Stonebrook Cottage by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online Page A

Kara that Big Mike was half in love with her.
    He'd tried to make light of his admission. "Christ, don't tell me you're going to fall for Hatch, after all."
    "Hatch? He doesn't have a thing for me."
    "Ha."
    Mike Parisi and Hatch Corrigan. Instead, she'd ended up in bed with Sam Temple.
    This, she thought, was why she had her problems with men.
    Mike had always known she'd go back to Texas. "No bluebonnets in Connecticut," he'd say, then pull up every stupid stereotype he could think of about Texas and Texans, just to goad her—just to make her realize she was chronically homesick.
    Maybe he'd known telling her he was in love with her would seal the deal, his way of making sure she didn't get cold feet. "You have demons to lay to rest, Kara," he'd told her, his worn, lived-in face without any hint of humor, "and you can't do it here. You need to go home."
    In her months back in Texas, she'd only managed to stir up new demons. She hadn't laid any of the old ones to rest.
    The night air was still hot, without even a hint of a breeze. Her little house had a decent front yard that needed reseeding and a front porch that needed scraping and painting—well, the place was a fixer-upper. She didn't know why she'd bought it. Why not a brand-new condo? She didn't have time to cook, never mind scrape paint and strip hardwood floors. The previous owners had kept the place clean and tidy, maintaining the original woodwork and floor plan, giving the house, as her Realtor had put it, potential.
    She heard someone laughing down the street, music from a nearby house. She unlocked her front door, feeling less panicked. If she didn't hear anything more tonight, she'd call Allyson in the morning and drive out to the ranch herself. She knew she wouldn't sleep.
    When she pushed open her door, the cool air from inside washed over her, but she stopped abruptly, hearing something. And when she glanced in her living room, there on the floor, eating microwave popcorn and watching television, were Henry and Lillian Stockwell.
    * * *
    The missing children of the governor of Connecticut looked up at Kara from their bags of popcorn. They were blond, blue-eyed and well mannered for eleven and twelve. Even sweaty and tired, they were obviously well off. They had on neat khaki shorts and polo shirts, and Lillian had tied a western-style red bandanna on the end of her single long braid, wisps of white-blond hair sticking out of it. Henry had dirt smudges on his chin.
    He spoke first, his tone everyday casual. "Hi, Aunt Kara. We found your spare key under a flowerpot."
    " I found it," Lillian said. "Henry was looking under the doormat."
    "Does your mother know where you are?" Kara walked into the living room from the small entry and raked a hand through her hair, debating how to handle the situation. "How did you get here? What did you do, hide in a hay wagon? Steal a horse? Come on, you two. Fess up."
    "We took the ranch shuttle to the Austin airport," Henry replied calmly. "It makes the trip twice a day, once in the morning, once in the afternoon."
    "The shuttle? How? Didn't anyone ask questions?"
    He shrugged. "We were prepared."
    Lillian flipped her braid over one shoulder. "Henry arranged everything on the camp computer—he even printed out a form we needed. The driver thought we were meeting Mom. When we got to the airport, we pretended to see her and jumped out with our backpacks. It was easy."
    "It's not like we're little kids," her brother added.
    Kara stared at the two of them. "You mean you conned your way out here. At the very least you owe this poor driver an apology." She could think of two Texas Rangers who'd be interested in the kids' story. "How did you get from the airport to my house?"
    "Taxi," Henry said.
    "When?"
    "A little while ago." His chin was thrust up at her, as if he was daring her to try to pin him down to an exact time or tell him he'd done anything seriously wrong.
    Kara paced in her small living room, its cozy fabrics and woods