In Hot Pursuit Read Online Free PDF Page A

to rent it out. It just doesn't make sense."
    "Maybe it
was his pride and joy when you were a kid," Will said, "but during
the three years I knew him he showed no interest in the Isadora at all. I hated to see the old boat run down like it was
which was why I suggested refurbishing it in exchange for its use."
    "It all
just seems odd. Not like Uncle Vern." Nellie stared at Will for a few
moments, distracted by the appealing curve of his lips, nice masculine lips
that had her wondering what he'd be like to kiss. An odd thought, having known
the man for only a day. It started when they were crouched and looking at each
other, and he was so close she felt his breath on her face. Then the spell was
broken when she started thinking about her and Mike going to sea...
    Mike! She
glanced around, and noting that Mike and Katy were gone, she said, with alarm,
"Have you seen Mike?"
    Will shrugged.
"Not for a while. He probably took the dog for a walk."
    "He knows
he's not supposed to go off without asking me," Nellie said. She set her
rag aside and stood. "He could wander off and get lost, or someone
might—" she stopped.
    Will looked at
her, curious. "Someone might what?"
    "Well,
take him." Nellie turned and started to leave.
    Will took her
arm to stop her. "This is Port Townsend," he said. "No one
kidnaps kids here. He's probably just down the dock."
    Nellie shrugged
off Will's hand. "I have to find him." She dashed onto the deck.
Leaping to the dock, she rushed through the side door of the boathouse and
looked up and down the long wooden wharf connecting the buildings. "Mike!"
she called out, feeling the first stomach-twisting grip of panic when she
didn't see him. The thought that they'd been followed by someone all the way
from Portland, and maybe even Medford, could not be dismissed.
    Will joined her
on the wharf. "I'll go this way," he said, pointing, " and you head in that direction. He can't be far. It hasn't
been that long since he was here."
    Nellie's heart
pounded as she ran from boathouse to boathouse, cupping her hands around her
eyes to peer through the windows of side doors, rattling doorknobs while
calling out Mike's name. As she pressed her nose to a glass to peer through yet
another side door, a man's voice, coming from behind, startled her. "If
you're lookin' for a boy and a dog, they're over there," the man said,
pointing.
    Nellie looked
in the direction the man was pointing and spotted Mike sitting on the dock,
crossed legged, elbows on his knees, knotted fists against his cheeks, staring
at the water. Katy, at the end of her leash, was curled on the dock beside him.
After panic passed, anger took over. Nellie marched up to Mike, while shaking
her finger, and said, in an agitated voice, "I told you to stay on the
boat. I can't be worried about you wandering off and getting in trouble."
    "You were
with what's-his-face," Mike spat out, "so I went for a walk."
    Nellie caught
her lower lip between her teeth to stop its trembling. Never before had she been
so distracted she'd forgotten, even momentarily, about Mike. But she couldn't
deny that Will had been a distraction. "You know you were supposed to stay
on the boat and not wander off without asking me first," she said.
    "I don't
like that man," Mike stated. "He hates Katy."
    "He
doesn't hate Katy," Nellie said, "but he loves his cat and doesn't
want anything to happen to him, just like I love you and don't want anything to
happen to you."
    "You don't
care that something happened to Daddy," Mike said.
    Nellie looked
at Mike, dumbfounded. "I loved Daddy," she said. "Why would you
say something like that?"
    "You
looked at that man just like you used to look at Daddy, real close like,"
Mike said.
    Nellie stared
at her son. Certainly she hadn't looked at Will Edenshaw the way she used to
look at Richard. She could never look at any man that way, never feel for any
man what she'd felt for Richard. Nor would she try. The stakes were too high.
"Mr. Edenshaw and I made an