A Stranger's Touch by Roxy Boroughs Read Free Book Online

I can’t. Look, I’ll pay you for your time.”
    “I don’t want to be paid. That’s not the point.”
    “No. I have to find my little boy. That’s the point.”
    “Stop the car, Maggie.”
    She ignored him, and Mick, and kept going. Until Stafford issued the order a second time. His voice held such command that she had to obey. She checked her mirror, moved into the right-hand lane and over to the paved shoulder.
    She flipped off the radio and swiveled toward him. “What’s the matter with you?”
    Her lips trembled as she spoke. She couldn’t control them or the desperation and anger that exploded inside her. “Are you blind? You know how this works. Every hour that passes takes Davie further away from me. Don’t you get it? Don’t you want to help find a missing child?”
    A wave of anguish passed over his features. She remembered how he’d looked on the station’s steps when his handsome face contorted with pain. Is that why he hesitated? Because he felt the emotions of others so intensely? Was it a matter of self-preservation?
    She looked down and found her fingers curled into claws. She forced them to unfurl, made them lie flat against her thighs.
    A gush of air shook the car as another vehicle passed. Then all she could hear was breathing: her own, quick and shallow; his, slow and labored.
    She lifted her head and met his eyes. His were troubled, filled with a lifetime of sadness. Maggie lowered her voice to a whisper.
    “I don’t have anywhere else to turn. Please. Help me do this.”
    He looked away, his focus drifting to the cheap chain on her rearview mirror as it swung to and fro. “Where are you planning to go?”
    That was the problem. She had no plan. The Canada/US border stretched more than 5,000 miles. Where would she start?
    The futility of her mission hit her, leaving her numb. Her son could be hundreds of miles away. In any direction. Even on his way overseas.
    “I don’t know.”
    Stafford grasped the chain’s end and looked at the pendant, at the photo of her little boy. Maggie pictured the shot in her mind, Davie’s mouth slanted up into that crooked grin she so loved. The smile she might never see again. She bit the insides of her cheeks to stop the flow of tears. It didn’t help. She’d never felt so scared. So alone.
    “Then...let’s go north.”
    It took a moment for her to register Stafford’s words. To realize that he’d just agreed to go with her. And that he’d suggested they travel in the opposite direction Owens had planned for his search.
    She swiped at the moisture on her cheeks with the backs of her hands. “Why north?”
    He let go of the chain, waiting for it to settle before he spoke again. “Just a feeling.”
    A feeling? She’d spent the last five minutes begging for Stafford’s help. She’d hoped for more than a feeling.
    Could she trust him? Should she? A few hours earlier, she’d called his abilities hocus-pocus. Yet, here she sat in a car with the man. A stranger.
    “Webb’s your last name? Stafford Webb?”
    “Yes.”
    “Mine’s Holmes. Maggie Holmes.”
    “Maggie Holmes,” he repeated. He took off his gloves, reached for her hand and held it in his.
    Stafford’s touch was warm, his palm callused. His large hand cradled hers. She half expected sparks to fly. Or some other suitably flashy special effect. No such sci-fi movie magic occurred. Still, the simple contact helped ease her fears.
    “Now that we’ve been properly introduced...”
    Maggie nodded, leaving his sentence unfinished. She drew away, shifted into low gear, checked her blind spot, and pulled out into traffic.
    “Did you want to pick up anything at home before we go?”
    He didn’t reply. She opened her mouth to repeat the question.
    “No. Let’s just go.” He turned and looked out the side window, his last words barely audible. “Before I change my mind.”
    She wasn’t supposed to have heard it. And started to question whether or not she actually had. She might