Desperate Measures Read Free

Barney?”
    â€œI wanted to tell you, but I wanted to keep it to myself for just a little while, you know, keep it close to my chest. I was so afraid something would go wrong and I’d feel like a fool. When I couldn’t stand it a minute longer I hopped up here. I’m really sorry, Annie. Now I feel like shit.”
    â€œAnd well you should. I’m not sharing anything with you anymore, Pete Sorenson,” Annie said childishly. She finished the last of the champagne in her glass. “Well?” she said challengingly. “Did you tell her?”
    Pete winced. How well he remembered Maddie’s reaction to Barney. She’d trilled with laughter and said, “Tell me you didn’t believe that kid. Tell me, Pete, that you weren’t that naive. Are you serious or are you putting me on when you say you believed right up until your sixteenth birthday that kid would actually come for you? That’s just too funny for words.” She’d laughed and laughed until he wanted to blubber the way he had the day Barney made the promise. Instead he’d picked up his coat and left. He hadn’t called her for three days, and maybe he never would have spoken to her again, but she called him and apologized. He hated the tickle of amusement in her apology, but in the end, because he loved her, he let it pass.
    â€œWell?” Annie said a second time. “Did you tell Maddie about Barney?”.
    â€œShe thought it was silly of me. Why are we talking about Barney?”
    â€œYou poor fool,” Annie said. A moment later she was off the chair and out of the restaurant. By the time Pete slapped some bills on the table and made his way outside, Annie’s cab was two blocks away.
    Pete waited outside her small apartment all night, but she didn’t return. He called Dennis’s apartment, but there was no answer there either.
    With nothing else to do, he hailed a cab and told the driver to take him all the way to New York. When he settled back for the long ride ahead of him, he felt as if someone had drained half the blood from his body.

CHAPTER ONE
    Six-year-old Pete did his best not to cry. He scrunched his eyes shut while he drew his puckered lips almost up to his nose. He felt a tear squeeze past eyelashes his mother said hid the most beautiful, the bluest eyes in the whole world. She was never going to say that again. Ever, ever. His eyes hurt, the same way they used to hurt when his dad made a campfire in the backyard and they roasted weenies and marshmallows. He was never going to do that again. Ever, ever. His six-year-old brain couldn’t fathom how his eyes could burn like this if there was no smoke and no campfire.
    He watched his knees and pressed them down against the edge of his bed, not wanting to see the lady in the blue dress stuff his things into the grocery sacks. She was pretty, but not as pretty as his mom. The other lady, the one watching over the lady in the blue dress, wasn’t pretty. She was mean and wore ugly black shoes with shoelaces. As they continued talking, he slipped off the bed and out into the hall, where he stood listening.
    â€œDon’t get involved, Harriet. If you do you’ll never succeed in this job. He’s just a child. Children are resilient, he’ll recover. We’re going to place him in a good home. He’ll have a roof over his head, food in his stomach, and belong to a family.”
    â€œWill they love him? Will he adjust? He’s so little, Miss Andrews. He’s just about to lose his first tooth. How is he going to handle that? What if the Fairy doesn’t leave anything under his pillow?” the lady in the blue dress said.
    â€œThat’s pure rubbish, Harriet. It’s a cold, hard world out there, and there’s no place in it for Tooth Fairies. It will build character.” The voice changed suddenly and grew hateful. “You didn’t fill that child’s head with wonderful stories