Saving Autumn Read Online Free PDF Page A

you.”
    “You don’t need to do that.”
    “Would you rather I stayed here on my own?”
    He hesitated then said, “Okay, we’ll stay together. But we’re out of there at the first sign of trouble.”
    She gave a nod. “Agreed.”
    Blake reached a hand out, and his fingers entwined with hers. She glanced at him gratefully, pleased to have the reassurance of his touch. She didn’t like how this was all sounding. Her earlier wishes for keeping things in the past didn’t seem to be coming to fruition.
    Peter cleared his throat, and Autumn tore her attention from Blake’s handsome, pained face. “So, I know Mia has been through a lot, but do you think she would mind if I called on her at her parents’? I thought I would follow up on how the young shifter, Toby, is doing, and obviously she already has a connection with his folks.”
    Autumn smiled inwardly. She didn’t doubt Peter’s concern for Toby, but figured it also made for a convenient excuse for him to see Mia again. Not that she minded, of course. Despite the ability to change into a mountain lion, Peter was all steadfast male, with his intelligent eyes, salt and pepper hair, serious demeanor, and intelligence. She couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather see Mia with.
    Blake’s colleague got to his feet and dusted imaginary dust particles from the front of his charcoal gray suit pants. He cleared his throat. “If I could get her parents’ address …”
    His mind was still on Mia, then, despite all the other worries. Autumn suppressed a smile and let go of Blake’s hand, getting to her feet. She headed over to the console where a small pad of paper sat beside the phone. She scribbled Mia’s folks’ home address, tore it from the pad, and handed it to him. “Tell her I miss her and she needs to come home soon.”
    He gave a shy smile and her heart warmed even more to him. “Sure. Will do.”
    Autumn hoped Mia wouldn’t be coming home to trouble when she did.

Chapter Four
     
     
    MIA LOOKED AROUND her childhood bedroom and sighed. She was too old to run to her parents when things got hard, even if life had become harder than she’d ever imagined. While she’d enjoyed her folks fussing over her for the last couple of days, she thought it was probably time to move out of the single bedroom and back into the apartment with Autumn. She’d told herself she’d been giving Autumn and her new guy, the big Native American, Blake, some space, but having her mom fuss over her had been great too.
    Will I get in the way if I go back?
    No, don’t be silly . She heard Autumn’s voice in her head. You live there too.
    She’d been offered counseling by the police for her ordeal, to talk through any residual emotions she might be harboring about the abduction. Though being taken from the apartment with a gun pressed to the back of her head and being tied up and locked inside a closet had given her nightmares, she wasn’t sure how much use therapy would be. After all, it wasn’t the kidnapping side of the ordeal that had left her brain feeling as though part of her was living in some kind of dream world. She could hardly sit down and tell a therapist that the bit she was struggling to get over was witnessing a man change into a mountain lion before her very eyes.
    The doorbell rang and Mia groaned and threw herself back down on the bed. She hoped it wasn’t going to be another reporter. In the last couple of days, every time the phone or doorbell rang, it was pretty much guaranteed to be someone working for a paper who wanted to hear her side of things. As she had no idea what to tell them—certainly not the truth—she’d started off with “No comment” and ended up hiding like a little girl in her bedroom.
    “Mia!”
    Her mother’s call made her sit up. Her mom knew she wouldn’t speak to any more reporters, and something about her tone got Mia’s attention.
    “Someone is here to see you.”
    She swung her legs off the side of the bed and stood,