Sara's Surprise Read Online Free PDF Page A

after me." He crossed his arms over a broad chest covered in a flannel shirt. "You promised."
    "The perfect plant already has a name. Kudzu . It shows up where you least want it, makes itself very annoying, and takes over without any encouragement at all."
    "All I want is a friendly visit with you. Just a few days. Give me a spot on the dungeon floor for my sleeping bag and I'll be happy. I won't ask about your research. I swear."
    She shook her fists as if he could see them. "For months I was a prisoner living by rules I hated! Nobody will ever manipulate me again! The more you try, the more I'll say no!"
    "Fear is controlling you. There's no reason to think that anyone would kidnap you again."
    "That's not what I'm" She caught herself. "Kyle, you hardly know me. I'm a loner. An oddball. Kids used to call me the 'mad scientist' when I was growing up. I graduated from high school when I was thirteen and got my bachelor's degree in biology when I was fifteen. By the time I was twenty I had my doctorate. Then I went to South America and spent years doing research by myself."
    He nodded. "The summa cum laude bookworm. The genius. I read the agency report on you when I was assigned to find out why you'd disappeared. Do you know what else it said?"
    "No."
    "That you were a warm, outgoing person who always had a lot of friends. That you were devastated at fifteen when your father and brother died while working on a science project in the Arctic. That you and your mother were very close. In short. Doc, that you're very people-oriented."
    "I've changed," she said numbly. "I have to put my research first."
    "Sara. open the gate and let me in. You don't have anything to be afraid of or to hide. What can the world take away from you?"
    She couldn't tell him, so she turned both the intercom and the camera off. Immediately he rang the chime again, rang it repeatedly, as if angry and impatient. She ignored him.
    Sara went to the crib she'd moved into a corner of the security room. Noelle lay there on her stomach, sleeping, her expression innocent and utterly trusting. Sara stroked her dark, almost black hair. What could the world take away?
    "Everything," Sara whispered.
* * *
    Once it became obvious that Kyle wouldn't give up the siege of Moonspell Keep, Sara was forced to consider new tactics. She called Tom and Lucy Wayne, the local couple who delivered her groceries once a week, and postponed their delivery for fear that Kyle would slip through the gate when she went to let them in. Tom tended the grounds and Lucy did some housekeeping, though only in the castle's main rooms, far away from Noelle's nursery and the lab.
    Tom and Lucy had worked for her mother, and they were the only people Sara ever let inside the keep. Even they didn't know that she had a baby. She never asked them to deliver supplies for Noelle. Instead, she slipped out each month in her mother's old pickup truck, drove to a town thirty miles away, and bought a stock of formula, baby food, diapers, and anything else Noelle needed.
    After calling the Waynes, Sara went outside to double-check the security systems around the castle. With the baby cuddled against her back in a soft canvas carrier and Daisy trailing at her heels, Sara scoured three acres of trees, shrubs, and flower beds, determined to make certain that nothing had been tampered with. She felt as if Kyle Surprise had invaded her inner sanctum already.
    The geesea dozen aggressively honking white birds of intimidating size and temperamentknew the second she set foot outdoors. They waddled up from their pond at the back of the estate, hissing at Daisy and eyeing Sara with greed. She set out their daily ration of cracked corn and watched them fight over it. They were vicious with any stranger who wandered into their territory, and, she knew from experience, their big blunt beaks could leave a nasty bruise.
    You want a surprise, Mr. Surprise? Show your arrogant fanny to these feathered fiends.
    Finally Sara