Free Innocent Hostage by Vonnie Hughes Page A

father’s father.”
He spun around and almost plastered himself against those curves. Bad idea. Well, excellent idea, but he hadn’t come here for that. Ingrid was a special lady, no doubt about that, but he had his hands full with Kit and his job and he wasn’t looking for…for…temptation. Besides, he doubted she even liked him, let alone thought about him that way. She seemed to have something against cops.
“Uh, so what ideas did you have about Tania?” he asked, desperately.
Her shoulders rose and fell as if she’d sighed. “I wrote a list of things to look for. Hope it helps.” She turned and bent over a low table in a corner of the room.
He didn’t avert his eyes. He couldn’t touch but he could look, couldn’t he? His hands curled a little as if shaping themselves to cup her backside.
“Here.”
He was so damned busy salivating he didn’t realize she was handing him a piece of paper. Heat burned up his neck and into his face. The princess was a bit red in the face too. But she didn’t stand back when he took the paper out of her fingers. In fact, he could have sworn she was issuing an invitation to look as long as he wanted.
Nah. For sure he had it all wrong. Why would a pretty, intelligent woman with her background be interested in slumming it with him? He glued his eyes to the list.
“What does this mean—look for any documentation pertaining to Bobby?” he asked, frowning. What did the kid, Bobby, have to do with Tania’s disappearance?
“She once hinted to me that Bob mightn’t be Marty’s son.”
“Holy shit! She sure likes to live dangerously. But that might just be one of her tales. He looks enough like Marty, I guess, although I’ve only seen the boy a couple of times.”
Ingrid tilted her head, thinking. He was amused to see her twist a strand of silver-blonde hair around her finger. She looked all of ten years old. Then his eyes dropped lower. Nope. Not ten years old.
“Yes, hard to tell. Did you see what I wrote about her favorite hidey-hole?”
Breck nodded. “She used to hide things in the laundry cupboards when we were married too.”
“You knew?”
“What can I say?” He spread his hands and grinned. “I’m a cop.”
She didn’t smile. Instead, she stared at him as if searching his face for something she did not find.
Sorry, Ms. Rowland. Many people have found me wanting. Guess you’re just another. Sure, I knew she hid papers in the laundry cupboard. And when I found out what those papers were, I discovered just how evil Tania could be. We had the most almighty row and that was the beginning of the end.
“And?”
He shook his head. “I dealt with it.” He looked at the list again. “Who is Angela?”
“I don’t know her surname. Tania was friendly with her when we were training; in fact, from a distance they looked rather similar. I suspected they were cousins. But we were in different classes so Tania never introduced her to me. If you want, I’ll look her up in the registered teachers’ handbook. But if you haven’t dug up anything on her, then I guess they didn’t keep in touch.”
“No class photos?”
“No. Not for preschool training. Anyway, it’s worth a try to see what I can find.”
“Of course it is.”
“Don’t patronize me! You didn’t know about Bobby or Angela and you were married to her.” Hands on her hips, she stood four square, her chin in the air.
Oh, hell. He hadn’t meant to sound condescending. He’d been distracted because like a thunderbolt he’d suddenly realized he was much more interested in spending time with Ingrid Rowland than looking for Tania. This silver-hot attraction wasn’t good. It could get him into all sorts of trouble. He wasn’t in her league, and he was never one to play above his weight. If he didn’t get out of here, she’d see his tongue slurping the floor.
Perhaps if he kissed her, he would get over this pointless yearning. She would slap his face, or their kiss would be less than world-shaking, and