Innocent Hostage Read Online Free Page B

to his hand, saying nothing. Breck knew that Baz or possibly Harley Max, the overall AOS manager, would be trying to contact him. But he’d left his cell phone turned off. Of course that was a no-no, but they’d have to understand that right now Kit came first.
    Kit stared through the shop window of a bookshop. Remembering Ms. Rowland’s bagful of books, Breck detoured to the children’s section. “You choose,” he told Kit, watching to see what sort of books appealed to his son. Precious minutes ticked by as Kit hovered over the huge selection. He finally cut his selection down to two books titled ‘When I’m Feeling Happy’ and ‘When I’m Feeling Sad.’
    Breck swallowed hard and said matter-of-factly, “We’ll take them both.” He knew Kit couldn’t yet read the words, but the sentiments inherent in the bright pictures obviously appealed to the boy. “I couldn’t have chosen better myself,” Breck said. An inner voice cautioned, “And how would you know what books a child wants to read, Marchant? You were the despair of your parents. Hell, you couldn’t even read till you were eight.” All too vividly he remembered the endless hours of squirming in front of his parents as they held up flash cards, trying to get him to read simple words like ‘tree’ and ‘dog.’ He was a fine one to take his kid into a bookstore.
    “Thank you,” Kit whispered in a wispy little voice when Breck handed him the plastic bag of books to carry. Breck looked down at his son. He couldn’t put off the real world much longer. Soon he would have to attend a debriefing and contact his solicitor, but these two hours with his son had given him a glimpse of what he’d been missing. Tania and the Family Court could get stuffed. He’d fight them both tooth and nail before he let Kit out of his protection ever again. If he had to, this time he’d reveal his suspicions about Tania’s tawdry little occupation.
    As he bundled Kit into the SUV, the boy asked, “Are we going to eat today, Daddy?”
    Breck cursed his own stupidity. Here he was pontificating to himself about how well he’d look after Kit, and he hadn’t even fed the child. “Sorry, tiger,” he said, trying for a casual grin. “Subway, here we come. Uh…I guess your Mom gave you breakfast this morning?” He wasn’t sure how to ask exactly when Tania had disappeared.
    Kit shook his head. “When I woke up, Mom, Pixie, and Bob were gone,” he said matter-of-factly. “Same as last month.”
    “Last month?” Breck pricked up his ears. “Mom went away last month too?”
    “Uh, huh.” Kit gazed out the window as they exited the ramp out of the parking building. “She said it was his last chance. If he didn’t…didn’t…something to do with ships, then she’d do it again.”
    Breck scoured his mind, wondering what a ship had to do with Tania and Marty. They had left Subway well behind before he clicked. “Did Mom say something like ‘shape up or ship out’?” he asked. Kit had a mouthful of prosciutto and lettuce on Italian bread, so he just nodded.
    Breck thought it sounded familiar. Tania had said the same thing to him about his working hours. But he could swear she adored Marty. She’d always been happy to tell the world she’d found her soul mate. She sure as hell had never made any comments like that when she was married to him . He tried to suppress a smug smile. The very reason she’d cited for the breakdown of their marriage—that his work hours didn’t jive with being a husband and father—had now reared up to bite her on the bum. Seems it wasn’t so crash hot when your partner didn’t have a job at all.
    Breck finished his sub and stuffed the paper bag into the trash receptacle. Then he switched his cell phone back on. He’d been off air now for almost three hours and he’d never been that unprofessional before. If he wasn’t careful, he’d be without a job too.
    Sure enough, there were messages backed up the wazoo. He’d