The Perfect Hostage (A Super Agent Novella) (Entangled Edge) Read Online Free Page B

several of Lucie’s cousins laughing at his jokes, all in short order. He made sure his good ol’ boy charm was hard to resist. Anything to piss off Charles Morgan.
    He headed in the direction Charles had disappeared to earlier. The living room, dining room, and a library were lumped into one great room. Beyond that, he didn’t know what he’d find. Stairs to the second floor, it turned out. A bathroom and a hallway that led to the back of the house where an indoor pool overlooked the woods. Back to the hall and around the corner and he was next to the kitchen.
    This house was a damn maze.
    During the time Charles was on the phone, John identified several Morgans who were not happy with the man. Mostly they were pissed that Charles was giving Lucie money—not hard to figure that out—but underneath the surface, their discontent ran deeper. Some recent investments he’d recommended had gone south. They’d lost money.
    Too bad he didn’t have more time to get the details, and maybe it was no big deal. Everyone got disgruntled when money was on the line. Sure, Charles acted like an ass every time John was around, and some of the distant relatives at the party confirmed he was a taciturn and somewhat eccentric billionaire, but he was also a self-starter. A man to admire. He’d built an entire empire in his lifetime. Done some good things with his money. Probably done some shitty things, too.
    From John’s perspective, he was all hat and no cattle. It all came easy to Charles Morgan. Too easy.
    And from the sound of it, Lucie’s father seemed to think he had to make it hard for everyone else. Especially Lucie. It wasn’t any of John’s business, but he couldn’t stand the way Charles treated her like a second-class citizen. He didn’t understand why she put up with it.
    Midway down the hall, John heard a man’s voice, urgent and aggravated behind a wooden door.
    Definitely Charles. He started to knock, caught part of Charles’s words, and stilled.
    “Why won’t you leave me alone? I told you, I had nothing to do with that. Your mother made her choices, and…”
    His voice trailed off as if listening to the person on the other end.
    “No. I will not be threatened. You come near me or my family again, and I’ll go to the police.”
    Whoa. Charles was being threatened? By whom?
    He should ask. Help the guy out. But billionaires received threats every day, didn’t they? Didn’t they have people to handle that?
    Your mother made her choices.
    John lowered his fist. Did Charles have another secret kid running around?
    Lucie and Zara would have accepted another member of this dysfunctional family without pause. The rest of the Morgans? Not so much.
    Whatever . Family dramas didn’t interest him. He just wanted the man out of the cabin. He had business to take care of with a certain beautiful woman.
    Bam, bam, bam . The wooden door was solid as a rock under his fist. “Hey, Chuck. Your wife’s looking for you.”
    Silence, and then the door flew open. The man stood there, red-faced and practically blowing steam out his ears. The phone was clutched in his hand, an office with expensive furniture and heavy drapes behind him. “Don’t you ever call me that again.”
    John couldn’t help but smile at the veiled threat. Or what? he wanted to say. Instead, he motioned at the phone. “Someone bothering you?”
    “Yes.” Charles brushed him aside. “You.”
    Charles took the long way around to the great room and the front door, and John followed at a respectful distance, until he could sneak into the kitchen to avoid the good-byes. Lawson, hiding out in the kitchen as well, handed him a beer and they clinked bottles and stood in unison by the sink, drinking and not talking.
    Perfect .
    John’s mind went back to a time after the kidnapping. He and Lucie working on that rundown house to turn it into a ballet studio. They’d had plenty of quiet moments together, not talking, just working. He’d shown her how to