Read Renegade for Free Online

buy the child. And she sold him to us,” she added icily. “For fifty thousand dollars.”
    â€œMy God,” he bit off. “And I thought I’d seen it all.”
    â€œRory’s been with me ever since,” she told him. “He’s like my own child.”
    â€œYou never got pregnant…?”
    She shook her head. “I was a late bloomer. I didn’t even have my first period until I was fifteen. Pretty lucky, huh?” She pushed back wisps of red hair. “Real lucky.”
    â€œBut your mother wants Rory back now.”
    â€œThe money ran out years ago. She’s having to get her drug money by working in a convenience store, and she doesn’t like it. Sam works when he feels like it, and I don’t think he does anything legal, either. My attorney paid my mother off last year when she threatened to go to the tabloids about the brutal way I was treating her,” she scoffed. “Rich movie star allows poor mother to live in poverty while she rides in stretch limousines.” She smiled cynically. “Get the picture?”
    â€œIn Technicolor,” he agreed coldly.
    â€œSo now she’s decided she wants Rory back. She sent Rory’s father up to the military school and he tried to get him out. Rory told the commandant what his father had done to him—and to me—and the commandant called the police. The rat ran for his life before they got there.”
    â€œGood for the commandant.”
    â€œBut that doesn’t rule out kidnapping. I’d pay any thing to get Rory back, and they know it. I don’t sleep very well these days,” she added. “Rory’s father has a cousin who lives near here, in a really bad part of town. They’re close, and the cousin has his dirty fingers in a lot of illegal pies.”
    Cash was doing mental gymnastics. “Does Rory care for his father or his mother?”
    â€œHe hates our mother,” she replied. “And he doesn’t know that Sam Stanton is his real father.”
    â€œYou haven’t told him?” he probed.
    â€œI haven’t had the heart to,” she explained. “He took a real beating from Sam. The psychologist says he’ll have mental scars for the rest of his life from that or deal.”
    â€œHow about you?”
    â€œI’ve lived through enough to make me strong, with occasional lapses. But mostly, I’m tough,” she murmured.
    â€œNot tough enough, just yet,” he commented. “But you will be, if you hang around with me long enough.”
    She glanced at him with a teasing smile. “Am I going to?”
    He shrugged. “It’s up to you. I have a few quirks.”
    â€œSo do I. And a few hang-ups,” she added.
    He put his hands in his pockets while he stared down at her, to the music of New York traffic. “I don’t like ties very much. I’m making no promises. I want to see you while I’m here. Period.”
    â€œYou don’t pull any punches.”
    He nodded.
    She searched his dark eyes. “I don’t find you repulsive,” she said bluntly. “That’s new. But I’ve got some terrible scars of my own. I can put on a good act as a vamp when I’m around men. But it’s all a ruse. I haven’t ever had consensual sex.”
    He whistled. “That’s a heavy load to put on a man.”
    She nodded.
    He smiled slowly. “So, it’s back to Dating 101.”
    She laughed. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.”
    â€œWe’ll go slow,” he said, noting Rory’s sudden reappearance. “That took a while,” he commented when the boy came back laughing.
    â€œHe wanted to know about military school. Guess what?He was a soldier in Vietnam.” Rory grimaced. “Sad, huh, that he’d end up like that.”
    Cash’s eyes were haunted as he studied the man, who lifted a hand and waved before he went back to his bagpiping.