Vow to Protect by Ann Voss Peterson Read Free Book Online

only he could.
    â€œThe cops will be on this floor any second.” At least he hoped they would be. He prayed.
    â€œYou’re too smart for this, Cordell. Helping the cops?” Kane shook his head, as if sorely disappointed. “They sure as hell aren’t going to help you. They’d just as soon see you back in the penitentiary.”
    Cord couldn’t argue with that. He didn’t even try. “There’s no way out, Kane.”
    â€œThere’s always a way out.”
    â€œNot this time.”
    â€œWhy do you listen to them, Cordell?”
    Cord shook his head. He didn’t listen to the cops. At least he didn’t believe them. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to believe anything Kane said, either.
    â€œThey tell you that you’re scum. Dirt. They tell you that you’re nothing. Why do you listen?”
    â€œLet the boy go.”
    â€œI understand you, Cordell. Not the cops. Not Melanie Frist. Me. Do you know why?”
    He didn’t want to hear this. His hands ached to wrap around Kane’s throat, to choke the life out of him. Whatever it took to shut him up.
    The blade glistened hard and lethal against the tender skin of Ethan’s throat.
    â€œYou’re like me, Cordell. You share my blood.” He looked down at Ethan and smiled. “Strong blood.”
    Cord ground his teeth together.
    The smile widened. “But more than blood, you have tasted my power. The power over life and death.”
    Cord gritted his teeth until his jaw ached. As much as he didn’t want to acknowledge he was anything like his father, Kane was right. They shared the same blood. And they were both killers.
    â€œWhy fight it? Others are weak. They are the ones who are nothing. Not us, Cordell. Not us.”
    Cord couldn’t listen to this. “Let him go.”
    â€œNo one understands that power until they’ve felt it. Until it burns inside. Until it consumes everything else. We know what it’s like to hold life and death in our hands. We know what it’s like to be God.”
    â€œGo to hell, Kane.”
    Shouts sounded from the first floor of the atrium.
    The cops. It was about damn time.
    Kane tilted his head, hearing the shouts, too. “I’ll be in touch.” He reached out with his knife hand to hit a button on the elevator panel.
    Cord lunged forward. Grabbing Ethan’s arm with one hand, he chopped down on Kane’s with the other, breaking his grip. Cord enveloped the boy in his arms. He pulled Ethan away from Kane, out of the elevator.
    To safety.
    The elevator door slid shut.
    Â 
    S HOUTS AND FOOTFALLS echoed in the back of Melanie’s mind like sounds from another world, another life. Her vision narrowed. All she could focus on was the glass elevator. All she could see was Kane’s dyed hair. All she could think about was Ethan.
    Her baby.
    She didn’t know what had happened to Cord. She hadn’t seen him since she’d directed him back to the elevator. Now the elevator hung on the ninth floor.
    â€œMa’am? You have to leave this area. You have to come with me.”
    Her mind registered the officer’s voice, the dark blue of his uniform. She shook her head. “My son is up there. You have to save my son.”
    â€œWe will. But you have to clear out of here. It’s for your own safety.”
    She glanced around the atrium. Officers scrambled into place. The SWAT team in their protective gear, snipers, all of them aiming to take Kane down. “You can’t shoot him. My son is up there. You might hit my son.” And Cord. What had happened to Cord?
    He grasped her elbow in one hand and her fingers in the other. He started walking her away from the elevator.
    She tried to pull back, to break away. Shecouldn’t. The more she fought, the greater pressure seized her arm.
    â€œYou have to move out of the way. You have to let us do our jobs. We won’t hurt your son. Don’t