Page 64 of Burning Secrets

“I can’t,” Crew said quietly. “He’s dead.”

A beat, and Mills jaw tightened. “Let’s go.”

“Mills—” the sheriff said, and Deputy Mills stopped, his grip tight on Crew’s arm. “He just spilled your coffee.”

Silence. “What kind of outfit are you running here, Sheriff, that you’re going to let a felon come in here with a gun and walk back out?”

Deke sighed, looked at Crew. “Okay. Just cool off, Crew. We’ll figure this out.”

His mouth opened, closed, and he pinned a look on Rio.

His mentor held up a hand, his mouth a tight grimace. Shook his head.

Crew bit back the urge to jerk out of Mills’s grip. He couldn’t look at Vince or Hammer as Mills took him down the hall to the temporary cells in back.

Mills unlocked the door, then led Crew to a cell, opened the door.

Crew stepped inside.

“Back up against the bars.”

Crew closed his eyes, stepped back so Mills could uncuff him. Good thing the deputy had restrained him for that thirty-foot walk back to lockup.

He bit that back too.

Because actually, that might not have been a bad decision. No way was Crew willingly headed back to jail, and it might have gotten ugly.

He sank onto a metal cot and stared up at the tiny window that shed light into the cell.

And plotted his escape.

ELEVEN

C’mon,Jo. Think.

She sat against the wall, the shadows long in the room. She guessed the hour late, maybe after ten. Her stomach growled.

Her jaw ached. Viper had probably left a mark.

Outside, a couple ATVs motored into the compound.

She had to get out of here. But without the cover of darkness…

She closed her eyes. Heard again the verse that kept replaying in her head.For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Her mother, in her head again.

Jo, even though life feels out of control, it’s not, and we’re going to hold on to truth.

Yes. The words poured through her, found her bones, and stirred up Skye’s words.No matter what happens, God will never leave us…In the end, He will deliver the good He promises.

And in her mind, she saw Crew sitting on the floor, on his sleeping bag, unwilling to leave her alone in a dangerous place. Heard their conversation.

They mess with you, they mess with me.

She ran her hand against her face. Yeah, well, he wasn’t here. And couldn’t be here.

She was on her own.

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