Baby Breakout by Lisa Childs Read Free Book Online

agent escape.
The death of the doctor, who so many of the inmates had loved, was what had inspired the riot. When he’d ordered Doc’s murder, the warden had gone too far. He’d ordered Jed’s death, too, but the riot had protected and eventually freed Jed. But even without Rowe’s warning, he would have known that he was probably in more danger outside of prison than he’d ever really been in it.
At least he didn’t need to worry about Warden James anymore…
“But you need Marcus Leighton’s address,” she reminded him.
“Fine. I’ll wait for you,” he assured her. He also waited before going out the window. Hiding in the dark shadows of Isobel’s bedroom, he watched Erica walk down the hall toward the door.
Her hips, fuller than he remembered, swayed in her jeans. His guts tightened with desire. It wasn’t fair that she was so damn beautiful…
“Thank you for coming,” Erica said as she opened the door. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”
“It’s okay, honey,” a female voice, gruff with sleep and possibly age, assured her. “I know that you would never do that unless you had an emergency. I hate the thought of you going out after dark, though—what with those escaped convicts on the loose. They’re all armed and dangerous, you know.”
“I’m sure the media is exaggerating that,” Erica said, keys rattling as she grabbed her purse.
“No, honey, they’re bad men—every last one of them. But that cop killer—he’s the worst. I hope they catch him soon.” A board creaked, as if the woman had moved down the hall.
Toward Isobel’s bedroom.
If Jed didn’t leave now, he might get caught. He pushed up the window and stepped onto the wrought iron of the fire escape. The wind rustled Isobel’s curtains, so he pulled the window closed. Hopefully Erica would come back and lock it.
He hated the thought of leaving Isobel alone. The old woman sitting with her was no protection for the vulnerable child—not with a killer on the loose who had already tried to ruin Jed’s life once. Harming his daughter would hurt Jed more than spending the rest of his life locked up.
But, hopefully, no one else knew about Isobel. While Erica claimed that his lawyer had always known her whereabouts, Marcus might not have realized she was pregnant. He had certainly never given Jed any hint that he had become a father.
But then he couldn’t trust anything his lawyer had ever told him because he’d apparently kept much more from him than Jed had realized. Like the documents that might have helped Jed in his defense, if he’d been able to track down the funds that had been embezzled from his clients’ accounts. If Marcus had lied about Erica, he might have lied about the warden denying Jed access to those documents.
Or was it Erica that he shouldn’t trust? Maybe she had been working with Marcus. Maybe she was still working with the lawyer.
Maybe instead of driving Jed to Grand Rapids, she intended to drive him right to a police station…
* * *
     
C OULD SHE TRUST J ED ? Erica studied his face in the glow of the dashboard lights. He had insisted on driving, his hands clamped tight around the steering wheel. His square jaw, shadowed with dark stubble, was also clamped tight—as if he fought to hold in his rage.
How much had that rage built up during three years in prison for crimes he hadn’t committed? If he hadn’t committed them…
Had she been a fool to so easily accept his claims of innocence? While she now remembered more of that night, of their making love again and again, she couldn’t remember every minute of it. She couldn’t swear that he had never left her…
“I didn’t do it,” he said, as if he had read her mind.
She jumped and knocked her knee against the dash, pain radiating up her leg. She had the passenger’s seat pulled up close to it because the child booster seat was behind it and Isobel always kicked the back of it. “How did you know what I was thinking?”
She had never been able to