Point of No Return Read Online Free

break, something to put his business on the map. Something big, international and newsworthy.
    Maybe even something to make him feel like a soldier, a patriot, again. Anything but a cartoon character playing a charade.
    The wind blew against the ancient elm trees ringing the property, picking up his rather un-Snow-White scent. “Let’s get out of here.”
    His cell phone vibrated as he opened the car door. Fishing it out of his pocket, he looked at the number—and stilled.
    â€œYou drive, Wick.” Chet tossed him the keys, walked over to the passenger side and opened the phone. “Chet here.”
    â€œIt’s…me.”
    â€œI know.” Wow, did he know, because just like that, everything he’d felt that day when he’d met Mae Lund—the longing, the hope, even the delight—rushed backand took a swipe at his voice. He found it, although it emerged a little roughed up as he turned from the car. “How are you, Mae?”
    â€œNot so good.” Was there a tremor in her voice?
    â€œWhat is it?”
    â€œIt’s my nephew, Josh. He’s missing.”
    â€œThen call the police.”
    â€œHe’s in Georgia.”
    â€œI’m not sure what I can do from here—”
    â€œGeorgia, the country!” Her voice resounded loud and clear, and on the edge of desperate, despite being on the other side of the world. Uh, she was on the other side of the world, right? “Where are you?”
    â€œGetting on a plane in Seattle.”
    â€œLet me guess—to Prague.”
    Silence. Then, “No, to Georgia. Why would I come to Prague?”
    Wow, that hurt, more than he would have ever guessed. Because for a second he’d been hoping, wildly perhaps, that she’d forgotten how he’d stomped her pride into tiny bits, and instead remembered that once upon a time he really cared what happened to her. What she thought about. What food she liked and what movies she saw. What her dreams were…outside the ones that included the rather negative byproduct of him watching her die, that was.
    â€œYou’re going to Georgia? ”
    â€œWhere else would I be going, Chet? Honolulu? My nephew is missing, and I speak Russian, which means I can probably get by, thanks to the years of Russia occupation. My sister is losing her mind, and I think I can find him. I know he was working near Gari…in a village called Burmansk.” Her voice dropped. “I was hoping that…maybe…oh…never mind.”
    â€œWait!” Don’t hang up. “You want me to find him?”
    â€œNo. I can find him. I was hoping you could tap into your contacts in Georgia to help me.” Her voice dropped.
    â€œYou know the ones.”
    â€œYes, I know the ones.” He climbed into the car as Wick started it up and cranked the air conditioner. “I’d forgotten that I’d told—”
    â€œI didn’t.” She said it softly, as if the details of the letters he’d written while he’d been in Taiwan had mattered to her. Only she didn’t know it all, because if she did she would never have called, would never have asked him to dig into his past.
    â€œI…I’m not sure that’s such a great idea, Mae. I don’t even know if I can find the right people anymore.” Not to mention the bounty on his head in that particular country. Mae could be walking right into the fallout that he’d always dreaded. “Have you called the embassy?”
    â€œYes, but their official position is that Josh ran away with a local village girl.”
    â€œMaybe he did.”
    â€œHe’s not that irresponsible. He calls home every Sunday night, and was the only kid in his Sunday school who earned a gold star for perfect attendance. He’s an Eagle Scout, for Pete’s sake. He’s not going to just take off and scare everyone around him!”
    â€œCalm down, Mae. I’m sure he’s