Fractured Read Free

been able to track her and save her life.
    Hunter suddenly tensed as he realized that the footsteps had stopped near the accounting offices. Lifting the mini recorder to his eye, he poked a special lens through the slats and waited.
    He couldn't hear anything for several minutes. Then he heard a door shut and heels clicking down the corridor once more. He pressed the record button. A moment later, both Mrs. Ross and her daughter Kayla paused at the photocopier.
    “Let's get this done quickly. I don't know why your father is stalling on that last report. I'm beginning to think that he's chickening out.”
    “I wonder why,” Kayla said, her voice low but angry. “Dad looks terrible. This whole thing is giving him a nervous breakdown.”
    When Mrs. Ross responded, her voice was cold and uncaring.
    “If he does what I tell him to do, he earns a nice vacation on a faraway beach. And when I divorce him, I'll even be nice and let him keep a little bit to live on.”
    “Aren't you the generous one?” Kayla said, her voice cold.
    “Don't use that tone with me, young lady, or you can live with your father when this is all over. Now make yourself useful and start copying these things.”
    “I don't know how to use this thing. I'm not some low life secretary,” Kayla replied.
    Hunter watched as Mrs. Ross stiffened. He knew from his mother that the woman had grown up in blue collar family. Mrs. Ross had worked as a secretary until she met her husband. Although Hunter knew that Kayla could be a bitch, he had never realized that she had gotten her attitude directly from her mother.
    He didn't want to be sympathetic to Kayla. She had pursued him relentlessly for years in spite of his constant rejections. Worse, she had insinuated that he was dating her at the beginning of his relationship with Amber. Thankfully, Amber was a strong girl in her own right and had stood up to her. But that didn't make him like Kayla any better. Still, he couldn't imagine growing up with a cold bitch like Mrs. Ross.
    That was another thing he loved about Amber. In spite of a shitty childhood, she was one of the most generous and loving people he knew. He was convinced she didn't have a selfish bone in her body. Another reason to want to make her his wife. Beautiful, kind, and smart. She was also a talented artist who understood the primal feelings that art created in him.
    “Watch your mouth, young lady. Or you won't see a penny of inheritance.”
    “The way you plow through money, there won't be any left anyway,” Kayla muttered in a low voice.
    “What was that, young lady?”
    “Nothing,” Kayla said darkly. “How many copies do you need of this?”
    Hunter had trouble concentrating on their irritating chatter. This might be his hardest task of the whole day.
    He was so absorbed keeping the recorder steady that he was startled by a sound in the corner of the closet. He jerked his head around and realized that somebody was in the restroom. Worse, they were trying to open the mesh screen that led inside the closet. He flattened himself against the back of the closet.
    Who the hell would be on the other end?

Chapter Three
    Amber
     
     
    Amber Holloway fumed as she sat in the luxurious towne car, feeling ridiculous in her tight black leggings, black boots, and snug black turtleneck. A secret spy with no place to go.
    She couldn't believe that she had taken Hunter's assurances that she would be part of his plot to catch the couple stealing money and secrets from his family's company. She grimaced as she realized how easily he had fooled her. Now, here she was stuck in the so-called “getaway car” waiting for him to complete the whole operation entirely on his own.
    Frustrated, she leaned back in her seat and peeked into the min fridge. This was worse than not being involved at all, she thought irritably as she popped the tab on a diet soda. Then again, she probably should have expected something this low from Hunter. He couldn't seem to resist