Innocent Hostage Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t love them. He would never use the twin weapons of guilt and shame that they’d used so effectively on him. No, he loved Kit and he hoped that over time, Kit would come to love him.
    Having to forego promotion was devastating, but as he’d learned before, time healed most things. And at least he still had a job, which was more than Marty Kerr had.
    He shoved a smile on his face and looked down at his son. “Think you’ll enjoy spending time with Jace?”
    Kit nodded, his mouth full of sausage. “Cool.”
    Cool? Kit was recovering rapidly.
    Breck grinned. A genuine grin this time. He was in for a hell of a ride, but it would be worth it to know that Kit was safe and happy. When Kit was in bed he’d contact Harley Max to thank him for the opportunity he’d been offered. He ran his side of the conversation through his mind. He always found that planning conversations helped. He would explain why he had to refuse it, but not go into detail. He doubted Harley Max cared a fig about a lowly senior constable’s domestic problems. Perhaps if Breck hinted that his decision had been forced upon him, Max might give him another chance sometime in the future. Perhaps. And perhaps pigs flew.
    His cell phone vibrated in his shirt pocket and he tugged it out. There was so much noise he couldn’t hear the ring tone and he strode into the kitchen to answer it.
    “It’s Ingrid Rowland here. I was just checking up on Kit. How are things?”
    The fairytale lady. She’d been on his mind all day. Just sitting there quietly. She was that sort of woman, not intrusive, just…there. Thrilled that she’d phoned, he felt an uplift in his spirits. “Kit’s doing really well, Ingrid. We’ve been keeping busy.”
    “So I hear,” she said, her tone as dry as aloes. “I didn’t realize I was interrupting a party.”
    Oh, hell! All the noise the unit was making probably sounded like a rip-roaring party from her perspective.
    “No. That’s just the guys from—”
    “Tell Kit I phoned. Bye.” She clicked off.
    Damn it! He needed this woman’s cooperation and she’d just bounced him. The lady was a little too quick off the mark. “Jeez, talk about jumping to conclusions,” he muttered to himself. Her disapproval stung.
    “Who are you talking to, Daddy?” Kit was standing at his elbow. The kid crept around like fairy-dust. Must have caught a sprinkle from Ingrid Rowland.
    “Ah, that was Ms. Rowland. She wanted to know if you were okay.”
    Kit waited.
    Breck surrendered. “Okay, she wanted to know how you were, but she also got mad at me. She thinks we’re having a party and she considers it’s inappropriate after what you’ve been through today. At least, I suppose that’s what she’s so angry about.”
    Kit shrugged. “Mommy and Marty have lots of parties. Sometimes Mommy says ‘thank you, Breck’ and she sort of lifts her glass up—you know.”
    “Oh, does she?” And this was the environment I left Kit in. He’d forked out more and more money hoping Kit would be the beneficiary, but he’d never asked for a reckoning. It served him right. “Well, never mind,” he said. “Let’s go and have some more sausage.”
    Since he was on day shift, he’d work all that sausage off in the gym early Monday morning.

Chapter Four
    Ingrid Rowland jabbed the phone back on to its recharger on the kitchen counter. Just as she’d first thought. She shouldn’t have been swayed by his concern for Kit at the hostage situation today. Any man, no matter how bad a father he was, would be concerned in such circumstances.
    “That’s what comes from admiring a nice set of pecs,” she admonished herself. “Great body, handsome lived-in face and no sense of responsibility.” Well, he must have some sense of responsibility, otherwise he wouldn’t be a cop. But like many cops, his responsibility was toward the public, not his own family.
Like her father. He’d been a cop too, wedded to the job, so her mother always said. Marla