Found (Captive Heart #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

first time I’ve seen her in a dress since our wedding, but she’s chosen a flirty red sundress after her shower. The weather for April is extremely mild, and she’s opened some of the windows in the condo to let in the warm, fresh breeze.
    I swear I’ve seen a couple people lurk outside the windows since she’s done it.
    “They always do that?” I point to a younger couple who has stopped their afternoon walk and decided to be Peeping Tom’s.
    Char bangs a pot and they startle and scurry away. “Not recently. But I think there might have been something in the paper about your release this week.”
    Fucking figures. The media became obsessed with us, the Kidnapper Husband and Captive Wife, after I went to prison. And especially after the trial, where Char refused to testify against me.
    “I don’t know. I don’t really feel like going anywhere.” I stare at my toes as they cut through her plush carpet.
    I feel cleaner, that’s for sure, after a nice, long hot shower. But I should want to rip that sweet dress off of my gorgeous wife, and fuck her seven ways to Sunday. But I can’t. There is some barrier that I can’t cross and I know there is a stopwatch on how long she’ll go before she asks me why.
    “That’s okay! I think the Phillies are on TV. Let’s watch!”
    She plops down next to me and flicks on the television, which lights up in full color and sound on some reality TV show.
    “Sorry!” She immediately flicks the volume down. “I’ve been into this show on Bravo about these horribly bored housewives … I don’t know. It passes the time.”
    The red dress is riding up on her thighs as she tucks her legs under her, and she’s much too close to me on the couch cushions.
    “It’s fine.” I mutter.
    I don’t know what’s wrong with me. There are too many choices, too many things I can do or eat or say or watch. Prison is easy. You have a set schedule, a set of limited choices or options. You don’t have to pretend with the other inmates, because no one bullshits.
    After three years, I have no idea how to act in this world. In her world.
    Char finds the baseball game and asks if I want a beer.
    “I told you before, I’m not supposed to drink.” It comes out harsher than I mean it.
    “Okay. That’s okay.” She nods to herself, almost a self-soothing gesture.
    “You should go to work tomorrow. There is no sense sitting at home with me and doing nothing.”
    Char’s face crumples. “But I want to see you, to spend time with you …”
    “Jesus, Char, we will!” Rage creeps into my pores. “We have all the time in the goddamn world now! But I won’t have you put your life on hold for me again just to sit around and be a loser like me! You have a job and a life and friends! And I just want to be alone right now! Don’t you get it?”
    I can’t be around to watch her as her tears start to fall, so instead I make for the backdoor, slamming it as I walk out.

8
Charlotte
    I give Tucker what he wants.
    I leave him alone.
    I go to work the next day, and then out for the day with Jackie on Saturday and to get my nails done on Sunday.
    I tell myself it’s for his benefit. But really …
    I’m hurt. This is hard. Way harder than I imagined it would be. When I married Tucker, I vowed to honor him, to cherish him, to take care of him. All of those things in good times and in bad. But it’s awfully hard to stay true to those promises when the other person won’t budge. When you feel like you’re hitting your bloody, smashed-in skull against the wall.
    And now it’s been a week since he’s been home and we’ve barely talked. He might as well be back in jail for all we’re communicating. Though I hate myself for putting that notion out there in the world because, Jesus, that’s so messed up.
    I walk downstairs, my heels echoing on the hardwood stairs, just as he’s lacing up a boot on the couch.
    The couch that he’s taken to sleeping on.
    “You all ready for your meeting?” I