The Ransom by Chris Taylor Read Free Book Online Page A

know if you remember anything else about that phone call. I’ll let you know when we find Olivia.”
    When, not if.He’d issued the confident statement deliberately and he was sure that sooner or later, the child would surface. His only hope was that she was still alive when that happened.

CHAPTER FIVE

    Saturday, January 27, 12:50 p.m.

    Zara Dowton stared down from the window where she stood in her sister’s bedroom and watched the detective head toward his car. He opened the door and went to climb in when Emily McGregor appeared. The girl worked with Mrs Harrow and helped to keep the household running smoothly. She was also precocious and flirted outrageously with some of the male staff.
    Zara was sure she didn’t mean anything by it and no one seemed to mind, least of all the staff. Emily was barely out of high school. With her svelte figure and fun, flirty ways, she seemed to draw men to her with very little effort and Zara couldn’t help but admire her for her confidence.
    She saw the detective laugh at something Emily said and a pang of envy went through her. What she wouldn’t give to be carefree and confident like Emily. To be witty and make someone laugh. She had the best part of half a decade on the girl and yet Zara felt awkward and uncomfortable whenever she was left in the presence of an eligible male. A casual flirt she wasn’t, no matter how she wished she were different.
    A few moments later, the detective offered Emily a cheery wave and climbed back into his car.
    A minute later, his vehicle headed down the driveway and disappeared from sight. She glanced back at her sister, now asleep on the bed. She’d urged Brittany to rest after her ordeal and had promised to stay with her while she slept. Her heart ached for the trauma and shock the little girl had endured and Zara thanked God she’d been spared the worst of it.
    She didn’t know the Munro family very well, but she felt their pain, deep in her chest. She couldn’t imagine the agony of not knowing where their daughter was, whether she was hurting, whether she’d ever come home…
    She fingered the business card given to her by the good-looking detective. Lane . That’s what he’d told Britt. It was a nice name, a strong name, like him. With his long, muscular legs and broad shoulders, he’d towered over her. At her five-foot nothing, that wasn’t hard for most men, but Lane carried himself in such a way and with such an air of confidence and determination—as if nothing would ever get in his way—that he seemed even taller than what she guessed him to be.
    And he’d been so good with Brittany. The little girl had been scared to death, had sobbed without relief when she’d first arrived home. She had begged Zara to stay with her, but the detective had seemed to sense her fragile state and had gently coaxed her into giving him the information he needed.
    At first, Zara thought he was going to change his mind about conducting the interview. The look of panic on his face when he’d entered Britt’s bedroom would have been almost comical under less serious circumstances. He’d looked too big and too dark and too maleamidst the fluff and flutter of her sister’s fairy-tale bedroom. But he’d kept his composure and managed to get what he came for, without unnecessary stress on Brittany—and for that, Zara was grateful.
    The memory of his gaze as it captured hers sent a shiver of awareness down her spine. Hazel colored and flecked with brown, his eyes had looked right into her soul. For an instant, the world had narrowed to just the two of them. He radiated strength and honesty and sex appeal and she’d been drawn to him like an arsonist to kindling.
    And then her father had spoken and the spell had broken, but as the officer went about carefully and kindly eliciting answers from her sister, her gaze had returned to him over and over again.
    She’d never felt so drawn to a man before. Of course, he was probably too old for her. From