Lawman Lover - Lisa Childs by Intrigue Romance Read Free Book Online Page B

had once been naive enough to believe what people told her, to believe in justice and fairness. She had learned three years ago to trust in no one and nothing. Except her brother.
    “But I can’t do anything for anybody until I figure out who blew my cover and why,” Rowe continued, his deep voice vibrating with anger.
    “You really have no idea?”
    “I don’t know who to trust in the DEA,” he said. “Not anymore. And I know I can’t trust anyone in Blackwoods.”
    “Except Jed.” But was Jed still in prison, or was he headed to the morgue for disobeying the order to kill the DEA agent? Hopefully Macy had done enough to cover Rowe’s and Jed’s tracks.
    A short chuckle emanated from the backseat. “Jedidiah Kleyn is the last person I would have thought I could trust in that hellhole.”
    “Why?”
    “That whole cop killer thing,” he reminded her.
    She grimaced at the horrific charges against her brother. Being accused of killing a police officer—being convicted of it—had nearly destroyed Jed, who’d just returned from a tour in Afghanistan where he’d been training Afghanis to become police officers.
    “It’s why the warden ordered Jed to carry out the hit on me,” Rowe continued.
    “But he’s innocent.” Frustration that she was the only one who believed it had tears stinging her eyes. She blinked them back, having learned long ago that crying accomplished nothing.
    “Innocent or not, he’s still as intimidating as hell,” Rowe informed her. “Nobody messes with your brother. Nobody dares.”
    “Jed doesn’t tell me much.” And she hated that; she had moved close to him so that he would have someone he could count on, someone he could talk to. Yet he wouldn’t talk to her except to urge her to go back to her home and life. Back to school. And she always assured him that she would, as soon as he was able to go back to his home and his life. “He doesn’t want to worry me, but I know Blackwoods is hell.”
    “And the warden is the devil,” Rowe said. Unlike Jed, he didn’t coddle her.
    She appreciated his honesty. God, she hoped he was telling the truth about helping Jed. “Yours wasn’t the first body to come to the morgue from the prison.”
    And every time Bob had wheeled a body bag into the morgue, she had lived a waking nightmare of worry that it was Jed.
    “Mine wasn’t even the only body today,” Rowe said, his deep voice thick with regret as he obviously thought of the torture Doc had endured. Over him.
    “It’s not your fault,” she tried to convince him. He had appeared as horrified unzipping Doc’s body bag as she must have looked unzipping his. “You can’t blame yourself for Doc dying.”
    “No. But I’m going to find out whose fault it is,” he vowed. “Warden James isn’t acting alone. I want to know who else is to blame.”
    “The warden has to be stopped,” she said, her heart aching with concern for Jed. “Too many inmates die in Blackwoods. They’ve been shivved. Or beaten to death. Or they’ve overdosed on drugs they never should have been able to get.”
    “I was put undercover in Blackwoods because of the number of ODs,” he explained. “It’s obvious there’s a big problem. Someone’s been bringing drugs into the prison.”
    With her old naïveté, she wouldn’t have believed they’d be able to get them inside, but now she knew anything was possible. Especially horrible things. “They shouldn’t be getting them past the guards.”
    “No, they shouldn’t,” Rowe agreed, his voice sharp with anger.
    “How long have you been inside?” she asked.
    “Just a few weeks.”
    “Jed’s been in for three years.” And while she knew her brother had it so much worse, sometimes she felt like she was in prison, too. Her life—the one she had planned since she’d been a little girl—had ended with his sentence. He had been furious with her for not going to medical school, and he hadn’t wanted her to move either. But he’d had no