Read Online His Kidnapper's Shoes by Maggie James - Free Book Online Page A

mother…’
    Shit. He should have realised Katie would never let this go.
    ‘You said she was a smother mother. OK, I can see why that would irritate you. But -’ Daniel heard puzzlement in her voice. ‘Plenty of mothers are a bit protective. Yes, it must be annoying for their kids, but they still want to spend time with their mums. Are her mental health issues a problem for you?’
    ‘No. Not at all.’ Daniel meant that. Over the years, he’d become accustomed to his mother’s odd spells, as he called them. He hadn’t been the only one at school with a mother who needed pills from time to time to keep her out of Flake Town either. He’d learned to ride things through until she came out of whatever dark world into which she’d retreated.
    ‘Plenty of people don’t deal well with mental health problems in others, Dan. Especially when a family member’s involved.’
    ‘It’s not that.’ Christ, he didn't like the way this was going. He’d be telling her to shut the hell up if she’d been anyone other than Katie.
    ‘What then? Dan, if we’re going to make a go of this, you and me, I want to discover every dark secret you’re hiding. Besides, I can’t help it. I’m nosey.’ She flashed him a smile potent enough to reduce any straight man with a pulse to his knees. ‘Come on. Tell Katie everything.’
    Daniel looked at her, this classy, sassy woman who had the power to make him stop screwing every willing body he came across and make him question what the hell that was all about anyway. He wondered how she’d react if he talked more openly about his relationship with his mother. Would he be able to get across to her the beyond weird thoughts he’d had in his head? Since…well, since like forever. Right now, he had no idea how to tell her without sounding completely screwed-up.
    He’d never spoken of his memories before with anyone, except with his mother, a long time ago, and every time he had, she had brushed his questions aside with a laugh. Told him he was imagining the whole thing, although he'd never been able to believe her. He wasn’t a small boy anymore though; time to step up and be a man. Katie wanted to know why he’d never been able to warm to his mother. Fine, he’d do his best to explain, as weird and as screwed-up as the whole thing might sound. He knew - however much he might want to deny it - that he shouldn't shut Katie out on this. What the hell, he'd already told her more about his family life than he’d ever told anyone before. A little extra wouldn’t hurt.
    He wouldn’t tell her everything, though. Some things – he couldn’t put a voice to them.
    ‘Talk to me, Daniel.’
    ‘It’s complicated. It’ll sound weird, too.’
    ‘So? Tell me anyway.’
    ‘OK.’ He sucked air deep into his lungs. ‘Did you ever feel…like you didn’t belong in your family? Like… you'd been adopted, or there was a mix-up at the hospital and they gave you to the wrong parents or something?’ Holy shit. He already sounded screwed-up, and he'd only just got started.
    She shook her head. ‘No, not really, Dan. I’ve told you how much it meant to Mum and Dad when I came along, how I’ve always been close to them. So no, I’ve never felt I didn’t belong with them.’
    Yeah. That figured. Sour jealousy squeezed his chest again.
    ‘But I remember other kids at school…they sometimes talked about believing they’d been adopted because they didn’t think they fitted in with their family. Isn’t that quite common, though, Dan? You do something out of line, your parents clamp down on you, and suddenly you’re misunderstood and hard done by and life’s terribly unfair. So you try to make sense of things by thinking you must have been adopted.’
    ‘Perhaps. But that’s not it.’
    ‘What, then?’
    ‘What are your earliest memories, Katie?’
    She paused. ‘I remember…let me think…the rag doll I had as a young child. The pink flowered wallpaper in my bedroom. Being told