Page 19 of His Virgin Vessel

I nodded. "I can arrange for my house to be empty tomorrow night." I glanced at my watch. "Well, tonight, technically. Tell me who to speak to."

Fiona stood staring at me for a while. There was something in her stare that reminded me of Asa, and I wondered how well the pair knew each other.

"Joseph!" Fiona called towards the back room and, a few moments later, a blond teenage head poked out.

"What?"

"Joseph Hartman, this is Corinne Dugas. Yeah, that one. I think you two should talk."

I managed to keep it quick, and not long after, I was driving back home, wondering if I had done the right thing. I probably hadn't. How could helping a criminal escape be the right thing? How could helping a man break into my dad's house and steal vital evidence be the right thing? But I was saving the man I loved, and that was all that burned in my mind.

# # #

"I was thinking," I tentatively raised my voice at breakfast, "How about we go out for a meal tonight? All three of us."

Dad looked instantly suspicious. "All three of us?"

"It might help clear the air."

Not a word had been said about the events of last night, and I think all three of us were eager to keep things that way. The best way to move on was to move past it.

"I think it's a great idea," Risa enthused.

There was a faint flicker of a smile across my Dad's face. "Sure. Why not."

I felt a deep pang of guilt as I deceived my family for my own ends. But I couldn't see another way of setting Asa free.

# # #

Late that afternoon, we headed out to dinner, but I stopped as I reached the car. "I forgot my phone. I'll be back in a second." I ran back into the house. Moving quickly, I unlocked the back door. Joseph Hartman would make it look like a burglary, but I wanted to give him the maximum time possible to find the book. Next, I ran upstairs into my dad's room. In its usual hiding place under a lamp was the key to the office. I dashed back downstairs, unlocked the office door, and raced back up again to replace it. Now I really was a bad girl.

"Got everything?" asked my dad. He was trying to be upbeat, but I could still sense his hurt and anger about what I had done.

"Yeah." I patted my pocket. "Let's go."

It was a nice dinner, which actually made me feel worse. The conversation was inevitably a bit stilted, with Risa doing most of the heavy lifting in keeping things moving, but it was still nice. It had been a long time since the three of us were out together, something we used to do all the time when Risa and I were younger. Of course, there were still subjects to be skirted around, and dad was still looking at me with a slight air of suspicion, but it was still nice.

Once we got home, however, the shit hit the fan.

"We've been burgled!" Dad raced into his office, while Risa checked elsewhere.

"I don't see anything missing!" she called. "TV and DVD are still here. There's no sign anyone's been upstairs."

Dad emerged from his study with a dark look on his face. "They got what they came for."

He shot a very quick look at me, which made me feel a little better. I had been right; if I had not been with him all night then he would have accused me of this.

"What did they get?" asked Risa.

"Evidence against War Cry," Dad snarled through gritted teeth.

"If you know who took it," said Risa brightly, "Why don't you just go and arrest them?"

Dad's face creased in anger and irritation that was now directed as much at himself as at anyone else. "I didn't have a warrant when I raided the tattoo parlor."

"Dad?!" Risa sounded genuinely shocked. Brian Dugas had broken The Rules and he had paid the price.

"I knew they were guilty." Dad wrung his hands in exasperation. "I just didn't have the evidence."

"What'll you do now?" I tried to keep the smugness out of my voice. I knew that perhaps my behavior tonight had been less than perfect, and I had been feeling pretty guilty about it, but now that it turned out that Dad had locked Asa up under false pretenses, I was feeling a whole lot better.

Dad stared back at his ransacked office. "I don't know."

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