Free Cold Silence (A High Stakes Thriller) by Danielle Girard Page B

buried box.

 
     
     
    Chapter 9

     
    Travis watched Peter sleep long after he had read him another chapter of the latest Harry Potter novel and tucked him in. He had blue and pink stains around the collar of his red flannel pajamas from the bubble-gum ice cream. Travis, too, felt slightly ill from the McDonald's cheeseburger and french fries he'd eaten in record speed. And Mrs. Patriarcchi, or Mrs. Pat as they called her, was ready to crucify them for passing on the pork chops she'd prepared. He'd promised they'd eat them tomorrow.
    He watched Peter lick his lips in his sleep and wondered if he was imagining more bubble-gum ice cream or some of the magical treats from the Harry Potter story. He knew he should get to work, and yet he just couldn't get himself to leave the room.
    Running a start-up meant crazy hours. And because of the flexibility he needed with Peter, the extra time usually came in the middle of the night. Still, he wouldn't change what he had for the world. It was thrilling, even if it had its stressful moments. They would fix the program glitch. He knew they would. He only hoped they could find some money to tide them over until then.
    Trimming the fat was the first necessity. They were hiring four new programmers to work fulltime on the glitch. Once they got through the initial troubleshooting phase, they wouldn't need so many technical people. He hoped that would hold things for a while. He was also pushing his designers to move on a new version before things got stale in the marketplace. New innovations, new features, they needed to push forward as quickly as possible.
    Though everything seemed strong to him, the company's valuation was dropping with every failed dot-com, and he was starting to see critics of the software get more print space. He reminded himself that it was the industry, but he knew the employees were taking it hard. When so much of their compensation was tied to what the initial public offering stock price might be, it was tough to see valuations fall. That was if the stock even went public. It would.
    He leaned forward in the chair, resting his elbows on his knees and watching the gentle wave of Peter's chest as he breathed. And despite all the company concerns, his mind still shifted constantly to R.J. O'Brien.
    Cody O'Brien had made it perfectly clear she didn't want his help. But damn if he could just step aside like that. He tried to picture the man taking R.J. Had the danger been that close to his own son? He wiped his palm across his knee and shook his head. He didn't know what he'd do.
    He watched Peter and let his mind work on the puzzle of R.J.'s mother. There was something about her, something more than what she said. He pictured her wiry frame, the snaking tendons in her fingers and hands. She was strong, exceptionally strong. He had seen the outline of her muscles beneath the shirt she'd worn.
    She was thin, too. He'd seen a lot of thin women. Most of the ones he met these days were straight and flat from birdlike eating and whatever ridiculous aerobic ritual they suffered. But the O'Brien woman was different. She wasn't thin. She was lithe, strung like a cat and ready to pounce. Her dark hair and light eyes were stunning, and yet she seemed to do everything possible to make herself unattractive.
    Maybe it all came back to the husband. He knew it was possible that it was just as she said. Women were abused. He didn't doubt it. And he'd heard the statistics.
    It could happen to anyone. When he'd been building his business, he'd had an employee who'd seemed to have it all. And yet he'd discovered that her husband had been abusing her. He'd been shocked. He'd even met the husband and never thought for a moment that it was possible. He was being naive. Just because R.J.'s mom came across stronger didn't mean she wasn't exactly like his employee had been.
    He pulled himself up from the chair and set the Harry Potter book on the bedside table. Then, wiping the moist hair off