Inside

“My medallion hanging around your neck.”

A smile tugged at her lips. “It’s there.”

When he grinned back at her, she couldn’t help laughing. He had such an exultant expression on his face, as if he’d just won the greatest prize imaginable. But before he could kiss her again, a timid knock sounded at the door.

“Chief Deputy?”

“Oh, no,” she whispered. Dean hadn’t left.

“No one else has shown up yet,” he called. “And… I’m getting worried about you. Is everything okay in there?”

“Everything’s fine.” She brushed her lips across Virgil’s one last time before righting her clothes and scrambling to get the cuffs back on him.

“We need to talk about what to do with Weston,” she murmured as she dropped the key to those cuffs in her briefcase. “He’s acting as if he’s found out you’re a plant. He wants to make a deal with us. He says if we let him out of the SHU, he’ll get you inside the HF.”

“Can he know?”

“My gut tells me he can’t, that he’s bluffing….”

“Then don’t do it.”

She nodded in agreement. How she’d get around disobeying Rick’s orders, she wasn’t sure, but she didn’t have time to worry about that right now. There was another knock.

“Excuse me, um, Chief Deputy Warden?” the C.O. called out.

“Coming!” She hurried across the room, but before she could reach the lock, the handle jiggled.

Assuming it was Dean, she turned the button. But the voice that came from the anteroom didn’t belong to the guard. It was Wallace.

27

Rather than offer an immediate excuse, Peyton pretended the fact that the door was locked held no significance. “What are you doing here?” she asked. “I thought you were heading home.”

Wallace didn’t answer. His eyes moved to Virgil. Virgil looked as if the guard had just led him in, but Peyton doubted Wallace would be pleased to see them together in Perry’s office.

“You can go back to work now,” he told Dean, his voice clipped.

Obviously relieved, Pelican Bay’s newest C.O. responded with a dutiful, “Yes, sir,” and strode down the hall.

Silence settled, thick with disapproval, while Virgil and Rick glared at each other.

Peyton cleared her throat. “Would you like to come in?”

“Will you send him out and lock the door if I do?”

Ignoring the insinuation, she perched on the edge of the desk. “No one purposely locked the door, Rick. The button must’ve been accidentally pushed.”

“Right. I’m pretty sure it got pushed just before you took off your clothes.” He laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Or maybe your hair’s mussed because there was a sudden windstorm in here?”

She tucked the fallen strands behind her ears and raised her chin. “It comes loose now and then.”

He walked in and kicked the door shut. “Why are you doing this? Why are you risking my investigation?”

“Your investigation?”

“It was my baby, my idea.”

And his glory if it worked. She’d understood that from the beginning. “This isn’t about professional success, Rick—getting a promotion or a raise or impressing our superiors. This is about lives. And not just Virgil’s. A lot of people could be hurt if this turns into some kind of war.”

He threw up his hands. “Everything would be fine if you could just leave him alone! But you’re acting like a bitch in heat.”

Virgil’s hands curled into fists, and Peyton quickly stepped between the two men. She had to defuse this situation right away.

“You need to calm down. You don’t know what you’re saying.”

He yanked on his tie, loosening it. “Yes, I do! I’ve told you what I can offer you. And I’m not just talking about a good living and professional success. You’re right—this isn’t all about our jobs. Would you really rather be with him than me? You’re that interested in screwing around with this murderer?”

Tension rolled off Virgil like a tsunami, making her fear where this might end. She grabbed his arm while she tried to placate Rick. “Let’s leave all the personal stuff out of this, okay? I called Virgil in here because I wanted to discuss Weston’s note. It’s his life on the line, not yours. He has a better feel for what’s happening, what the Hells Fury might do. He knows what to expect from gang members.” With her free hand, she gestured toward Weston’s note, which she’d set out on the desk before Virgil arrived. “I just wanted to show him what Jager gave me. See what he thought we should do. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

She thought he’d rant about the risk of exposure and blowing the whole operation, but he didn’t. “So you figured you’d start by showing him a little titty?”

Virgil jerked away from her. “That’s enough!”

“Stay out of this,” Rick said. “You have nothing to do with it.”

“You’ll see how much I have to do with it if you keep this up.”

They circled Peyton while she struggled to keep them apart. “Look, you’re both acting…crazy, okay?”

“I’m not acting crazy at all,” Rick said. “I’ve asked you both not to let your personal feelings interfere with the operation.”

“But it’s okay if your personal feelings interfere?” Virgil said.

Rick turned to her. “You had no good reason to bring him in here. You didn’t need to discuss that note with him. I’d already told you what to do.”

She couldn’t claim he hadn’t been clear because he had. “I was gathering more information. I want to be sure we’re making the right decision.”

His gaze dropped and she realized that her top button was still unfastened, partially exposing her bra—and Virgil’s medallion. “So it’s dangerous men who excite you, Peyton? That’s the secret? You’d rather whore for prison trash than have a legitimate relationship with an upstanding citizen? How many of the others guys in this prison have you done?”

Virgil’s chains rattled as he tried to circumvent her, but Peyton grabbed him again. She didn’t think he’d have much trouble punishing Wallace, even with his sutures and his hands cuffed. It was the consequences he’d suffer that she hoped to avoid. “No,” she told Virgil. “Don’t you see what he’s doing?”

Once again, he jerked loose of her grasp, but he didn’t advance on Wallace. “Of course I see it. I’m not going to hurt the little prick, even though he deserves it. What I am going to do is give him exactly what he wants.”

This seemed to surprise Rick. “Which is what?”

“The man who ordered the hit on Judge Garcia. And I’ll do it without making any deals with Weston Jager.”

That slowed Rick down. “Even if he can help you get inside?” he asked.

“If we trust him, it’s all over.”

“You can get in on your own?”

“That was the plan from the beginning, wasn’t it? I’m making progress with Buzz. I’ll get you the evidence to bust the HF for that judge’s murder. All you have to do is keep Laurel and the kids safe and leave Peyton alone.”

Rick gave him a dirty look. “Peyton is none of your affair.”

“Then unlock these.” Virgil held out his cuffed wrists. “I’ll find another way to protect Laurel and start a new life.”