Part 11 (2/2)
”I wasn't going to say that.”
”You don't have to. I see it on your face.” Wrapping the sleeping bag more tightly around her, she tried to rise.
Jake stopped her by putting his hand on her arm. ”Don't walk away from me.”
”I can't stand it when you look at me like that.”
”I'm trying to take this in and make sense of it.”
Sighing, she sank back down to the floor, but the air between them snapped with tension. Jake scrubbed his hand over the stubble on his jaw. ”You told me you believe someone is trying to kill you. Did Reed try to get to you inside the prison?”
”I think he hired someone to kill me. One of the other inmates came at me with a knife in the shower room.” The memory of her narrow escape made her s.h.i.+ver. ”She nearly got me, Jake. If I hadn't already been in good physical condition, she would have killed me.”
”Why does Reed want you dead now? I mean, you've already been convicted.”
”I don't know if you've noticed, Jake, but I've got a big mouth. I was making noise. People weren't listening, but all it would have taken was one hot-shot lawyer and Reed knew I could foil his little empire.”
”Reed didn't want to take a chance that someone might listen to you.”
”Would you?”
”You think he hired someone to track you up here?” he asked.
”That's his style.” Abby laughed, but there was no humor in it. ”Reed never does his own dirty work. He gets other people to do it for him. He's got money. A lot of it. I'll bet he hired a hit man.”
Jake contemplated her for a moment. ”Exactly what evidence convicted you?”
”Remember when I mentioned that my prints were on the syringe in the biohazard disposal unit?” When he nodded, she continued, ”That was bogus, because no medical professional injects a patient without gloves these days. Still, the syringe had traces of Valium in it. One of the other nurses saw me give an injection. But as I already told you I swear it was the teta.n.u.s injection. I swear I wouldn't make a mistake like that. I'm too careful. But no one could find the teta.n.u.s syringe. No one went to bat for me.” Not even Jonathan Reed-the man she'd been sleeping with at the time.
”They left you swinging in the wind.”
She nodded. ”With a noose around my neck.”
”Do you have any proof of any of this?”
”I've been in prison for the past year, Jake. It's not like they let me out on weekends to investigate the crime.” Her voice shook with vehemence. ”But I know Reed did it. d.a.m.n it, I know it.”
”Why you?”
”Why me what?”
”Why did Reed choose you?”
Abby stared at him, her steadfastness faltering. ”Because I was vulnerable.”
”Why were you vulnerable?”
Leave it to Jake to ask the tough questions. That's what he did best. The man was a deputy, after all.
When she didn't readily answer, his cop's mask fell into place. ”Abby?”
A sense of hopelessness gripped her. She didn't want him to know why she'd been vulnerable. She knew that knowledge would obliterate what little credibility she had.
”As soon as I realized the investigation had focused on me, I went to Reed,” she said, skirting the question. ”I was scared and had nowhere else to turn. I asked him to support me and tell the police I wouldn't have made a mistake like that. Reed promised to do what he could.” Abby closed her eyes. ”Instead, he went to the police and told them I'd confessed to him.”
”What?” Jake asked incredulously.
”Reed told them I was a disturbed young woman who needed help. That I was obsessed with death. That some drugs were missing from the drug locker. He told them I'd stolen drugs. My bail was revoked shortly after that.”
”It was your word against his.”
”Yes.”
His eyes narrowed, probing hers uncomfortably. ”What aren't you telling me?”
She looked away, feeling trapped. ”I've told you everything that matters.”
”Abby, why were you vulnerable?”
”Don't,” she said.
”d.a.m.n it, if you want my help, you're going to have to trust me.”
The simple request brought tears to her eyes. She longed to trust him, but knew she could never put that much of herself on the line ever again. She'd trusted Reed, and he'd cut her heart out. The betrayal had killed something inside her forever.
After several tense minutes, she turned her gaze back to him. ”Reed knew about my past. He...used it against me.”
”What past?”
Shame pierced her, coldly familiar and scalpel-sharp. ”When I was seventeen I...had a breakdown. An emotional breakdown. I'd...confided in Reed about it. And he...used it against me. That's why I was vulnerable, Jake. That's why he chose me.”
Breakdown.
The word echoed like a scream inside Jake's head. Of all the things she could have said, that one surprised him the most. He recalled the corrections officials's warning that she was emotionally unstable. He'd put it out of his mind because he hadn't seen any evidence of instability. He considered himself a pretty good judge of a person's frame of mind, and Abby Nichols was as sane as the day was long.
Something wasn't right about this case. Something that was cunning and cruel that chafed his sense of justice like a steel rasp.
Yet at the same time an uncomfortable doubt rose up inside him. He remembered another woman he'd tried to help. A woman he'd trusted and loved. He would have laid down his life for Elaine and her sweet little boy. Instead, he'd let her twist their relations.h.i.+p into something ugly, then stood by dumbly when she cut him off at the knees.
Jake knew better than to get involved in Abby's plight. He'd been sharing close quarters with her and wasn't thinking clearly. He hated to admit it, but she'd gotten to him. At some point in the past twenty-four hours he'd lost his emotional distance. He couldn't think of a worse fate for a man who prided himself on walking the straight and narrow.
The kiss had changed everything, he realized. He'd stepped over a line, broken a staunch personal rule. He needed distance. Needed to get the h.e.l.l out of this cabin and down the mountain before he made another mistake. A mistake that wouldn't be quite as harmless as a kiss.
But every time he looked at her, he wanted her. Wanted her in a way that was as strong as the need to take his next breath. When he closed his eyes, he could still feel the heat of her against him, the softness of her body, the sweet wetness of her mouth. And the need clawed at him, like a trapped animal desperate to get out....
Jake gave himself a hard mental shake. Sweat glistened on his brow, and he loosened the top b.u.t.ton of his flannel s.h.i.+rt. Across from him, Abby stared into the fire. Even in profile, she was breathtaking. He knew better than to ask the next question; he knew it would only bring him one step closer to knowing her. He didn't want to know her. He didn't want to get inside her head or, G.o.d forbid, let her get inside his. But Jake had never been one to back away from danger.
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