Safe Haven by Renee Simons Read Free Book Online

roofing collapsed because they poured too much cement? That fiasco also caused injuries to workers."
    "That's one I missed,” Drew said.
    "But you have heard the talk about a silent partner?”
    “Who we’ve been trying to identify with no luck.”
    “Well, I'd like to know who he is. Everything I've read points to hanky panky of some kind, or at the very least, gross negligence."
    His cigarette lighter clicked. "About Ethan...you haven't told him what you're...we're doing, have you?"
    "No,” she replied, “but the secrecy is making me very uncomfortable." How many lies - of omission and otherwise - could she juggle before the load became too heavy to bear?
    "I'm sorry to put you in this position, Jordan , but he mustn't know."
    "You’ve said that before."
    "Because his anger at me might cause him to undermine our efforts to help him."
    "He's obviously very critical of you, but there must be some positive feelings also. Why else was he living with you on the Cape ? And why is he at your Boston house instead of with his friends?"
    "He said the Cape compound would keep him out of the way of his adversaries. As for the house on Beacon Hill , you must agree it's convenient."
    Jordan told him about Ethan's near-accident and his latest foray into the site.
    "He will continue to take foolish risks to uncover the truth," Drew said. "But if the other side is watching him, I need someone trustworthy to keep an eye on him, don’t I? Would you do that for me?"
      She laughed. "He's a little old to have a nanny."
    "But not a friend."
    Her fingers beat a gentle tattoo on the table as she considered his request. "You're asking a lot."
    "Perhaps, but we need your help."
    The warning bells clanged but it seemed to Jordan the time for caution had come and gone. "All right. I'll try. I'm not promising results but I will try."
    "Have you thought about moving over to Beacon Hill ?”
    "With Ethan already there? You're really backing me into a corner."
    "I don't mean to go on about it, but the Willises are there and surely living in my home is preferable to a hotel, more warm and personal, less...lonely."
    During the pause that followed his last words, Jordan considered the danger of being under the same roof with Ethan. The man stirred emotions she would rather not feel - a need to be close to another, a warmth that filled her dark, lonely places, a stirring in that feminine core she’d long ago relegated to the deep freeze.
    "I'll stay at the hotel. Fewer complications."
       "Whatever you say. Mind you, there’s a place waiting should anything change."
    When he hung up, Jordan reached into a stack of folders and pulled out the file on VolTerre. She opened to an article about Terence Conlon. The photo showed an older version of the man who'd been a frequent visitor to her childhood home and a trusted friend and business associate of her father's. The friendship had been strong enough for Jordan to call him "Uncle" and his wife "Aunt."
      When the trouble hit Dutch VanDien's family, however, Uncle Terry had been unavailable and Aunt Candi a stranger, forcing a teen-aged Jordan to discard the myth of friendship she'd been taught to believe. By the time both her father and mother had died, leaving her orphaned at the age of sixteen, she'd become accustomed to trusting no one, to relying on no one, except herself. Nothing had changed during the thirteen years that followed.
    A pain started deep in her gut and traveled upward until it filled her chest and threatened to overcome her. She slammed the file shut and closed her eyes. Thinking about Conlon had resurrected feelings she'd considered long dead.
    "I won't think about this. Not now. Not till I'm ready." The words echoed in the silent room while a still, small voice wondered when that would be.
     
      She had the dream again, the same dream that had plagued her since her father's death. In the middle of a deep, dark night, the wolf came, stalking, watching with yellow eyes for a