Page 31 of Island Holiday

Grumbling about something, she reached for her computer bag.

“What are you doing?”

“Reviewing my notes. I’m restless. There must be something in the shell companies that I’m overlooking.”

“Swann told us to rest.” Would telling her the truth be helping that goal or hindering it? “We’ll be on the ground soon enough.”

“I guess you’re right.” She linked her hand with his.

He could feel the simmer of anticipation and something inside of him just knew it would be that way whenever she was close. “My first time on a company plane was the day Swann escorted me to Chicago to join the in-house research team. There are parts of that story I can’t tell you because they are classified. The shortest version I can provide is that Gamble and Swann got my conviction reversed.”

He watched the double take as his words registered. “Conviction?”

“Yes.” He watched as she schooled her features. “You don’t have to hide your opinion,” he assured her. If she couldn’t accept it, he’d find a way to get over her. “I should’ve told you earlier.”He’d known this would be awkward. “If it’s about me and jail and your health…”

She grabbed his shoulders. “It’s not that at all.” To his astonishment, tears gathered in her eyes. “What happened? Who railroaded you?”

“You, um, sound sure that I wasn’t to blame.”

“I am,” she replied fiercely. “You’re not a criminal. I should know, having been raised by miserable people with a variety of criminal tendencies.” She kissed him. “Although my first boss fooled me,” she admitted.

“He fooled a whole lot more people than you,” Connor reminded her. The man had been a piece of work. Thankfully, Sonya had blown the whistle. One more instance of her seeing a problem and taking action.

“Someone else must’ve fooled you.”

“Pretty much.” He laced his fingers through hers. “I was set up and took the fall—unwillingly—for others in my unit. The Army court-martialed me, found me guilty of treason and sentenced me to life in federal prison.” He rolled his shoulders, annoyed that he still tensed up when he thought about those days. “Everyone behind bars claims they’re innocent.”

“I know,” she muttered. “But youwereinnocent. Tell me what you can. Did you reach out to Gamble and Swann from prison?”

“No.” He sighed. “I was prepared to be a martyr and never talk about it. I’d accepted my mistakes and my fate. Easier to do when my family wrote me off. My sentence included a ban on computer usage. Those first weeks and early months, I was consumed with figuring out whether or not I wanted to survive.”

Her hands trembled in his grasp and he released her, only to have her grip tighten. “How did they scrub your record? I did a decent background search. Either I suck at those or you changed your name. Not that it’s any of my business.”

Oh, but it was. He wanted her to know all of him. This need to share was new, but he didn’t hesitate. “You don’t suck at background checks. My record was scrubbed. I figured they’d change my name, but it wasn’t required.”

“More of those connections you mentioned.”

“Yes.”

She snuggled as close to him as she could get, tucking herself under his arm. A reaction far better than he’d hoped for.

“I don’t know exactly who told Gamble and Swann about my situation,” he continued. “But they took the intel seriously and saved me. Swann came to the prison and arranged for me to have computer access almost immediately, as an agency consultant. Eventually, their team found the real culprit and proved my innocence.”

“That’s incredible.”

“The best second chance I’ve ever had,” he agreed.

She tilted her head up to look at him. “What’s the best part of being free?”

You. Somehow, he managed not to say it. “The sky. Looking out to the horizon without any fences. I get all knotted up if I’m stuck inside for too long.”

Her laughter surprised him, lifting the mood. “Then why live in a place where you could get snowed in?”

“Good question.” He hadn’t found anyone who made him want to leave the peace and safety he’d found in Chicago. He willed himself to be calm and present with her. Just to enjoy the here and now without any additional pressure of the past or the future. It wasn’t as easy as it should’ve been.

“It’s hard to imagine you without a computer.” She raised their joined hands to her lips, kissing his knuckles. “With one relative or another in jail at any given time, stories of life behind bars were common conversation during my childhood. None of them were pleasant.

“Do people pester you about your incarceration?”

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