Page 13 of In Death, Love Survives

SEVEN

Wolfe

“I need you to look into a few people for me.”

Caleb adjusts from across my way.

He’s my actual visitor this Sunday. Sitting across from me in the open, spacious visiting room with others, it’s a relief in some ways to not have to talk into a little phone behind glass.

This supervised lounge area is better than I thought it would be, from the way Toby and the others spoke about it.

“Just give me their names.”

“Ryan Owens. Crawley Jones. Rim Herbert. Sam Snow.”

Caleb soaks in each name, and I watch as he mentally digests them.

“Anyone else?”

“Nah, I think that should be it.”

“Sure you don’t want to include the lady of the hour in this?”

I swallow thickly.

“I need her to tell me her story when she feels like it.”

Caleb twitches his mouth in amusement as he nods.

“Whatever you say.”

I give him a pointed look as he grins.

“She’s different.”

“Don’t I know that by now.” He chuckles and slaps his knee.

I sit back and glance around the room.

“Speaking of looking into people. This Toby character.”

“What about him?”

“He’s suspicious as fuck, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, man. He’s just the only connection I had here. We’re not exactly on home territory.”

I sigh, knowing he’s right.

“Speaking of home. How’s everything going there?”

Caleb gets more serious with the change of conversation.

“There’s been some trouble with a couple of the businesses. I’ve got it taken care of.”

“Nothing I should know about?”

He looks over at one of the officers and back.

“Not like this.”

We’re between a rock and a hard place with every goddamn conversation we have while I’m in here.

I know my conversations are being recorded and listened to by someone here at Roper.

It makes running my operations difficult.

If it wasn’t for Caleb, I don’t know where I’d be or who the fuck I could trust.

“I have a meeting with my attorney tomorrow.”

“Think you’ll get some news?”

“Hopefully, tomorrow, he can tell me something positive.”

“Yeah, hopefully. It’ll be nice if he can figure something out for you.”

“We’ll see. I’m paying him enough to fucking get this handled.”

“It’s only been a few weeks.”

Squaring my jaw, I know he’s right, but it doesn’t matter.

“They want to keep me here.”

“I know. Something isn’t right.”

“Look those people up for me, will you?” I ask with a swipe of my hand through my hair.

“You know I will. And tomorrow, he’ll have good news for you.”

I sigh as I realize this mess I’m in is bigger than I thought it would be.

“The only positive of this situation is…”

Fuck, I can’t say her name. Not here. Not when I’ve already given whoever is doing their follow-ups on me so much intel to work with.

“I know.”

I look around the room at all the visitors, and there is no sign of Nova. Not even in the entryway or hallway that I can see from this direction.

“She’s not coming.”

Caleb grins and crosses his arms over his chest with a raised eyebrow.

“Why do you say that?”

“I think she thought it was someone else,” I say in disbelief.

“No way.”

“Yeah, I told her a girl was coming. I thought she knew it was her, but maybe not.”

“I’m sure she did.”

“Well, if that’s true, then she’s drawing her line in the sand, and what I thought was happening between us isn’t.”

I need to vent, but I have to remember not to say anything further. They shouldn’t care about this conversation anyway.

“Yeah?” he says with an amused expression.

“Fuck, sorry.” I scrub a hand down my face.

Caleb tilts his head up, gesturing to look behind where I’m seated. The entrance to the prison is in that direction, and even employees have to go through that doorway to get to their offices.

Standing there, looking like a precious doll, shocked that I’m sitting with Caleb and not another vixen, is my Nova girl.

She’s breathtaking like this. I’ve never seen her dressed down before. Here in a flowing sundress and sandals, she’s every bit the same dream I see when I close my eyes at night.

I give her a small wave and shoot her a wink.

That’s when I’m hit with the realization that I’m completely obsessed with Dr. Nova Fletcher. Her blinding, wide smile takes over despite her best efforts to hide it.

With a light shake of her head, she goes through the employee entrance and disappears from my sight.

When I face Caleb again, the bastard looks so smug.

“You’re so utterly fucked, you know that?”

“I’m going to marry that woman.”

His eyes shoot out like I’ve told him I’m a born-again Christian. I chuckle at his reaction to the news.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be my best man.”

“Fucking hilarious, man. Can do,” he says with a dark laugh.

“You’ll come back next Sunday?”

“Yeah. I’ll keep you updated on the situation.”

“Thanks.”

Caleb flags down an officer I don’t recognize to leave. This one is sizing me up as if there’s anything either of us can do to each other here.

