Severed Threads Read Online Free PDF Page A

had of value, he’d forfeit a lucrative reward for the treasure that was sitting on the ocean floor – just out of his reach. But what were his options? At that moment, he’d sell his soul if there was a way to reel it back in.
    Chase spotted the bartender chatting it up in a dark corner. "Naomi, did you forget us?" he called out.
    The petite bartender sashayed back to her post. "Now how could I forget about you, sweetheart?" She flashed a smile before setting the fresh pint and amber shot glass before them.
    Ian grinned. "Aren’t you joinin’ us, darlin’?"
    "Too early for me." Naomi pushed her unruly red curls off her sweaty brow. She lifted a water bottle and sucked it down in nothing flat. Then she resumed her chores behind the bar. As Chase watched her with renewed interest, he recounted the first time he’d laid eyes on the plucky woman.

Macy’s Café. Chase had joined Sam for a cup of coffee and found her waiting in the booth beside him. She ogled and fussed over the old man who was clearly twice her age. Although Chase had come there to discuss his job offer, for the better part of an hour she’d given both of them an earful. He’d never met anyone who took so much pride in the amount of gossip they could spout. Aside from Ian, anyway.
    "So, today’s your birthday?" Chase quizzed.
    Her smile brightened. "How’d you guess?"
    He nodded toward the black t-shirt she wore. The white scripted words Over the Hill were stretched thin across her chest.
    Ian nearly choked on his drink. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Here I thought you were advertising yer assets."
    "God, Ian. You’re such an ass.” She dragged the blue towel off her shoulder and over the bar’s splattered surface. "Can’t you get your mind out of the gutter for one minute?"
    Chase jumped in to save his friend from further humiliation. "So," he said to Naomi, "you still heading back to Alaska?"
    She shrugged a shoulder. "Doesn’t look like it. My sister made a ton of money last spring, but according to her, fishing’s gone all to hell. With trawlers pulling in half empty, her regulars completely dried up."
    For half a second, Chase saw dollar signs in her eyes and considered asking if her sister might be willing to invest in his ailing business. But somehow soliciting money from the town’s “ceiling expert” seemed a little too desperate – even for him.
    "Still chartering your boat?" Naomi asked, wiping her hands on her white half-apron.
    He shrugged and ran his thumb over the shot glass rim. "For the time being."
    "My cousin, Blaine McKenzie…over there in the corner…he just flew in this afternoon and plans to stick around all week. He’s looking for someone to take him out."
    Chase glanced over his shoulder. It was the scrawny guy in his early twenties, hunched over a laptop computer. With his rolled-up shirtsleeves and round black-rimmed specs, he resembled a contestant on some nerd reality show.
    "That pip’s yer cousin ?" Ian blurted.
    Chase actually had the same thought. The idea that the two shared DNA was staggering.
    "We share a last name, but he’s a distant cousin through marriage," she replied.
    The shaggy-haired kid glanced up and smiled. He seemed undaunted by the three sets of eyes that were now fixated on him.
    "Believe it or not, Blaine’s intellect is highly sought after,” she went on. “He’s some kind of software genius up in Seattle. Every now and then, he manages to fly in for a visit."
    "Ya don’t say," Ian muttered, returning his focus to Naomi’s shapely figure.
    She set Ian’s empty glass behind the bar. "He’s planning to stay on for a full week this time. If you’re interested, he’s got his gear stowed in his plane outside."
    Chase had just tossed back his high-octane drink. "His plane ?" he squeezed out, certain he’d misheard.
    She jerked her thumb to the left at the bar’s picture window. "That’s it right there."
    Both Ian and Chase craned their necks to take a look.