The Outback Marriage Ransom. Emma Darcy

quickly explained the circumstances. Patrick listened, making no comment until everything had been told.

      ‘This is your Lara, Ric?’ he asked. ‘The girl you stole the car for?’

      His Lara. She’d never been his. Wasn’t now. Yet…‘I had to rescue her, Patrick. Will you keep her safe for me? She needs the time to put her marriage behind her.’

      ‘It may not work out the way you want, son,’ came the serious warning. ‘No good her walking out of one prison into another, if that’s how she feels about Gundamurra. But she’s welcome here for as long as she’s happy to stay.’

      ‘That’s all I ask.’ The choice was Lara’s. He couldn’t—didn’t want to—make her do anything against her will.

      ‘Fair enough.’

      ‘Thanks, Patrick.’

      ‘I look forward to meeting her.’

      It may not work out the way you want… Ric pondered those words as he strolled down the street to the Gecko Café where he could buy a coffee while he waited for Lara.

      What did he want from this?

      He knew what he didn’t want—Lara being a battered wife.

      But beyond setting her free from Gary Chappel…he wanted to see joy in her eyes…to recapture something of the girl that had once made every moment spent with her unbelievably special.

      Magic.

      Or was that a youthful dream, reaching for stars that were unreachable?

      He shook his head, accepting Patrick’s dictum that it may not work out how he wanted.

      But it didn’t kill the latent hope in his heart.