Read Online His Every Desire by Shiloh Walker - Free Book Online Page A

edged away, turning to face her.
    She smiled at him, a sad smile that only added to the delicate beauty of her face. “I do. I’ve seen too many of them not to recognize them. You’re no knight, but you’re not the bad guy, either.”
    She stepped away, pausing to look down at the coffee table. He looked down.
    There was a plain manila file there. It hadn’t been there five minutes ago.
    Her eyes lifted and met his.
    “We all have our ghosts, don’t we, Joel?”
    She walked out, leaving him alone in the room.
    Well, not alone. Joel was rarely alone. Carly’s misty white form shimmered into view and she said in a puzzled tone, What an odd woman.
    Joel ignored Carly as he bent down and took the folder, flipped through it.
    His breath froze in his chest as he saw a photograph. She didn’t look the same. Not at all. But it was her. The soft dove gray eyes didn’t look quite so haunted, and that wide, mobile mouth looked softer in her face.
    She had changed—but it was Tracy.
    “She knows where she is.”
    * * * * *
    Casey looked over the rim of her coffee cup at Bryson. “Yes, I know he’ll take off. We don’t need him. Not anymore. There’s enough evidence, more than enough to convict him.” Then she paused and lifted one shoulder, smirking a little. “That’s if Grainger ever wakes up.”
    “You really want to let our star witness just walk away?”
    Casey sighed. “He’s not our star witness. What he is, is an ex-con. He’s served a prison term and worked for us, I know that. But every time we put him on the stand, the deal we made with him was thrown back at us. We don’t need him—not with the evidence he gave us, not with the witnesses we’ve unearthed from that evidence.”
    A knot formed in her gut and she sat back, rubbing at her belly. “Besides, you saw Grainger the other day. It’s like looking at a blank slate. There’s nothing there.”
    * * * * *
    For the longest while, there was nothing.
    No memory, no thoughts, no faces.
    Just an empty fog.
    But out of that fog came something ugly and black, a festering anger that ate away at him. Beyond that, it took longer for anything clear to emerge.
    He’d waited though. There were people around him. He didn’t trust them—too many people, coming at him, probing, asking questions. He stayed quiet, stayed silent, waiting for the fog and anger to clear.
    When it did—he saw their faces. Not the people around him.
    But them.
    A man.
    A woman.
    They had to die.
    He didn’t know where they were. The man would be harder to find—in his gut, he knew that. The man was dangerous. Find the woman. She was the weak link. Find her and he’d get the man.
    He had to get strong though.
    First he had to get strong.
    Chapter Six
     
    Yes, Agent Dowling sure as hell knew where Tracy was, but all she’d left Joel were breadcrumbs.
    He could follow them, but it was eating away time he didn’t have.
    Frustration ate at him the weeks he’d wasted tracking Tracy to the small town in southern Indiana. By the time he approached realtors, hoping for clues to lead him to her, he knew he had wasted too much time.
    Becky Cramer took one look at the picture and tapped her cheek, studying him thoughtfully. Tension knotted his gut but he just smiled and waited patiently.
    Finally. She knew something.
    It didn’t matter whether she told him or not. She knew something and he’d find out what it was.
    “Mind if I ask why you’re looking for her?”
    “That’s between us, but I’ve reason to believe she’s in danger.”
    Becky’s eyes didn’t even flicker. She wasn’t going to tell him jack. But she knew something. And she’d seen Tracy. “Then perhaps you should consider approaching the authorities and not a real estate agent,” she advised coolly, handing the photograph back to him.
    Joel inclined his head. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
    He left, making note of the cars in the parking lot as he strolled away. Getting into her office would be child’s