Page 60 of Claim

Something in him loosened, subtle but unmistakable. As if he’d been bracing for an argument that never came.

He leant back slowly. “Would you be here if I had been?”

The question wasn’t legal.

It was everything else.

“I’d be here,” I said. Then, after a beat, “But for different reasons.” I rubbed a hand over my forehead and looked back at him. “My job wouldn’t be to pretend it didn’t matter. It would be to deal with it.”

“And your job now?”

“To make sure you’re treated justly.”

He nodded.

I smiled. Brief. Restrained. Then dropped my gaze back to the file. When I spoke again, my voice was lower, meant only for him. “But I’m glad you weren’t.”

“Because it makes your job easier?”

“No.” I lifted my eyes to his. “Because it makes knowing where you went from, then to easier for me to come to terms with.”

He said nothing. He knew what I meant. That he’d left my bed on the demand of Cormac to do a drop. And when I’d asked him not to, he’d gone anyway. The last place he’d been before being arrested was in my bed.

I clicked my pen. “Tell me what’s happened to you since you’ve been in here.”

“Ghost happened.”

I wrote it down. “Ghost.” Then, after a beat, “Rival crew.”

“Mm.”

“You were placed on the same wing as Leon Morris?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So he did…” I gestured with the pen. “That?”

“No. Not all of it.” His jaw tightened. “The bits underneath.”

I inhaled. “This isn’t your first fight.”

He let out a dry laugh. “No.”

“What else?”

“They moved my cellmates. Then moved me. Different wing. Said it was operational. I thought it was about Ghost. Keeping us apart.”

“But?”

“But they put me somewhere else. Where people were already waiting. Keeley’s boyfriend’s in here. The one who got busted…well, you know when. He’s being leant on and…fuck.” He scrubbed a hand over his hair, longer now, and it made me want to rake my fingers through it. I shook that aside. “I was protecting him.”

“Right.” I chewed my lip. “That gives me something to work from.”

Razor frowned. “Does it?”

“Yes.” I wrote some stuff down. Notes for later. Reminders. “Because bail isn’t about proving innocence. Not at this stage.” I tapped the file. “It’s about risk.”

“Risk of me doing a runner?”