Untamed by Kate Allenton Read Free Book Online Page B

there than where I am.”
    “Sorry isn’t going to cut it, Tara, not this time. The restaurant is going to hell. We’ve had bad shipments; some haven’t shown up at all. Rotten food, staff quitting, it’s like someone flipped a switch, and everything that could go wrong, did, happening all at the same time.”
    Tara glanced down at the letter in her hand. “William, has Mary been making the loan payments? I got a letter from the bank that says we are three months past due. They are giving us only thirty days to get the payments caught back up. Please tell me this is just a misunderstanding. Mary told me everything was fine, that she’d taken care of everything. That was her job, damn it.”
    The line went quiet. He didn’t have to answer her question. She already knew.
    “She’s called in sick for the last two days. I went to take her some soup this afternoon and I ran into her apartment superintendent. He told me that she moved. She cleared out two days ago with no forwarding address. When I went into her office and started digging around, I found letters from the bank that she’d been hiding. I had no idea. I swear I had no idea.”
    Tara’s head fell forward. “I talked to you two every other day for the last nine months. Both of you told me that everything was fine. How in the hell did this happen?”
    “ I trusted her too. She was manipulating both of us. I’ve been going over the books, Tara, and it’s not good. She cleaned out the account.”
    Tara closed her eyes. The night had just gotten worse. Without her there to keep an eye on the restaurant, it was going under. Not only was she not sure who she could trust anymore, but she didn’t know whether she’d even have a restaurant or bar to go back to once this was all over.
    The bar… Her head shot up, and hope surged in her chest. The revenue from the bar might put a big dent in the amount she owed. Her heart started beating again. Maybe not all was lost. Maybe it was all still salvageable. Three black SUVs surrounded her vehicle. Teams dressed in fatigues jumped out, and Brody started barking orders.
    “Tara?”
    She shook her head as she watched the efficiency of the team’s movement. They took the three unconscious men, two conscious men that were still down on their knees, Veronica and even Peter and stuffed them in the SUVs. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
    She needed to get home , and the sooner the better, but teleporting right that moment wasn’t an option, not unless she was willing to divulge the last secret she had in her arsenal to the one man who drove her crazier than anyone else. And even if she was willing, it wasn’t as though she could take Brody with her. After Brody’s little show of protection, she knew he would insist.
    She’d pushed the limits of her abilities before. Her imagination was the limit of what she could pull out of thin air. If she’d seen it, touched it, smelled it, or even thought about it, she could produce it, although large items came with a price to pay. Exhaustion would overcome her and set in like none she’d ever experienced.
    T eleporting was a different ball game. She’d tried teleporting once with a pizza in her hand. She’d moved from place to place just fine; holding the cargo was another story entirely. When she arrived back at her apartment, she was covered in red sauce and cheese and had pepperoni in her hair. It had taken a week to remove the garlic smell. She shuddered at the thought of trying to transport another human being, no matter how annoying the human being. She was almost certain there was no way in heck she’d be going alone. Thinking of which person they would be sending… Brody climbed into the SUV. The look he gave her, confirmed her suspicion. His jaw twitched, his hands crushed the steering wheel. He looked ready to take on the world.
    She g estured out the window. “Why are they taking Veronica?”
    He glanced at her. “She’s gifted and she offered to give