Page 74 of Dead Man's Alibi

But that wasn’t teamwork.That wasn’t the best course of action to get Nate out.

“Cal, I know you’re not going to approve, but I only have one option.”

He eyed her.“I doubt that.”

“Hayes is involved in this too deep.Why was he at my house yesterday?Why was he here this morning?There are too many damn whys.”

“Agreed, that’s why you should file a complaint.”

“A complaint won’t do shit.”

“Sure, but…”

“But what?”Sam demanded.

Cal sighed, all world-weary and exhausted.“Sam, if you get arrested…”

“I’m not going to do anything illegal.”She looked away from him then, because she wasn’tplanningon doing anything illegal, but that didn’t mean she’d be above it should the situation arise.“I’m going to do my job.”

“Which is?”

“Investigate.And sometimes investigating requires a little… following.”She got to her feet.She had surveillance equipment in the back storage closet.

“Stalking?”Cal said, following her into the back.

“Potato.Potahto.”Sam waved it away.“And in this case, he did it first.”

“I’m not sure I can get you out of criminal charges if your defense ishe did it first.”

Sam shrugged.“So what?”She unlocked the closet door.

She’d want a zoom lens for her camera.An extra battery pack for her phone.Would there be any opportunity to plant some kind of listening device somewhere?

Cal sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.“Look, maybe you don’t care if you get tossed in jail.I’m not even sureIcare.But I know someone who does.”

She turned to face Cal and crossed her arms over her chest.Yeah, Nate would be upset by that, but what did itmatterat this point?“Got any better ideas?”

He scrunched up his nose, took a deep breath and noisily let it out.“No.”

“Then I’m doing it.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Crawford County Jail

Nate had learneda lot of disassociating skills throughout his life.There wasn’t a bad situation he couldn’t remove himself from entirely.He’d suffered through plenty, after all.Worse than this, really.His own father beating him.Running away with no shelter, no food, and no one.Hell, he’d spent big chunks of his twenties being under constant threat of death in foreign lands.

A jail cell should be smooth sailing, all in all.

And still, he felt this was more of a struggle than any of those times.Because everything had been bad then.Survival had been some natural inclination, not any specific choice he’d made hoping for something better to come from it.Shit had just felt like more of the same.

Well, now he’d found a whole lot of better for his life.A better he’d much rather be enjoying right now than sitting in this gray little room waiting for Cal to appear on the other side of some plexiglass.

His leg hurt.Nothing serious, just a vague ache from the uncomfortable mattress and surroundings, but enough to be annoying.He missed Sam, and that ache was deeper and harder to deal with.He just wanted to be able to talk to her.Just wanted that comfort he’d taken for granted of knowing she was there.

He knew he could get through this—would for her if nothing else—but the unknown of how long it would drag on was more difficult now than it had been in the army.

Probably because now he had a life he wanted to get back to.A life that felt like it was slipping through his fingers.All because he’d taken a case a few months ago and tried to help an annoying woman prove her husband was a cheating liar.