The Ex Who Glowed in the Dark (Charley's Ghost) Read Free Page B

and forget. It may be a good thing you have something new to focus on. I’ve always known there was something sneaky about Dawson. You can tell a lot about a person by looking at their eyes. He has shifty eyes.”
    “Stuff it,” she whispered.
    Holding two Cokes, she went back to the desk. Dawson looked up as she approached, his blue-gray eyes wide and filled with pain. Yeah, you could tell a lot by looking at a person’s eyes. Dawson’s gaze was innocent while Charley’s…but that wasn’t fair. She’d once thought Charley’s gaze projected mischief and fun. She’d just missed the totally self-centered part of that mischief and fun.
    Dawson accepted the soft drink and gulped a large portion of it.
    Amanda’s cell phone rang. She took it out of her purse and looked at the name. Her mother. Maybe not the last person in the world she wanted to talk to right now, but pretty far down the list. Dawson was either having a meltdown or his brother had been kidnapped by some mysterious they . Jenny’s baby shower seemed even less important than it had before, and it already ranked alongside washing her car in a thunderstorm.
    She silenced the ringer and shoved it back into her purse. “Let’s start at the beginning,” she said to Dawson. “You told me your parents were both dead, killed in a car crash. Is that true?”
    Dawson nodded, the movement jerky. “Mom and Dad were murdered two years ago.”
    Cold fingers traced down Amanda’s spine. “ Murdered ? Not killed in a car accident?”
    “They died in a car crash, but it was no accident,” Dawson affirmed. “It was murder.”
    The cold fingers raced back up Amanda’s spine then clutched around her heart. “Murder?” she repeated.
    Charley placed himself between her and Dawson. “You see? He murdered his parents! I told you so! No telling how many other people he’s killed!” He balled his fist and threw a punch to and through Dawson's nose.
    Dawson shivered. Charley’s touch had that effect on people. “Did you turn the air conditioning down?”
    “No. It just seems cool in here because it’s so hot outside. Texas in July.” She brushed a hand through Charley, feeling a chill as she did so. “There’s an ugly draft right here.”
    Dawson reached a hand through Charley’s abdomen. “Yeah, there is,” he said. “A cold spot. I’ve never noticed that before.”
    “I can take a hint.” Charley stepped aside and hovered next to Dawson. “But I’ll be here to protect you when you need me.”
    The idea of Charley protecting her was such an absurd statement, Amanda had to fight the urge to laugh. Laughter was not appropriate in the face of murder, kidnapping and possible insanity. “Dawson, tell me about your parents.”
    “I might as well.” He sighed. “There's no reason to hide anything anymore. They’ve found us and they’ve got Grant. I’ve got to save him. I can’t let them hurt him. I’m his big brother. Since our parents died, he’s looked up to me and expected me to take care of him. I’ve always tried but now I don’t know what to do.” He leaned back, his expression bleak as if all hope was gone from the world. From his world.
    “They,” Amanda repeated. “They would be [email protected]?”
    Dawson clutched his Coke can so tightly the sides dented in. “I don’t know who that is and I don't know what Project Verdant is. I tried to trace the e-mail, but they’ve bounced it all over the world. When you came in, I was looking at the metadata, but these guys obviously know their way around computers.”
    That narrowed the field to a few billion people. “Okay, let’s get back to your parents. Tell me why you think their deaths were murder and not an accident.”
    “The police said so. I guess I need to tell you the whole story.”
    “Yes,” Amanda agreed, “you do. The whole story would be a good place to start.”
    “My dad was a professor at a university in Kansas. He taught economics, but his passion was