Relentless by Robin Parrish Read Free Book Online Page A

His breaths came in heaves, and he finally raised his eyes again. ‘‘When you left at the end of that first visit—you whispered into my ear. Do you remember what you said?’’
    She watched him warily, hopefully.
    ‘‘You told me that when we dream, we go to a special place where anything is possible. You said we would make this our—’’
    ‘‘Our safe house,’’ Julie whispered, finishing for him.
    ‘‘Where we could meet and play together every single night,’’ Grant concluded. ‘‘I went there every night in my sleep, or tried to . . . But even there you never came.’’
    Julie’s phone fell to the ground.
    Crying openly, a hand over her mouth, she walked back to him, staring into his eyes. She stood only inches from him, watching him. Wanting to believe, but dazed and confused. At last her expression softened. ‘‘ You were always there in my dreams,’’ she said softly.
    They both took choked breaths and then embraced hard, rocking back and forth, holding tight, as morning glowed gold and green all about them.
    They never wanted to let go.
    ‘‘So what do we do about all this?’’ Julie asked. After he didn’t say anything, she prodded. ‘‘Collin?’’
    They were back in the Jeep, and downtown L.A., unusually glossy and clear, beckoned them from dead ahead.
    ‘‘Grant.’’
    ‘‘What?’’ she asked, distractedly.
    ‘‘I’m still your brother, but I . . . I’m not Collin anymore. There’s too much . . . I can’t . . .’’ His voice, his entire manner had changed. He was focused and severe, but frustrated and tired, struggling for words. ‘‘My name is Grant.’’
    ‘‘All right, whatever.’’
    Over the last hour at the park, Grant had filled her in on everything that had happened during the last twenty-four hours. All it had done was open a door to questions he couldn’t answer.
    Creeping ahead in the morning traffic, Julie finally asked the big question. ‘‘How can this be possible?’’
    ‘‘Wish I knew.’’
    ‘‘So whoever is after me . . . you think it’s the same guy that tried to kill you?’’ Julie asked.
    ‘‘Hope so.’’
    ‘‘That’s an odd thing to hope for.’’
    He massaged his forehead. ‘‘It would mean I only have one enemy to worry about. On the other hand, maybe there are dozens of people out there hunting me down. I’m willing to bet that what they’re after is this .’’ He held up the ring. ‘‘Or maybe Konrad is just trying to drive me insane. And maybe it’s working.’’
    She took a deep breath and shook her head. None of this made sense to her. How could it? None of it made sense to him .
    ‘‘This guy . . . he’s never going to give up, is he?’’ she asked, fearful.
    ‘‘He’ll just keep coming, no matter what we do.’’
    ‘‘He won’t give up.’’
    ‘‘Then . . . what do we do?’’
    ‘‘We have to force his hand.’’
    ‘‘And just exactly how do we do that?’’
    ‘‘We go where he’ll expect me to go next,’’ he said. ‘‘And we finish this.’’
    She looked at him, alarmed. He saw her shiver, slightly. ‘‘Are you sure you’re my brother? You don’t talk like him. Or think like him.’’
    ‘‘We can’t go back to the police,’’ Grant explained as if it were obvious. ‘‘You’re obviously not safe there, and they’d never believe my story. They think I kidnapped you.’’
    ‘‘Which, technically, you did,’’ she agreed.
    ‘‘Look, I don’t know how I’m suddenly able to strategize and make with the big plans, but I need you to trust me. Konrad has the advantage. He can pick us off from anywhere if we slow down long enough to give him the chance. So our only option is to engineer a situation where we have the advantage.’’
    She studied him, nonplussed. ‘‘You’re going to draw him out into the open by being bait yourself.’’ It wasn’t a question; it was disapproval.
    ‘‘It’ll be all right,’’ said Grant, a deadly glint in his