And she did.
“Yeah.My social calendar isn’t exactly full.”Uncomfortable but pushing through, Sam picked a business card off her desk, scrawled her cell number on the back.“Pick a night, I’ll find a way to be there.”
Jill took the card and beamed.“Excellent.See you guys later.”She left out the front door and Sam stood where she was.Nate sat at his desk.
The silence was welcome, Sam told herself.Not… accusatory.
“I wasn’t saying no to be… a pain,” she grumbled, moving around to take a seat at her own desk.
“No, not Sam Price.”
She scowled at him without much heat behind it.Shewasdifficult.As a rule.She enjoyed being difficult.Being difficult was part of survival.
But she’d made a promise to herself to stop trying so hard tosurvive, and to maybe start trying to… live a little.
A very little.
Some horrible, tiny, personal, awkward, celebratory bridal shower slash bachelorette party sounded likehell, not living, but Sam would suck it up.What was a few hours anyway?
Maybe she’d come down with the flu that night.Maybe eat a bunch of salads and pray for some E.coli.
“The lawyer is coming by this morning,” Nate said.“He wanted to go over a few things with me before tomorrow.I imagine he might have a few things to discuss with you too.Should we talk about what we think the lawyer is going to say?Get our stories straight?”
Sam studied him.He was not a man who ever gave off the impression of havingnerves.She’d made a study out of Nate Bennet for the past six months.She’d seen a lot of hints of emotions hidden under the surface but nevernerves.
It made her need to ease those away.“We don’t have to get our stories straight.Our storiesarestraight.Because they’re the truth.”
He didn’t look at her.His gaze stayed on his computer, but she knew he wasn’t actually paying attention to whatever was on his screen.
He was thinking about the fact that his father had killed his mother.That it was atruth, but the legal system wasn’t always based on truth.That since Benjamin Bennet refused to confess—even though there was ample evidence against him now—they had to go through the entire rigmarole of a trial.Dig everything up.Put Nate’s whole family through just another level of hell.
It wasn’t right.It wasn’t fair.
But it was life.
“Maybe, but we have to be certain.If he gets out on a technicality…”
“He won’t.”Sam had to believe that.She simply couldn’t make it through the day thinking he might getout.God.
“That’s not what Cal says.”
Ice fear prickled through her limbs.“Cal thinks he’s going to get off?”
“No, but he won’t come out and say it’s a done deal.”Nate shrugged jerkily.“Makes me itchy.”
“He’s just being a lawyer about it.”So much of the trial rested on what Cal remembered seeing—after traumatically blocking it out for most of his adult life.Ifhewasn’t sure… but Sam refused to accept that.
There wasevidenceBenjamin Bennet had killed his wife sixteen years ago.Physical evidence enough to arrest him after all this time.He’d done it.The trial would prove it.It had to.Just like once upon a time a trial had proved her father had committed the crime that he… hadn’t.
Yeah, she really wished Cal thedefense attorneythought this was a slam dunk.
“Yeah, probably,” Nate agreed, but it was dismissive.“So, what do we have on the docket today?”
Before Sam could change gears from the bone-deep fear that Benjamin Bennet mightget off, the bell on the front door jingled once again.Quite a lot of foot traffic for a freezing cold winter morning.
A person she’d never seen before stepped in.His dark gaze took in the room with nervous eyes.Maybe it was the nerves that she’dnowjust recognized in Nate that had her noticing the similarities.In the eyes, around the mouth.
Maybe not in build, but in the face?
