Hunted Read Online Free PDF Page B

flipped on a light and pointed her toward a chair. “Have a seat,” he said as he turned up the heat on the thermostat. He pulled a plastic bag out of one of the drawers and stuffed it with ice from the freezer. “Here,” he said, handing it to her. “I’ve got some pain relievers, too.” He walked toward the bathroom and came back with a small bottle of ibuprofen in his hand. He poured a glass of water and shook out two tablets. “Here.”
    “You should take some, too,” she said. “Your back has to hurt from crashing through those tree limbs.”
    It did, but there weren’t that many tablets left in the bottle. He’d save them for Chandler. “I’m fine.”
    She sat down in the big rocking chair that he always used, holding the ice on her sore shoulder. She nodded at the book on the footstool. “You read Mr. Donovan, too?”
    He nodded. Larry Donovan, Brody’s dad, had been a quiet man who stood a foot shorter than his son. He’d never heard the man raise his voice. Yet he wrote the most hair-raising, nail-biting suspense that Ethan had ever read. “Every book. He scares the hell out of me sometimes.”
    “Me, too. I was afraid to even look at a chain saw after I read his last one.”
    Molly crowded up next to her, just the way she always did to him. The dog whined and Chandler took the ice off so that she could reach out and pet her. She looked around the small cabin and smiled. “It looks just like I remember.”
    He nodded. “Your great-grandfather knew something about building. Both cabins have really stood the test of time. They’ll be here a hundred years from now and probably look the same.”
    She leaned back in her chair. “I’m grateful that you were here, that you were able to help me. Are you home on leave?”
    He could tell her the truth, that he was on permanent leave because he wasn’t sure anyone trusted him anymore. Was sure that he’d lost his ability to trust. But he didn’t want to have that conversation. “I retired. Had my twenty years in.”
    That made it seem simple. Reasonable.
    She widened her pretty green eyes. “Really? So what’s next for you?”
    “I’m not sure. My plans were to hang out here for a few weeks and then make some decisions.”
    “Good for you,” she said. “Maybe you’ll go back to school?”
    “Maybe.” There was no need to tell her that he’d acquired both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree online while in the service. With honors.
    “Or look for work?” she continued on. “With your experience, you should be fine. I’m sure there’s a good job out there for you.”
    Was that a note of wistfulness that he detected? Was her own job in danger? But that couldn’t be right. He thought he recalled Mack telling him that Baker had married Chandler’s boss. “How’s your work going?”
    “Oh, fine,” she said quickly. “You know,” she added, waving her delicate hand, “if it was supposed to be fun, they’d call it play.”
    He smiled. “I guess. You’ve been there quite a while, haven’t you?”
    “Six years.”
    “The company is a government contractor?”
    “How did you know that?”
    He shrugged, not wanting to admit that he always listened closely when Mack talked about Chandler. Maybe it was because he’d never had a little sister of his own. “I think Mack might have mentioned it.”
    “We’re a vendor for the Department of Defense.”
    “What do you do there?”
    “I’m a computer analyst.”
    “You followed in your dad’s footsteps,” he said, smiling.
    “I guess. Computers have always just been easy for me.”
    “I bet you’re good at it.”
    She shrugged and then winced when it evidently hurt her shoulder.
    “You want some more ice?” He hated that she was hurting.
    “No.” She stood up. “But I am really tired. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll just go to bed.”
    His mind conjured up all kinds of images it had no business doing. “I promised you a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich,” he said,