Soul Thief (Blue Light Series) Read Online Free PDF

carpenter,” Annie reminded her father. “It’s a noble profession. Besides, I like it in the woods. Doug and I will be happy there.”
    “Happy?” De Roché said as if the word tasted foul on his tongue. “Living like common trailer park trash? What makes you think that happiness is an inalienable right? You’ll change your tune,” he admonished his daughter. “You’ll come crawling back when you realize you have nothing, when you need a fix of what only daddy can provide.”
    But Annie hadn’t changed her tune. It had been almost ten years since that terrible day and Doug was as amazed as De Roché that he and Annie were still together and vital. There was some part of Doug that had always expected Annie would some day come to her senses and go back to her sheltered and privileged life. And now, it had taken the death of her mother to accomplish the deed. Poor Rachael, she’s the one who’d suffered because of her husband’s perversions, hadn’t she?
    Loyal wife, keeper of terrible secrets.
    Now she was dead and De Roché was calling in all his debts.
    Annie was being forced back into De Roché’s sick world. And Doug knew why, and he was almost crazy with grief over it. As he’d said would happen, De Roché had somehow found out about Annie’s pregnancy and he’d sent those assholes to root them out, to frighten them into going back. Doug was trying to convince himself that at least Annie would be safe behind the walls of De Roché Manor. No harm would come to her until after the baby came. He was reasonably sure of that. He wasn’t quite so sure, however, about his own chances for survival. What he should do is deliver Annie, then get away as quickly as possible, disappear, begin looking into De Roché’s life, his past, find out everything he could about the man and his associations. From where he stood right now, there didn’t seem to be any other choice. He should have been doing it all along instead of blissfully loving Annie and ignoring De Roché’s admonitions. Now he was sorry he’d become so complacent. Annie was an heiress to one of the largest financial dynasties in the history of the United States. How did he think that their lives could ever be normal? The years had almost made him forget De Roché’s threats. Big mistake. Now Doug needed to remember if he was going to survive. If he got moving now perhaps there would be time enough before the baby came to figure out what the hell was going on and rectify the problem.

Chapte r 3
     
    In a room beneath an ancient cathedral, a telephone rang. The Jesuit priest in the simple black robe and Roman collar turned away from the altar at which he had been praying and stared at the ringing telephone as if it were something not of this world. Carefully he tucked the object which he had been clutching tightly in his praying fists into the side pocket of his robe. This was only the third time in as many years that this particular phone had rung. The telephone number was unpublished and there were only a dozen people in the world who knew it. After the third ring, the monk got to his feet and picked it up.
    “Yes?” he asked.
    “I apologize for breaking protocol,” the voice on the line said, “but we have an emergency situation and I thought it important that I speak to you directly.” The caller was female and she sounded winded and overwrought.
    The monk hesitated for a long moment before replying. “What is the code?” he asked. He would never acknowledge his identity unless the code was repeated exactly as he knew it; exactly as they all knew it. To do so would be to violate the most sacred of all oaths.
    The woman on the line recited a seven digit code. It was merely a series of numbers, like those on a lottery ticket. There was no deep or hidden significance to the sequence. The odds were one hundred and thirty-five million to one that the number could be randomly selected. Although the monk did not recognize the voice, he was not