Page 400 of A Matter of Time

“I need…you better.”

There was a long pause. “If you ever stayed here even for a minute, you’d know that I’m being released the day after tomorrow. I’ve spent enough time in the hospital; I get to come home.”

“You do?”

He grunted, but it was his smug, self-satisfied grunt that sent a current of need right through me. “Yes, I do. You sound pleased.”

I couldn’t even speak.

“Good, now maybe you’ll come back here and sit and not move until I tell you to.”

“Yes.”

“Hang up, and I will call Agent Calhoun.”

“Okay, I’ll see you soon. And⁠—”

“I promise I won’t let Dane or Aja leave here until you get back.”

My breath came out in a rush. “Okay.”

“I’m going to strangle you—you get that, right?”

“I get that.”

“You know, I have a theory that because your brain is so small, you can’t hold more than one thought in your head at a time. That’s why you do such stupid shit all the time, ’cause when the new stuff is in there, you forget everything else.”

I had to laugh, because he sounded so serious.

“I’m going to beat you when I get my hands on you.”

“I know.” I sighed. “I can’t wait.”

He growled before he hung up, and I let out a deep breath and closed my eyes.

Everything was going to be all right.

EIGHTEEN

Nothing ever turns out the way you plan it. Case in point: I thought Sam could get Agent Calhoun to let me go. No such luck. He was good and mad, and as far as I knew, had refused to even take a call from my boyfriend. So I got to go somewhere I had hoped to avoid for the rest of my life.

Jail.

As I sat there in the large but crowded holding cell at the county jail, I had nothing to do but think, and that was always dangerous for me. Caleb was going to go to prison for a very long time if I didn’t figure out a way to save him. His mother was a psychopath, and since no one but me really believed in his innocence, it fell to me to pull Caleb out of the hole he was in by digging up the truth about her. When I got out, I had to figure out everything about Susan Reid. I needed to get to Dallas and take a look at her life. When I was free. If I got free…

“Hey, pretty boy,” someone called out to me. “What’d you do?”

“Nothing,” a voice answered before I could say anything.

I had never considered myself vain, but I had thought the guy was talking to me. Since I was in jail, however, I was kind of glad not to be getting any attention. True to his word, Agent Calhoun had locked me up. I had no idea how long his anger would take to dissipate.

“C’mere.”

I turned and looked at the guy who was talking—big guy, muscular but with a beer gut, he had to be at least six-five when standing. Now he sat between two other guys and motioned at a kid across from him. The kid had not moved. He shook his head no.

“I said c’mere.”

“No,” he said quickly, and I could tell he was terrified. He glanced around the room, searching everywhere until he caught my eye. I stared back, and I saw him take a breath. Instantly, he was up and moving, darting down the line of ten men seated along the wall until he was standing in front of me. I looked up into his face, smiling.