Murphy's Law Read Online Free Page B

stress of the
past six years plus this topped the charts of what she could handle. She had
suffered so much at the hands of her husband and his family, she just couldn’t
bear the thought of losing her daughter now, after they’d made their escape.
    “She’s mine, dammit. She belongs with
me!” she sobbed. “How could I let this happen?”
    Rough hands gripped her shoulders and
set her firmly away from the chest she cried on. He gave her a rough shake.
Murphy bore down on her with a fierce expression. The scar stood out
dramatically against his tanned face as he leaned in close and forced her to meet
his eyes. His grip was strong through her jacket, but he wasn’t hurting her.
    She blinked rain drops out of her eyes
and tried to focus on his face, blurred by her tears, then wished she hadn’t
because his granite expression made her pull back to escape its intensity.
    “Pull yourself together,” he ordered in
a stern voice that held no sympathy. “We don’t have time for you to break down.
Your daughter was here, but she walked away.”
    His words cut through her misery. “How
do you know that?” she shouted over the wind gusting around them.
    Murphy pointed down at the ground. Sara
followed the action and gasped. She dropped to her knees and picked up the
broken piece of a zipper, holding it like a piece of gold.
    She looked up at Murphy. “I had to keep
fixing Abby’s zipper because she wouldn’t part with her backpack. The doll must
have fallen out when the zipper broke. Do you think that’s possible?”
    Murphy gripped her arm and propelled her
forward. A few steps later he stopped and knelt on the ground. Sara watched him
study the rocky ground, then reach out and trace a finger over an overturned
rock. She clutched the doll to her chest and waited for him to speak.
    “She went this way,” he said, rising to
his feet and scanning the area around them.
    “Thank God,” Sara breathed. “Can you
still look for her with the rain?”
    Murphy didn’t answer. He stared at the
trees ahead of them. Sara followed his gaze, and glanced back at him. She may
not see anything, but he did. He had gone rigid and still, his jaw clenched
tight with nothing moving but his eyes. He reminded her of a jungle cat sensing
its prey.
    Unsure what to do, she stayed in place,
her heart beating a mile a minute. She wasn’t afraid of Murphy, but his
abilities made her uneasy. Silent, intense and dark.
    It made her think of her brother-in-law,
Stephen. The thought made her shudder. Stephen was bad through and through; she
had seen it in his eyes, but she didn’t see that same darkness in Murphy. He
was gruff and aloof, but his soul wasn’t black like Stephen’s. No one compared
to Stephen. Not his brother--her husband, Kent--or even their mother, Chelsea.
She was cold as ice and demanded too much from her boys, but she didn’t have
that same evil Sara sensed in her oldest son. Often Sara had wondered if
Chelsea had any idea who Stephen really was. If she saw the darkness inside
him. And if she did, how could she send him after her grandchild? Someone that
dangerous would stop at nothing to do her bidding.
    Pushing those thoughts away, she focused
on Murphy. Later, there would be time to worry about what Stephen would do to
her if he found her.
     

 
    Chapter 3
     
    The hairs on the back of Murphy’s neck
bristled as carefully honed instincts alerted him to things he normally would
have missed. He’d learned years ago to trust his instincts and he wasn’t about
to change that now, so he scanned the tree line for signs of the girl. She was
close, he could feel it. Deep behind enemy lines he’d sometimes sensed the
enemy long before they were made known. His instincts had saved his life more than
once and he counted on them to save the girl now.
    Though he couldn’t see her, he started
walking toward the tree line. Twigs snapped as Sara hurried after him. Moments
later she latched onto his coat. He led her into the woods