Dawson fell into a laughing fit. He turned to Asa and pointed a thumb at Zach. “He thinks we should tell the criminals we’re onto them.”
“I mean, I could have gotten Lauren wrapped up in this,” Zach said.
“Yeah. We were really worried about that,” Asa deadpanned. “Lauren is way too smart for you.”
Zach huffed. “At least we agree on one thing.”
“We could have avoided all of this,” Dawson said. “You could have decided to do this before your sentencing.”
“Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. It’s in the past,” Zach said. “I’m trying this honesty thing with Lauren, but I don’t want her caught up in something that could get her hurt.”
“We’ll protect Lauren,” Dawson promised. “She knows we care about her. Lauren has been in this world for a while. She trusts us. It’s you who doesn’t trust us yet.”
“You’re right about that.”
“But this new relationship isn’t going to work if you don’t. You’re entering into a partnership. We have to have the same goals.”
The door opened, and Lauren stepped in, closing the door behind her. “Hey. Am I late?”
Lauren wore her hair in a loose braid that fell over her shoulder and a smile that lit up the room. They’d been apart for fourteen hours, but it felt like a week.After spending a day and a half snowed in together, enough was never enough.
Asa looked at his watch. “Nope. You’re on time. We were just talking.”
Zach took her hand as he headed for the door. “Now we need to talk.”
Lauren followed him into the hallway where she walked right up to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I missed you.”
His skin warmed as he crossed his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me about your criminal justice degree?”
Her head tilted slightly to the side. “It didn’t come up. That’s kind of an odd thing to insert in conversation.”
“Criminal justice. Psychology. Am I just a project to you?”
Lauren jerked back. “What? No. I didn’t go to school to hurt you.”
“Or fix me?” he asked.
She rested a hand on his arm. “Zach, I promise that wasn’t my intention, but I can see why you would think that. I chose this path long before you. Growing up, it was difficult for me to understand why people did bad things—especially my parents. I wanted justice, but I also wanted them to be better.”
The hand resting on his arm slid off, and she wrapped her arms around her middle. “I know I can’t change someone, but I thought if I could immerse myself in learning about others that I could help criminals make better decisions in the future. Maybe theyneeded someone to listen to them? I know it sounds naive, but it makes sense to me. I just….want to help.”
Zach’s shoulders slumped. “Sorry. I should have known you wouldn’t do that.”
She rose up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. “Stop worrying. We can do this. I’m on your side.”
He nodded and took her hand. “Right. Let’s go see what dumb and dumber have planned for us.”
They stepped back into the room with Asa and Dawson and shut the door.
Dawson elbowed Asa. “Look. They’re so cute.”
Zach rolled his eyes. “Shut up.”
“Never,” Dawson whispered.
Asa tapped his pen on the legal pad. “Can we get to the point?”
“Right,” Dawson said. “You’re being recorded, so don’t say anything stupid, and for the love of all things good, please don’t lie to us. It only makes it harder for us to protect you and our officers.”
