The Runaway Daughter. Anna DeStefano
Читать онлайн книгу.
safe. She was okay. And by God, he was going to keep her that way.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to let anything happen to you or Max,” he promised.
As a matter of fact, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight, at least not until he got his brother back here to sort this out. He left the bed long enough to retrieve the phone from the corner.
“I’m calling Angie. She’s on duty this morning, and she’ll—”
“No!” Maggie was up again, shaking until her teeth chattered. She pointed a determined finger at him. “Call anyone, and I swear I’m out of here. No one can know I have Max. No one can know we were there. If you call Angie, she’ll have to turn the baby over to someone, most likely Sam’s family, and I promised Claire…” Maggie’s face crumpled at the mention of her friend. “I promised her I wouldn’t let that happen. Please, Tony. Please don’t call Angie. You said you’d help me. Please…”
Tony looked from the receiver to Maggie. She was gumption and brains at their brightest. And like her mother, she didn’t know how to fall apart. But at the moment, the niece who’d laid claim to his supposedly shallow heart looked every bit the vulnerable teenager she still was.
She was terrified. And though he couldn’t follow half of what she’d said, he understood enough to be scared for both her and her friend. Maggie had witnessed a shooting at the very least. It sounded like two people were injured, if not dead. At Sam Walker’s hand?
“I have to call this in, Maggie. You’re in danger, and Claire might be seriously hurt—”
“No!” She made a ridiculous attempt to take the phone away from him again. “I called 911 before I left. Angie or someone else is already there by now. Please, help me get Max away from Oakwood.”
“Away to where? Tell me what’s going—”
The doorbell’s chime cut him off.
Maggie flinched, glancing nervously over her shoulder then back at Tony.
“Ignore it,” he groused. But the bell rang again for a longer stretch. “Damn it, who—”
She grabbed his arm. “No one can know Max is here.”
“It’s not that simple, Maggie!”
More ringing sounded, over and over this time. The baby started fussing, another tantrum threatening.
“Ah, hell.” Tony ran a hand through his hair, shoved the phone at his niece and pointed to the bed. “Park your butt there, and don’t even think about moving it until I get back.”
He trudged toward the stairs.
“Tony, you won’t—”
“Sit!” he said, louder than he’d intended.
But it got the desired effect. His niece swallowed, then she sank to the edge of the bed. Her silence, the sadness and fear clinging to her as clearly as the baby in her arms, made it almost impossible for him to walk away. But whoever was at the door showed no sign of letting up.
The trek down the stairs didn’t leave him nearly enough time to piece together Maggie’s scraps of information. Insistent knocking had replaced the bell by the time he yanked the weathered front door open.
“Angie.” He blinked as the very person he’d been determined to call materialized on his welcome mat.
Relief flooded him at the sight of her sweet face. Then her harried expression, the way she gazed over his shoulder, hit him upside the head with the reality of what must have brought her there.
“Is Maggie home?” she asked at the same moment that the baby squealed upstairs. “There’s been an incident with her friend Claire.”
CHAPTER FIVE
PLEASE LET MAGGIE BE TUCKED safely in bed.
Angie hadn’t stopped repeating the simple plea the entire drive over. Dressed for the job, she’d been on her way in for duty when the traffic from the 911 call had come over her receiver. Then her cell phone had begun ringing nonstop.
She’d had two options. Head to the scene through the early morning fog, when there were already deputies en route. Or do what she should have done last night—follow her hunch that Maggie Rivers and Claire Morton were flirting with trouble, and pay a visit to the Rivers house.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.