Stonebrook Cottage by Carla Neggers Read Free Book Online Page B

having no soothing effect on her. The kids' backpacks were leaning up against her couch, unzipped, water bottles and CD players poking out. Who wouldn't believe anything they said?
    "Did the cab take you to my door?" she asked.
    Henry stretched out his legs and dipped his hand into his popcorn bag. "We had him drop us off on the corner."
    That wouldn't divert Jack and Sam for half a second. "You left a hell of a trail. I'm surprised I got here before the police. You know they're bound to be looking for you by now, don't you?" She groaned at the mess these kids had made for themselves. And they no doubt thought they were so smart. "You're calling your mother right now. "
    Lillian glanced at her brother, and his mouth drew into a straight, grim line. "She knows we're here."
    "No, she doesn't. I talked to her earlier—"
    "Then she lied to you because someone was listening and she couldn't tell you the truth." Henry gazed up defiantly, Lillian following his lead. Given her years as a criminal defense attorney, Kara could sense fear behind defiance, bravado, loud, false protests of inno-cence—and she did now, with her godchildren. There was a quaver to his voice when Henry went on. "Mom told us we had to get out of the ranch as fast as possible and go to you. She couldn't come for us. We had to get away on our own. She knew we could do it."
    "Henry. Lillian." Kara continued to pace, her head pounding. The smell of popcorn turned her stomach. "Your mother would not have asked you to run away like that. No one in their right mind would. She'd call me and have me go pick you up—"
    "She didn't, " Lillian said.
    Kara sighed. "You two have put me in a hell of a position," she said, not unkindly.
    "We know." Henry spoke softly, but his eyes—a clear, pale blue almost identical to his father's—grew wide and serious. "Aunt Kara, we're in trouble."
    Lillian nodded, gulping for air. "Big trouble."
    There was no bravado now, no pride in having slipped off to Austin on their own, with no one the wiser. Kara stopped pacing, staying on her feet as she waited for them to continue. Their fear was palpable.
    "That's why Mom's acting so weird," Henry said.
    Lillian reached into her backpack and withdrew the first of the Harry Potter books, its cover greasy and torn. She opened up to a page marked with a twig and stared down at it, her braid flopping down her front, hands greasy from the popcorn.
    "Mom sent us a letter to give to you." Henry unzipped the outer pocket of his backpack and pulled out a grimy water bottle, a CD player, two fruit-bar wrappers, a compass and, finally, a limp, rumpled envelope. He handed it to Kara. She noticed it was sealed, no postmark. He said, "She put it in with other stuff she sent down for us. We didn't read it."
    Kara sat on the edge of an overstuffed armchair a few feet from her godchildren. She'd gone to a store decorator with the dimensions and style of her living room and said go to it. She liked to think she'd have time one day to fuss with proper renovations and decorating, but this was her life, she thought. Here she was, listening to two middle-schoolers defend their inexplicable actions.
    Henry had always been precocious and quiet, skilled at getting people to do what he wanted them to do without them even realizing it. He wasn't manipulative so much as an effective negotiator, always certain of what he wanted the outcome to be. In this case, apparently, it was to convince his godmother that he and his sister had run away with their mother's permission because they all were in big trouble.
    Kara recognized the heavy cream-colored stock and dark green ink, the elegant lettering, of Allyson's personal stationery. Nice touch. The letter inside was handwritten. Smart. If it had been typed, she'd have nailed Henry and Lillian immediately. The handwriting was similar enough to Allyson's to pass initial muster, and whoever had done the writing had even thought to use her signature black fountain pen. Kara