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I come into the interview room and see the man dressed in a dark suit already sitting at the table. There’s enough resemblance in the face that I can tell this is Edmond Granger. Eden’s dad. I fall into the chair and wait for him to say something. The last three days have been hell for me not knowing if Eden is being taken care of, not knowing if she’s afraid or having nightmares after all this shit.
“Eden has been asking about you?”
I break my rule to not give anything away, “Is she doing okay?”
I have to know. The man nods slowly and meets my eyes with no guile in them. “She’s…sad. Different since all of this happened to her.”
I feel the tight squeeze around my heart at his words. My angel is sad, and I can’t make it better for her. I fight down the lump that’s settled in my throat and wait. He’s not here to tell me his daughter’s sad.
“Every prisoner and guard have been accounted for…except one.”
What’s this got to do with me? Why the hell would I care about an escapee?
“Snake Havelock.”
The name has my brows raising. I’ve heard of him. He’s been bragging for months that his girlfriend is going to bust him out of here. Guess she got the job done.
“One more person has gone missing since the riot as well?” I wait for him to tell me who. If the only prisoner was Havelock, then why would it matter who else is gone? “My wife.”
I lose all ability to remain unaffected, “Holy shit! Your wife is Snake’s girlfriend?”
“I think so. She was working on his case to see if we could get him early parole. The reason she’s left ‘papers’ here so my daughter could come pick them up.”
I lean forward at the mention of Eden, “Wait a minute. You think your old lady set all this up and brought Eden here so something would happen to her? That this was all a big game so this bitch could move pieces around?”
He stares at me for a long second before giving me a slow nod. My temper flares with a dangerous surge of hate and rage. I don’t know the woman but if she did all this so Eden could get hurt…she’s a dead woman walking.
“And what’s even more troubling…I don’t think she’s done trying.”
His words have me sitting forward again. “You think she’s still trying to hurt Eden?”
I look over to the door wondering if I could break out of here before they shoot me. This is a different prison, so I’ve not learned the ins and outs of it yet.
“You kept my daughter safe in a prison full of rapists and murderers. Not a hair was touched.” Not by anyone other than me. Never by anyone other than me. “Now I need you to do the same…when I get you out.”
My heart starts hammering but I don’t say a damned word.
“Can you do that? Can you keep my daughter safe? Safe from someone like this ‘Snake’ person?”
I sit back and really look at this guy. He’s asking me to keep his daughter safe. He’s a smart man. He understands there’s always a bargain to be made. He needs to know how things are going to be when I get out.
“You get me out, I keep Eden safe. What else?”
“Isn’t your freedom enough?”
I allow my smile to lift the corners of my lips as I sit forward. “If it was, you wouldn’t be here right now. Would you?”
His eyes narrow. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, you’re a smart man. You do this for a living. Chances are you’ve already studied my case and have found the holes in it that will get my case thrown out by the end of the day. Why are you here instead of a courthouse?”
The man swallows and I see him choose his words carefully. “It would seem you aren’t a dumb man either. Law enforcement doesn’t care for what I do. Meaning they can easily be persuaded to look the other way. I need someone I can trust with my daughter’s life. You’ve proven you are more than capable of doing that.”
Time to come clean with dear old Dad.
“If I do this…if I accept what you’re offering, I want the girl.”
He needs to understand Eden belongs to me and he needs to be okay with it.
