Page 77 of Hidden Ascent

“Does her mouth really do that?” Simmo said, squinting at her face.

“Yeah, watch. Hey Isla, did you like that kiss we shared?”

She scowled and tried her best to mean it. “Not even a little.”

“I see it!” Simmo hooted. “You kissed her? Man, this keeps getting better and better.”

She wanted to protest but knew it would only make everything worse. “You disgust me.”

“I think I saw another twitch,” Simmo said as he unlocked the door.

“I promise you, there was no twitch, Jay,” she said as she was shut in the lockup. She calmly took hold of the bars. “Peter’s going to find out what you’ve done, and he’ll come after you.”

Jay swaggered up to her now that she couldn’t attack. “No, he won’t. He’s got a sick wife to look after. Besides, he won’t ever find out. Who’s going to tell him?”

“He has a way of finding out everything. He’ll find you. He has a lot of friends. You’re worried about being on the bad side of this guy, Shoemaker, but he’s nothing compared to Peter.”

Jay laughed. “Are you kidding? Have you forgotten that I met Peter? He’s a pussycat, and he loves me. I’ll tell him you got mad at me because of my past and said you couldn’t trust me. Then you left me behind and went out on your own saying you could do it all yourself. I never heard from you again.” He made a pouting face. “I’m so sorry, Peter. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen. I don’t know what happened.”

Isla’s hand flew out between the bars, catching him on the cheek before he jumped out of the way. He and Simmo laughed.

“If I ever get out of here, I’m going to kill you with my bare hands.”

He bit his bottom lip, restricting his smile. “I’m tempted to let you try right now, but I’d rather give you to Sharpe undamaged.”

Her skin vibrated in fury. “One way or the other…”

“What? You’ve lost, Isla. The faster you accept that, the easier this will all be for you.”

It was pointless to throw any more rage his way. “Don’t do this. Please. You’re better than this.”

“Wow, you sure change your tune when your life depends on it. When we first met, that’s not what you thought at all. I was a terrible person who could never be trusted.”

“I didn’t know you, and I was wrong.”

“You’re right, you didn’t know me. But you weren’t wrong. You should have listened to your instincts.”

“Jay.”

“Sorry. It’s just good business. And I’m not sure if we’ll see each other again, so…best of luck.” He saluted her, and he and Simmo left her alone.

She squeezed the bars until her knuckles were white, then shook them as hard as she could. She would have screamed but didn’t want to give Jay the satisfaction.

Anger coursed through her, and she embraced it. It was better than the other feeling that threatened. Betrayal was a much harder emotion to deal with. She had allowed herself to connect with Jay, and it meant she’d given him the ability to play her. He hadn’t hidden the fact that he was good undercover, but she hadn’t known how good until today.

Once she’d released some tension by throttling the bars, she stalked to the other side of her cell. Peter had pushed her to ignore her first impression of Jay. He had criticized her for being black and white, but he’d been wrong. She’d listened to him because he’d always been right in the past, but she should have known. Once a bad guy, always a bad guy. And whoever Shoemaker was, Jay had killed his family member and didn’t feel bad about it. He was a murderer and didn’t try to hide it.

She paced the small room, going over every detail she could remember from her time with him, but all that did was bring her shame. She had fallen for it completely. But he couldn’t be that good. He must have slipped up somewhere. Maybe Peter had seen it and he would remember.

God, remind him. Help him see.It would be too late to help her, but she couldn’t stand the thought of Jay getting away with this.

“It’s not fair,” she said with clenched teeth. Her jaw ached with the tension, but she didn’t let up. It offered a small bit of relief.

Don’t despair when evil men prosper.The scripture filtered into her thoughts, and she scoffed.

“Easy for you to say. You’re not locked in here.”

Who the son sets free is free indeed.

---