concern for your safety by inviting me back to your place.”
She opened and closed her mouth before her lips pulled tight in anger. “As you put it like that, then I suppose I’ll have to call you instead.”
Saige gripped her purse and when her hand touched the doorknob, Alex pressed his hand to the door. Once she calmed, and didn’t look to be about to leave, he stepped away from her.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pointed that out.”
“It’s the truth,” she said to the door, her voice tight with anger.
“Saige, please look at me.”
She turned.
“I was being a dick. I really am sorry, and I promise you’ll be safe with me.”
“Sometimes you look as though you hate me and I guess knowing that you believe my statement incriminated your brother, I can understand that.”
“I won’t hurt you,” he said as softly as he could manage.
She raised her gaze to his.
“You’re probably the only one who can help at this stage. You’re all he has and I promise I won’t hurt you...you need to go and rest right now. Sleep the migraine away.” He offered her a wry grin.
She nodded and then winced as they exited Daniel’s office.
Alex’s attention was diverted when he noticed the man’s secretary, Fern, bent over her desk.
He smirked and licked his lips.
Saige caught him and rolled her eyes.
He laughed, motioning for Saige to follow him out, but his eyes strayed back to the legs on display in Daniel’s office.
Day 5
8:00am
* * *
Quinten stared at the blank pieces of paper that sat in front of him, at a loss as to what to write.
Saige hadn’t once visited him since he’d been arrested, charged, then incarcerated, so why would she come now?
The warden had asked him if he had any last requests, and the only one he’d been able to think of was to see his Saige. The form to have her vetted to visit had been completed, and he’d been assured she’d be granted access, but the rest would be up to her. As much as he tried not to get his hopes up, his heart raced at the thought that he’d get to see her one last time…even if there were bars between them.
Would she really come to see him though? Time was ticking and his hands shook with the reality of what was about to happen to him. He tried not to think about it, but how could he not when he was living this hell.
And what about his brother? Alex was due in a couple of days. It was a visit that he usually looked forward to, but now that he’d been moved and his death imminent, he didn’t know how to feel. His stomach was in turmoil, and he feared he’d puke.
He’d escaped a lot of the violence that happened in prison because, as a death row prisoner, he’d had a cell to himself and the security was different, or so he’d been told. It didn’t change his longing for the life that he had started to dream of before it was taken away from him.
The dreams had kept him going while Saige had been away at college, and the guilt he felt at being the one to bring her home the weekend she’d been taken still ate at him. He’d been sick and tired of his life, and had needed her badly. She’d heard his need through their connection over the phone and before he could say anything, she’d had a bag packed and was in her car.
That had been the last time they’d talked.
He missed her voice, her smile and, most of all, the feel of her arms around him. Even now, his heart swelled with the love they once shared, and no one could tell him it had all been a dream on his part. He knew that his brother believed the worst about Saige. She’d been the only thing to cause arguments between them over the years.
“You done?” the guard questioned.