Page 48 of Dead Man's Alibi

Jill sighed.“You know what the problem with all this is?”

“It’s fictional?”

She wrinkled her nose.“Yeah.Good story, but I’m not sure it’s real life.”

He sighed.“Yeah, but it feels like something, even if it isn’t.Coming up with possibilities, a story.Nothing else is working.So why not?Besides, I’ll float it to Jake to piss him off if nothing else.Maybe if I rile him up enough, he slips up.Thatismy specialty.”

She shook her head in a kind of mock disapproval, but she was smiling, so clearly, she didn’ttotallydisapprove.

He couldn’t smile back, not now, but he did feel… lighter in some way.It wouldn’t do either of them any good to tell her that he’d felt more settled this morning, exhausted and overly caffeinated, withher, working through things, than he had since Nate had called him.

Which brought it all back.The phone call.Dealing with Sam.White as a sheet.Just devastated.

But before that—“Wait.Yesterday Sam said she thought she had something to go on from her talk with Olivia, but it all got lost in the Nate news.Said it wasn’t a big something, but a maybe something.”

“Poor Sam.She’s probably such a wreck.”

“Yeah, she is.”He didn’t want to really deal with that wreck, lest it break down his own shaky walls of control, but… “I’m going up to the ranch to talk to her about this.”He checked his watch.

He wanted to be down at the prosecutor’s office by ten, so he had time.

He started gathering his things.His laptop.Probably grabbing his phone charger was a good idea.He was a little discombobulated, but he didn’t let that stop him.When he got to the door, bag in one hand, keys in the other, Jill stood there, looking at him with a little bit of pity.

“Cal, you’re missing a sock.”

He looked down at his feet.“Right,” he muttered.Okay, he was a little frazzled and that wasn’t the best, but he could hardlystop.Not with Nate in jail.

When he returned with socks onbothfeet and shoved those feet into shoes, he couldfeelJill’s concerned gaze.“Are you sure you shouldn’t get some sleep first?”

“Eventually.”

He stepped out of the apartment, waited for her to follow so he could lock the door.He rushed down the stairs, had to wait again so he could lock the outer door after she stepped into the bright spring morning.

He moved for his car, sensed her hesitate.“You going to follow me up?”he asked, hoping the answer would be yes, even if he had no reason to hope that.

Jill nodded.“Sure.”

Chapter Seventeen

The Bennet Ranch

Sam woke upto sunlight streaming across her face.Her first thought waswhere the hell am I?

But then everything came crashing back.She closed her eyes again.She did not want to live this particular life.She wanted to be home.Alone.

And yes, she would probably mope around the house and cry over Nate’s things and how unfair this was, and that wasn’t very productive.But at least she’d bealonewith her emotional upheaval.Alone with her despair and terror.Alone was always better.

She thought about yesterday.She’d been a zombie with Cal and Aly.She’dcriedon Landon Bennet of all people.How was that not humiliating?

Maybe she’d chalk up that talk with Landon,cryingon him, to just a weird dream.Landon would probably like to pretend it was too.

But ithadeased something inside of her.

Oh, she didn’t feel better or good or even hopeful, but there was something about knowing they werealltrying to save Nate that made it feel less like a losing endeavor.

Maybe she couldn’t believe that innocence mattered when there were people out there dedicated to ignoring the truth, but she could believe that they would all… try.And maybe with help, she didn’t have to fail this time.

So maybe, just maybe, alone wasn’talwaysbetter.