He grunts and leads Caleb out as another officer approaches to take me back.

I may not know the full extent of what’s going on with me being here at Roper, but I know if I don’t get out soon, I’ll probably end up dead.

Monday rolls around, and if I’m using Nova’s scale, I’m a fucking ten today. I’m being led into a special meeting with my attorney, and then this afternoon, I get to see my girl. If there are any good days in prison, I venture this is the best of them.

I’ve been meaning to ask her about this scale, and maybe I will today.

Walking into the room, I see that my attorney, Michael, is already present.

“Morning, Michael,” I say as I take a seat.

Officer Walls vacates the room, leaving Michael and me alone in it.

“Wolfe. How are you?”

“As good as I can be.”

“Good, good. That’s good to hear,” he says while flicking through some papers strewn across the table.

“Is everything okay?” I ask hesitantly.

“It is. Well, mostly.” He shrugs as he looks through the paperwork.

“Mostly?”

Michael continues to shuffle through the documents until he comes to one particular piece of paper. He finally acknowledges my question.

“Wolfe. As your attorney, I’m here to support you in any way I can. It’s my job to get you out of this situation legally and as fast as I can.”

What’s he getting at?

“Go on.”

I lean forward and tent my fingers against my mouth.

“I’m going to speak plainly.”

“Yeah, don’t give me any bullshit.”

“You and I both know that there is something wrong going on here.”

He looks around the room and spots the video camera on us.

“We do.”

“Your case is a tricky one because of your unconfirmed history. This is a small town, thinking they’ve caught a big fish.”

“I’m realizing that more and more every day.”

Michael frowns as he pushes his glasses up his nose.

“You weren’t meant to be on this side of the state.”

“A mistake I recognize.”

“We’re dealing with a long history of corruption.”

“Okay…”

“I met with the judge.”

“You did?”

“I did, and well…”

Now’s the time for me to wait and listen without reacting. This doesn’t feel like a positive sign.

“The truth is, I’m still digging. There’s something on you that we just frankly don’t know about.”

“How is that fair? What about their so-called legal system?”

Michael sighs as he squares his shoulders back.

“You and I both know that’s not how this whole game works.”

I run a hand through my hair before sitting back.

“What’s next then?”

“I’m digging. Trying to figure out what they have on you or…”

I can read between the lines. Or what we can get on them.

“The latter is probably more likely to help regardless.”

“I think the same.”

“Okay then.”

Michael starts to push his papers together into a new file.

“My fees will be higher for such efforts.”

I chuckle as I run my hand through my hair again.

“I would expect nothing less.”

“Good. Now with that settled, I’ll be back as soon as I can with more news. In the meantime, if there is anyone you think who can help me, please reach out.”

Michael puts the neatly stacked pile of papers inside a folder and then places it in his black leather briefcase, followed by his notepad and pen.

“I’ll give it some thought.”

“Thank you. It’s always appreciated.”

He holds onto his briefcase on the table.

“Once we find something, then I can always request another private hearing with the judge. Anything to speed up the process from there, depending on what we have.”

“Understood.”

“In the meantime, how are you doing in here? Any issues I should try to address separately? You have enough money still?”

Michael waits for me to give him something to work with, given the lack of news he brought.

“All good. Everything else I can handle.”

“Perfect,” he says with a tap on his briefcase.

He leans over and gives me a pat on my shoulder, paired with an endearing smile. For an older, gray-haired man, he could remind anyone of a television-level grandfather character.

The truth is, now it’s time for me to take matters even further into my hands. With Michael and Caleb both looking into the people who are hell-bent on keeping me here, I have no choice but to see what else I can do.

“Is everything okay today?” Nova asks.

I’ve been in our space together for a few minutes, thinking over what I learned earlier this morning from Michael.

Glancing up, I see Nova’s concern. I hadn’t realized I was overthinking the meeting from earlier.

“Yes, sorry. I’m glad I get to see you today.”

Nova beams at the acknowledgment. She hasn’t pressed record on our therapy session just yet.

“I can tell something is troubling you,” she says.

“I don’t want to worry you.”

Nova smiles as she relaxes back.

“That’s my job.”

“Fair,” I reply.

“You can share with me.”

“Angel, I would love to share this with you, but it would be a conflict of interest, and I’m just not going to put you in that position.”

Nova’s eyebrows furrow together as she concentrates on the meaning behind what I’ve shared. A few moments of silence pass.

“What number would you say you are today?”