“And you want to be that person?” I fired back.
He clenched his teeth and looked away.
I slipped off his jacket and reached for the door. “It’s late. I should go.”
“Finn, wait—”
“Thank you. For everything.” I got out of the car before he had a chance to respond. The cold wind cut through my damp clothes, and my hands shook as I fumbled with my key in the dark. The front door flew open before I managed to get it into the lock.
Vero threw her arms around me. “You’re not in jail!”
“Not yet,” I said through her hair, struggling to breathe despite her vise grip around my neck.
“I was so worried when you didn’t come home. Then Nick called and told me you were being held, and I freaked out and ate a whole bag of Oreos.” She squeezed me tighter and whispered, “I have to know, was it just like in your book? Did you have wild, hot prison sex before he busted you out?”
I pulled back to gawk at her. Her mascara had run in long black streaks down her face, and cookie crumbs dusted the corners of her smile. “Were you snooping on my computer?”
“It’s not snooping. As your accountant, I have a vested interest in the success of your book. I love it, by the way.”
Nick’s headlights swung over us as he backed down the driveway. I turned to see his car idling beside Officer Roddy’s, their windows rolled down.
“Why is Officer Roddy parked outside?” Vero asked.
“You don’t want to know.” I pulled the door shut as quietly as I could, so I wouldn’t wake the kids.
Vero helped me out of my rain-sodden coat. “You’re freezing. Go dry off and warm up. And then come right back down here and tell me all about the handcuffs.”
I shook my head as I retreated to my room, peeling off my damp clothes and changing into a pair of warm flannel pajamas. I sat on the edge of my bed, my head in my hands. My phone blinked beside me. Reluctantly, I picked it up and read the text message from Julian.
Bar’s closing. Heading home soon. Call me when you can. Worried about you.
The message had come before Parker had shown up at the station.
I put the phone down. Picked it up again and stared at his message before dialing his number.
He answered on the first ring. “You okay?” He sounded wide-awake. Exhausted.
“Yeah. I made it home.”
“I heard.” The line was quiet too long.
“What else did you hear?”
“Enough to know it wasn’t the whole story. Want to come over and tell me what really happened?”
I walked to the window and pulled back the edge of the blinds, craning my neck to see the dark outline of Officer Roddy’s sedan down the block. I settled onto my bed and lay back on my pillows, one arm thrown over my head, staring at the ceiling. “I can’t.”
“Then I’ll come to you.”
“Please don’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because there’s an unmarked police car watching my house.”
“Detective Anthony’s?” There was a little flint in his tone, a friction I’d never felt from him before.
“No. One of his friends is parked down the street.”
“Finlay, what’s going on?”
“It’s nothing.”
“Getting caught sneaking into a jail isn’t nothing. Neither is police surveillance on your house. Who were you there to see tonight? Was it Zhirov?” I pressed my lips tight. Nick and I had agreed not to tell anyone. Too many people’s jobs were on the line, not to mention Julian’s future if anyone found out he’d helped me, knowingly or not. “That call you made to me earlier … the questions you asked me. You weren’t at the jail to research a book. You went there to talk to him. Why?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“I thought we were being honest with each other.”
“Plausible deniability. The less you know, the less you have to hide.”
“I already told you, I’m not hiding anything. And you don’t have to hide from me. Just, damnit, Finlay, don’t lie.”
Those words hit me like a punch to the gut. “I’m not lying. I just can’t tell you everything. And believe me, you don’t want me to.”
“Don’t tell me what I want.”
I bristled at the sharpness of his tone. “My life isn’t some cute, curated Instagram page, Julian! You’re right, it’s a hot freaking mess! It comes with baby gates and childproof locks. It comes with car seats and diapers, and a controlling ex-husband, and a meddling, nosy, opinionated mother, and a sister who’s a cop! It comes with things I’ve done that you probably don’t want to know about. And maybe it’s better that there are parts of it you can’t see right now. Because if you were really being honest with yourself, you’d admit that it all scares you and you don’t want to be tagged in a frame with any of that.”