Page 50 of By His Side

I grimaced. “Yeah.” I gave the question some thought while I sipped my tea. It was a question I’d put off thinking about. The answer was obvious, though. “I’m going to prove he didn’t do it, that he’s innocent. I’m going to clear his name.”

Levi paused with his mug to his lips, his stare calculating. “How? I can’t imagine it’s that easy.”

I laughed. “Nothing in life worth having is ever that easy.” I took a few seconds to think things through. “I guess the first step would be to talk to Julian.”

“And Julian is?”

“The ex-boyfriend. The murderer. The man who lied under oath to have Felix put in prison.” There was no keeping the contempt out of my voice.

Levi blinked. If it had been anyone else, they would have laughed and told me not to be so stupid. Levi didn’t, though. He just rubbed his chin, stubble rasping beneath his fingertips while he contemplated my words. “Will he see you? He has to okay your request to visit.”

“I know.” Which was a problem. If he refused, my plan ended there. I almost laughed at the thought. What plan? I didn’t have a plan besides cozying up to a convicted murderer and hoping that seven years inside might have given him a crisis of conscience that had him wanting to put things right. Everything I’d learned from Felix about Julian said that was highly unlikely.

“You’ll have to lie,” Levi stated, his expression thoughtful.

“What?”

Levi’s lips quirked. “A lie is when you tell someone something that’s not true.”

I treated him to a glare. “I know what a lie is, as you very well know.”

“Ah, but are you capable of telling one? Let’s be real here. If you contact him and tell him you’re currently screwing his ex-boyfriend, and as such, you’d like a little chat about what a prize bastard he is, what’s he going to say?”

“No, thank you.”

“Exactly. So you need to be cleverer than that.”

“Meaning what?”

“I don’t know. Something that will appeal to his ego. Tell him you’re writing a book or something. Criminal masterminds who nearly got away with it… Best looking murderers of the 21st century.”

I laughed, but he’d made a good point if I really was serious about getting in to see him. I couldn’t just turn up as Darien Quinn, probation officer, because I wouldn’t get through the door.

“When I was inside,” Levi continued. “The other prisoners were always keen to talk to authors or reporters.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “I guess because they got to talk about themselves for an hour. Work out what this guy wants and set yourself up as the person who can give it to him. It’ll be too late for him to do anything about it by the time you’re already sat down with him.”

“He can still terminate the visit,” I pointed out.

“He can, but only if you give him a reason to. Where is he, anyway?”

“Belmarsh.”

Levi nodded. “Makes sense with him being so high profile.” He sat back in his chair and studied me. “And how’s Felix going to feel about you paying his ex a visit?”

It felt like something of a test. One that I would fail if I said Felix would be happy for me to hang out with Julian in a maximum security prison.What would he say? “He’d tell me not to do it. He’d say I was wasting my time and that he didn’t want me anywhere near him.”

Levi cocked his head to one side. “Sounds like good advice, if you ask me. Maybe you should forget about it.”

I was already shaking my head before he’d finished speaking. “I can’t. I won’t.”

Levi heaved out a sigh. “I hate to be the one to point this out, but isn’t it a little early in your relationship to be keeping secrets fromhim?” He held up a hand to stall any comment I might make. “And yes, I appreciate the hypocrisy of that statement coming from me considering what happened between Hayden and me in the early days of our relationship, but that’s exactly why I know better. I learned the hard way.”

“Julian probably won’t see me.”

“And if he does?”

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