seeks a court order to have them declared deceased so they could have some form of closure and move on with their lives. Sometimes it happened after a few years, sometimes five years, most of the time at ten years. And almost definitely after thirteen years. So why hadn’t Mak done the same thing? Could she really believe he might come home one day?
    Mak had been married for less than a year when her husband disappeared, and she was only thirty-five now. She could still meet someone, still have a family, but she hadn’t moved on from him. The report detailed the private investigator she’d hired to look for him and James wondered how he’d failed to even find the offshore accounts. If she’d hired me , James thought, I would’ve found him. Or his body.
    Pink streaks ribboned through the sky as the sun began to rise, and James turned the key in the ignition. It was time to go home, and time to sleep. James drove through the deserted streets, downtown to Thomas Security.
    She’s not your problem , James thought. He wished he’d never met her, and he wished she’d never penetrated his mind. In only a few hours she’d consumed his thoughts—thoughts that should be focused solely on his own survival. He had his own security situation to deal with, and it was a much more perilous situation than hers.