Page 115 of Release

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I leave my car in the public lot near the girls’ dorm and head inside to get the keys from Ashleigh. It’s a sticky damn night, humid, with a threat of thunderstorms later.

I’m sort of hoping for that, because it’ll mean additional cover for me.

Aussie nails me before I can leave, though. “Does Dad know you’re doing this tonight?”

I arch an eyebrow at her. “Does he know I’m doing what?” I ask as I once again don my disguise.

“Ahhh.” She smiles. “How long were you here?”

“Let’s just say I never left. Girl talk and bonding time.” There are no cameras in the hallway outside their room.

“This must be a big donor,” Ashleigh says.

“You havenoidea.” I play fucking dirty. I can feel horrible about it later, but for tonight, I’m on a tight schedule. I look at Aussie. “It can mean getting most of your mom’s list done, because Dad will get re-elected.”

Aussie hugs me. “Leave me your phones.”

“You read my mind.” Actually, she did, because I was going to ask to do that, too. My phone automatically picks up the Wi-Fi in the dorm because I saved the settings. I set them on the bookshelf and kiss her, then Ashleigh. “Thanks. I’ll only be a couple of hours.”

I have my own secret access key card to get into their dorm, thanks to helping out an RA who got popped for weed. Wasn’t like the kid was selling it. But he set the key card up under a fake name for me, and there’s no chance of him ratting me out.

Mainly because his parents never found out about the dropped charges, and he doesn’t want them to, either.

Judges’ kids can be such fuck-ups, you know?

I don’t need to return to my car—which now has the GPS engaged on it, and I did so before I left home—because I brought everything I need in a large tote bag.

If I fuck this up, the girls legitimately can say I lied to them and told them I was meeting a donor. Their hands are clean.

After leaving the dorm, I pull over in a wooded area where I’m reasonably sure there are no cameras, don my gloves, and stick the transporter plate to the car, over the existing plate. Then I double back and retrace part of my journey, just in case.

I’m halfway to Junior’s when I turn the burner on and text him I’m inbound. Once he replies he’ll have the gate open, that he’s turned off his cameras, and for me to park in the open garage bay, I delete all the messages from the phone and pull the battery.

Junior’s a man true to his word in that way, I suppose. I find the gate standing open when I drive in and I park in the garage bay where he’s left the roll-up door open. Thank goodness it hasn’t started raining yet, because that means I haven’t just brought dripping rain into the garage. It’d be one more clean-up step to take care of, if I had.

After the door’s rolled down, he steps into the garage just in time to see me removing my disguise and pulling on one of those head wraps, wearing it like a scarf covering my hair, before I get out of the car. This one’s orange and white with the Vols logo on it.

He eyes my ride. “I thought you’d drive something a little fancier, counselor.”

“It’s a loaner.” I rise up and kiss him on the lips. I’m not wearing lipstick tonight. “I told you, Icannotbe tied to you like this right now. And you can’t be tied to me, either. If it looks like we’re cozy, you can kiss that cattle antibiotics bill you want passed next session good-bye, because it’ll get killed by people wanting to score points with the press and the public. They’ll think I used my influence to get it pushed through.”

He scowls. “Oh.Shit. That bill will save us about a million in operating expenses a year.”

“Exactly. So neither of us can afford to be tainted. Now, let’s get cooking.” I smile. “I really want to get to the dessert.”

“You read my mind, sugar.”

He’s leading me into the house when I speak again. “By the way, did you delete my texts?”

“Yep. I sure did. Including the latest ones.” He points at the phone, which is sitting on the breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Excellent.That’ll save me time, not having to hunt for the damn thing later.

Before I get started, I make sure I’ve tucked all my hair under the edges of the head wrap. I love these things. I have a bunch of them and use them all the time as headbands for working out, or keeping my hair out of my way when cooking, or even using them as neck scarves, or keeping my lower face warm in cold weather.

And they’regreatfor keeping stray hairs from showing up in a kitchen for a forensics team to find later, if it gets that far.