ESCANTA: A James Thomas Novel (The James Thomas Series Book 1) Read Free

probably why she was good at what she did—she knew when the defendants were lying and when to push them. But she got nothing from him. Nothing.
    The plane bounced unexpectedly and Mak grabbed the armrests. It quickly settled again and Mak said a quiet thank you—she did not need a bout of turbulence to send her over the edge. She released the in-flight television remote control from the chair and turned on the flight path.
    Seven hours to go.
    Mak questioned if she’d have had the same reaction to him if the scroll hadn’t already set off her nerves. Was her mind spinning so wildly out of control that she’d built it all up in her head? None of the other passengers seemed fazed by his presence. None of them were cowering in their seats as he walked past. Only her. But then she hadn’t seen him giving any of the other passengers the same look he gave her, either.
    Her mind was like a centrifuge, spinning her thoughts around and around. She wished she had been seated in a row behind him so that she could watch him, keep tabs on him. If he was after her, she wasn’t going to make it easy for him.
    I wonder if that’s how Eric felt ? Mak thought. Eric was her husband—her husband who had disappeared thirteen years ago.
    Her husband’s disappearance was something she had come to accept over the years. At first, she’d been devastated and concerned. But every night that he hadn’t come home, the worry and anxiety had faded until it ceased to exist—Mak no longer expected him to return. She’d never been able to find out what had happened to him, but she knew him, and his tenacity, and if he met with foul play, he wouldn’t have made it easy to take him, or to hurt him.
    Mak and her husband had married young, at the tender age of twenty-two, and if she were being honest it was unlikely that their marriage would have lasted even if he hadn’t gone missing. They were two very ambitious people who put their own needs first. Always. They both wanted success, which is probably why they had connected in the first place, but ultimately that drive would’ve destroyed them. Anyone who’s been married for longer than five minutes will tell you that dedicating all of your time to your career, and none to your spouse, is not a good recipe for a long and happy marriage.
    Mak still clearly remembered the night he went missing, as uneventful as it had seemed at the time. She’d been up late studying for a law exam when he called saying he’d be home within the hour. It was nothing out of the ordinary that he had been out late, since he was often at some networking event or another, and she’d barely responded, more irritated than anything that he’d disrupted her study just to tell her he’d be home soon. But four hours later when she’d looked up from the textbooks her head had been buried in, he still wasn’t home. And he hadn’t walked in the door since.
    Some days, like today, Mak thought about her husband, and other days he was completely absent from her thoughts. She had initially hired a private investigator to look for him, after the police had come up with nothing, but they, too, proved fruitless and a waste of money. Eventually, after years without a single answer, she’d given up and moved on with her life. She still wished she knew what had happened to him, though. And she wished she had a body to bury and a chance to say goodbye.
    But life wasn’t going to give her that.

CHAPTER TWO –
JAMES THOMAS
    “Samuel,” James said, deliberately slowing down to ensure he stayed six paces behind the petite blond who had kept him awake all flight. He’d intended to sleep, as he’d done so little of it lately, but she’d been an unexpected distraction. And an unwelcome one. “Anything to report?”
    “No, you need to give me more time, James,” Samuel replied.
    James didn’t want to give him more time—he wanted answers, and he wanted them now. He wanted to know who Escanta was, and why they were hunting