Page 162 of Prey for You

I snuggled my forehead into the crook of his neck, then folded my hands together.

Sam gave a warm chuckle and the sound soothed some of the racing of my heart.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said.

“I thought—”

“Nah, talking to God is like talking to anyone else. We close our eyes because we’re focusing, but… you don’t have to.”

I shifted my weight and let my hands fall into my lap. “Okay.”

Sam took a deep, long breath, brought his hand back up to rest on the back of my head again, pulling me against him. And then he started talking.

Low, deep, calm.Humble.

To my surprise, he talked to God pretty much the same way he talked to me when he was thoughtful.

“…we don’t know why this is happening, and it seems like a good thing. Thank you. Help us to accept it even if it doesn’t go well. And if it is supposed to help me, give us insight. Help Stephen and his team see how to use it properly.

“Lord, Show us the way. Make it clear. And please… please… let me finally be free of this. All of it. Let Bridget and I be together. Give us the freedom to live our lives without all this hanging over our heads. Make it all go away, Lord.Please.And if it was Gordon… bless him for it. I know if he did this, he did it to help Bridget more than me. So… thank you…”

It was a strange sensation. It made my chest tight and like I wanted to squirm. But it also made me feel… sweet. Warm.

Sam was so earnest. And so real. I’d never heard anyone pray that way before.

And when he was done, he sighed like he’d let go of a big burden. Then he took my chin in his hand and he kissed me.

“There’s hope, Bridge,” he whispered. “Thank God, I think there’s really hope.”

54. Where Loyalties Lie

~ SAM ~

I sat in the conference room while Stephen faced me, two of his paralegals filing in and out of the room. Nerves fizzed in my gut. Stephen had been slowly deflating as this case progressed. Today he looked grim, but determined.

Hope.

Please, let there be hope.

When the women left the room and shut the door, he sat back in his chair and stared at me, flicking that heavy ballpoint pen back and forth on the shiny conference table like it was a plastic Bic.

“I gotta tell you, Sam. We aren’t sure.”

Shit. “Okay. What’s going on?”

“Well… for me to introduce this into evidence and get the Judge to look at it, I have to identify where it was obtained. The second I tell them it’s from her criminal father, produced in the courtroom, we hit issues with reliability and character—and if our opponents get it declared inadmissible, we’re screwed. The judge’s call could go either way. We need another source.”

I blew out a breath. “But the other source isme.Same problems, right?”

Stephen nodded. “You see my dilemma.”

I dropped my head in my hands, fighting the coiling panic in my chest.

But then Stephen cleared his throat. “I don’t want to know if you’ve spoken to Bridget latelyin contradiction to your non-contact order.But I do want to ask you, as the defendant in this case, if you believe your wife would be willing to testify to this event?”

I snapped my head up to look at him. “Yes. She would. I’m sure of it.”

His lips thinned. “I think you want to think about that. We’ve already seen evidence that your wife is… less than reliable.”

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