Vow to Protect Read Online Free PDF Page B

idealists left in the world.
    Cord released the reporter’s shirt, letting him fall back against the door like a sack of laundry. “This isn’t just some kid. This is my son. When this hits the airwaves and newspapers, Kane could see it. And if Kane knows about him…” What would the monster do? Cord didn’t know. But he sure as hell didn’t want to find out.
    Aidan Powell picked himself up, straightened his shirt and put on his glasses, then swallowed a few times before meeting Cord’s eyes. “That’s not all Kane will find out.”
    â€œWhat else?”
    â€œThe boy and his mother are staying at a hotel on the west side of town. The TV cameras are over there now.”
    Staying in a hotel? They weren’t merely staying. They were hiding. Hiding from Kane.
    And now the serial killer only had to switch on a television set to find out where they were?
    As soon as Cord had seen Mel and his son, he knew he had to walk away. He wasn’t the kind of man who could be a father. A husband. He couldn’t do anything but drag Ethan and Mel down.
    But he couldn’t walk away—not quite yet.
    He might not be able to be part of the family, but neither was he going to sit by and let anyone hurt Ethan or Mel.
    Especially not a sick bastard like Dryden Kane.
    Â 
    M ELANIE WATCHED E THAN cross the pool deck and jump cannonball style into the swimming pool. A splash of chlorine-scented water hit the deck in front of her and spattered her legs.
    The water felt nice on her skin, cool, and for a moment she wished she were wearing her swimming suit instead of the T-shirt and shorts she’d changed into. The prospect of slipping into the pool, lounging in the hot tub that bubbled under fake palm trees or taking her son’s challenge and trying out the slide that curled around the circumference of the indoor water park beckoned on the edge of her mind like a seductive dream.
    She rolled her shoulders, trying to relieve the tension aching in her back and arms. Her shirt stuck to her skin, damp with sweat.
    If only this really were a vacation, a time to relax with her son instead of just a way to take Ethan’s mind off the fact that they were hiding from a serial killer. If only she could dial back time to yesterday, when she and Ethan had a normal life, a good life, filled with neither hair-raising excitement nor tragedy. But if-onlys accomplished nothing. The only real avenue she had was to pray the police would catch Dryden Kane, pray Ethan would never find out the monster was his grandfather, and pray that Cord would stay out of their lives.
    She glanced at the police officer standing a few yards from her at the edge of the pool area. Reed McCaskey had assured her that an officer would stay with them until Kane was back behind bars or dead. She should feel safe. Secure. But the vague dread that had started with Cord’s appearance at her house continued to build.
    She had to get her mind off Kane and off Cord if she was going to hold on to her sanity. She focused on Ethan, on the unbridled fun he and the other children were having. On the far side of the dome, kids crawled over a wrecked pirate ship and zipped down slides springing from the hull.
    And beyond them, through the window, something moved. A face peered through the glass.
    A gasp caught in Melanie’s throat. She stepped closer to get a better look.
    A woman stared through the window, scanning the pools and water slides. A bright light turned on behind her, illuminating a van parked along the curb. A van with a cable-news logo emblazoned on the side.
    The media?
    She glanced back at the warehouse-size room. Ethan perched on top of the longest waterslide, getting into position to take its winding ride into the pool.
    Could the media have found out Ethan was Dryden Kane’s grandson? Could they be planning to tell the world?
    She inhaled a breath of humid, chlorinated air. She couldn’t let herself