Read Sea Swept for Free Online

Phillip set down his mug. “But he was human. He could have made a mistake.” One of them had to be realistic, and he decided he was elected. “If he did, I’m not going to condemn him for it. What we have to do is figure out how to do what he asked. We have to find a way to keep Seth. I can find out if he started adoption proceedings. They couldn’t be final yet. We’re going to need a lawyer.”
    “I want to find out more about this Gloria DeLauter.” Deliberately, Cam unclenched his fists before he could use them on something, or someone. “I want to know who the hell she is. Where the hell she is.”
    “Up to you.” Phillip shrugged his shoulders. “Personally, I don’t want to get near her.”
    “What’s this suicide crap?”
    Phillip and Ethan exchanged a look, then Ethan rose and walked to a kitchen drawer. He pulled it open, took out a large sealed bag. It hurt him to hold it, and he saw by the way Cam’s eyes darkened that Cam recognized the worn green enameled shamrock key ring as their father’s.
    “This is what was inside the car after the accident.” He opened it, took out an envelope. The white paper was stained with dried blood. “I guess somebody—one of the cops, the tow truck operator, maybe one of the paramedics—looked inside and read the letter, and they didn’t trouble to keep it to themselves. It’s from her.” Ethan tapped out the letter, held it out to Cam. “DeLauter. The postmark’s Baltimore.”
    “He was coming back from Baltimore.” With dread,Cam unfolded the letter. The handwriting was a large, loopy scrawl.
    Quinn, I’m tired of playing nickel and dime. You want the kid so bad, then it’s time to pay for him. Meet me where you picked him up. We’ll make it Monday morning. The block’s pretty quiet then. Eleven o’clock. Bring a hundred and fifty thousand, in cash. Cash money, Quinn, and no discounts. You don’t come through with every penny, I’m taking the kid back. Remember, I can pull the plug on the adoption any time I want. A hundred and fifty grand’s a pretty good bargain for a good-looking boy like Seth. Bring the money and I’m gone. You’ve got my word on it. Gloria
    “She was selling him,” Cam murmured. “Like he was a—” He stopped himself, looked up sharply at Ethan as he remembered. Ethan had once been sold as well, by his own mother, to men who preferred young boys. “I’m sorry, Ethan.”
    “I live with it,” he said simply. “Mom and Dad made sure I could. She’s not going to get Seth back. Whatever it takes, she won’t get her hands on him.”
    “We don’t know if he paid her?”
    “He emptied his bank account here,” Phillip put in. “From what I can tell—and I haven’t gone over his papers in detail yet—he closed out his regular savings, cashed in his CDs. He only had a day to get the cash. That would have come to about a hundred thousand. I don’t know if he had fifty more—if he had time to liquidate it if he did.”
    “She wouldn’t have gone away. He’d have known that.” Cam put the letter down, wiped his hands on his jeans as if to clean them. “So people are whispering that he killed himself in what—shame, panic, despair? He wouldn’t have left the kid alone.”
    “He didn’t.” Ethan moved to the coffeepot. “He left him with us.”
    “How the hell are we supposed to keep him?” Cam sat again. “Who’s going to let us adopt anybody?”
    “We’ll find a way.” Ethan poured coffee, added enoughsugar to make Phillip wince in reaction. “He’s ours now.”
    “What the hell are we going to do with him?”
    “Put him in school, put a roof over his head, food in his belly, and try to give him something of what we were given.” He brought the pot over, topped off Cam’s coffee. “You got an argument?”
    “Couple dozen, but none of them get past the fact that we gave our word.”
    “We agree on that, anyway.” Frowning, Phillip drummed his fingers on the table. “But we’ve left