Sanctuary Lost WITSEC Town Series Book 1 Read Online Free Page A

puppet-master,
manipulating everything to be what you think is best for everyone
else.” John folded his arms. Had his brother always been like this,
or was he just now noticing it?
    “I’m helping you keep my nephew safe.”
    “Because you don’t think I can do it on my
own, but you think I can sheriff a town? That makes no sense.”
    “It’s a good assignment.” Grant nodded. “A
promotion. You should be proud I think you can do it.”
    “But you don’t think I can be a father. Is
that why you gave me all those undercover assignments?”
    “If I did, then it didn’t work now, did it?
Ellen quit. So I guess you’re going to have to step up. Your son
needs you.”
    John studied his oldest brother. “What
happened to you while I was away?”
    “Genevieve left me.”
    “What? When?”
    “Two months ago. Now I get the girls one
weekend a month. I have eighteen months until Bev and Helen leave
for college and then I’ll as good as lose them forever.”
    “So you’re taking your issues out on me, is
that it?” John glanced at the ceiling. “You can’t fix your family
problems by forcing me to figure out my life. Ellen and I are
divorced, we’re not going back there and I’m going to take this
time to give Pat what he needs.”
    “Yeah, since yesterday.”
    John shifted. “Don’t lash out at me just
because your family is in the toilet.”
    Grant lifted both hands. He let them fall,
like they weighed too much to hold up. “I just want things to go
back to normal.”
    “Uh…newsflash, dude. Women do not want that.
They want stuff to be changing all the time, growing and improving.
Tell me Genevieve never said anything to you about counseling.”
    “I’m not interested in a bandage.”
    John slung his arm around his brother’s neck.
“Do you want her to divorce you?”
    “Of course not.”
    “Then listen up.”
     
    **
     
    John’s mom was in the kitchen, pulling a dish
from the oven. “Hey.”
    She glanced over her shoulder. “Hey, honey.”
Her white-blond hair swayed with the movement as she danced to the
tune of a song only she could hear. “Did you know a billion and a
half pens are made every year but only a hundred million
pencils?”
    “Uh…no.”
    Her heels clacked on the tile floor as she
moved to the counter and the makings of a salad. “Pat and I had a
lot of fun today. After the movie we went to the library and he
found one of those weird fact books.”
    John smiled. “I’m glad.”
    He’d spent the whole ride back from D.C.
reading the file on Sanctuary. It was insane how someone’s idea of
witnesses forming their own community had spiraled into this actual
thing, in existence now only slightly longer than John had been
alive.
    After Grant dropped him off at his condo,
he’d packed a bag and called a shipping company to get the rest of
the things he wanted to keep. The bulk of it was going in storage
until his mom could organize a garage sale. Or, that was the plan
at least.
    “Where’s Pat now?”
    “He’s in his room, reading.” The corners of
her lips turned down. “I think he tried to call his mom. I heard
him leave a message but he didn’t want to talk about it.”
    John got a water from the fridge. On the door
was a whiteboard calendar with every available space filled in.
“Busy.”
    She grinned. “I was nominated the community’s
social coordinator.”
    “Of course you were.” His mom lived in a
community of retirees who golfed and hung out at the complex’s
centers and clubs. After half a lifetime on a Kansas farm, his mom
had morphed into a social butterfly. He was also pretty sure she
currently had a boyfriend.
    She’d toned up, lost weight and dressed
stylishly now. But not like she was trying to look fifty instead of
seventy. “You look good, Mom.”
    She danced to the opposite counter and opened
a high cupboard. “Thanks, darlin’. But I’m thinking that’s not why
you don’t look happy.”
    “I’m happy.”
    She stopped her