Page 23 of Three Steps Behind

“You ran me through four states.”

“And think of all you got to see. Some tourists wait their whole lives to travel through the Southwest. I hear the Painted Desert is beautiful. We never made it there. Maybe the next go-around.” In reality, there would be no other go-around. Meeting Dalton had changed her life. A good man had fallen in love with her, and shockingly, that’s all it took for her to hit the straight and narrow. He was that amazing.

Aubry shook his head. “You really are a piece of work.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It wasn’t intended as one.”

“I’m taking it all the same.” She grinned, then glanced down at her nails, checking her bright red polish. She’d chipped the one on her right index finger while scrubbing pots this morning—her hands dry from the harsh chemical soap. “Let’s get on with why you’re here so I can get back to my room.”

“Cell?”

“There’s two ways to look at it. I prefer to look at it as a temporary room. Two years and I’m out.”

He grimaced and optimism shot through her.

“Or . . .” She gave a sly smile. “Is that why you’re here? I’m getting out early, and it’s killing you?”

“Not exactly.”

“Well then?”

Every muscle in the man’s handsome face was tense, and the sound of bone on bone echoed as he ground his teeth, his jaw clamped tight. “We . . .” He exhaled. “We need your help.”

She reclined with a pleasure-filled laugh. “Oh, that must be eating away at you.”

“This is why I didn’t want to come.” He grunted.

“And yet, you did.”

“Five minutes for visitors,” the lovely guard, Lulu, called out.

“Guess you best get to it.” She’d do anything to garner her freedom. Practically anything. It was worth hearing what he was about to propose and why. She yearned to walk away from this awful place, but no need to get her hopes up. It was probably the opposite—more crimes to charge her with.

Aubry pulled a paper out of the navy folder before him and slid it across the table. “We’re prepared to offer you immunity for your help in a far worse case.”

“Immunity?” Was he serious or just toying with her? No. For one, he wouldn’t do that, and two, her read on him said he wasn’t lying, and her read was rarely wrong.

His broad shoulders arched back more. Boy, this was really getting to him.

She lifted the sheet of paper and speed-read it. A lot of legal jargon. She gripped it hard but kept her face schooled. He didn’t need to know what kind of relief it would be to her heart to be free of this rotten place. A place she’d made the best of, but she missed her privacy. “It says you will expunge my sentence if I help you?”

He cleared his throat with a cough, sitting ramrod straight. “That’s correct.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Help you with what, exactly?”

“Time’s up,” Lulu called.

Aubry fished his badge from his pocket and held it up. “I’m a federal agent and this is official business. May we have five more minutes?”

“All right. I’ll keep Leigh stationed by the door.” She gestured with the flick of her head to the tall beanpole of a lady positioned along the wall, adjacent to the door.

Aubry waited while everyone else filed out.

“Let’s get to it, Agent,” she said when the last inmate left. “I have a nail to get fixed.”

He grimaced, fine lines wrinkling by his eyes and mouth. She was really rankling him. For the man who put her away, it had to be beyond insulting to ask her for help. She smiled at the irony of it all.