Dawn Stewardson - Falling For The Enemy

“Look, Billy, I’ve given this a lot of thought, and the way I see it, agreeing would be a good idea.”

Billy shook his head. “As long as we’ve got the item, I don’t have to agree to anything.”

“No, you don’t have to.”

“But you think I should? Why?”

“Because as things stand, if our friend cooperates it sure won’t be willingly.”

“If?” Billy repeated with a mean grin. “Like I said, as long as we’ve got the item...”

“You’re right. We can take the cooperation as a given. But say our friend goes along with us, then sees an opportunity, or creates an opportunity, to double-cross us.”

“Not a chance. She’d have too much to lose.”

Sloan told himself he had to do better. “Okay, here’s what’s really worrying me. You know everything we learned about our friend as well as I do. We’re talking someone who takes job responsibilities seriously. Plus, being part of the system, doesn’t look at things the same way most people might. And if you and I are making assumptions that might not exactly apply in these particular circumstances...”

After a glance at the guard, Sloan looked back at Billy and whispered, “Aside from anything else, for all she knows she’ll never see the item again even if she does cooperate. That just might make her try something we’re not expecting.”

Billy hesitated, then said, “You did promise the item would be returned safely, didn’t you?”

“Of course.”

“But you weren’t convincing enough?”

“I did my best. The problem is that we’re not talking about someone naive. We’re talking someone who knows how often this sort of thing ends badly. So I can’t see why we shouldn’t give a little. It wouldn’t hurt us, and there might be a major benefit.”

“What?”

“It would show you’ve got a heart. And it would be taken as a sign that you sincerely intend to return the item. If our friend is convinced you really will, that’ll practically guarantee cooperation.”

When Sloan stopped speaking, Billy resisted the impulse to say that no way was he letting that bitch anywhere near her kid. Even though he hated the thought of giving in to her, if Sloan figured the idea had merit then he’d better not dismiss it too fast.

Sloan was paid help, not part of the family, so he wasn’t always worrying about his place in the pecking order. That meant he didn’t always say what the boss wanted to hear. What he said usually made sense, though. So if he figured Hayley Morgan really might try to cross them...

Maybe it was a possibility. She was smart. And as Sloan said, she knew the system. So maybe she would be arrogant enough to figure she could...

But, dammit, they had her kid. Didn’t that outweigh everything else?

“Billy?” Sloan said quietly.

He continued to stare at the table, not done thinking his way through this. He wanted his freedom back so badly he could taste it, and he’d get only one shot at escaping. If he tried and failed, the guards wouldn’t take their eyes off him until he was so old he couldn’t walk.

But how great was the risk that Morgan really might throw him a curve? He figured it was damned 70 FALLING FOR THE ENEMY unlikely. Still, damned unlikely was no guarantee that she wouldn’t.

“Billy?” Sloan said again.

Billy looked across the table this time, reminding himself that Sloan was both a smart guy and a good judge of people. So if he thought that tossing Morgan this bone would convince her she’d get the kid back safe in the end, that it would keep her from trying anything funny...

The boys wouldn’t like it, though. They’d read it as a sign of weakness.

But what if he put Sloan in charge of the game plan? Then letting her see the kid would be viewed as his weakness.

That’s good, he silently congratulated himself. He hadn’t lost his touch yet.

“All right,” he muttered. “I’ll talk to Brendan and tell him you’re calling the shots as far as the kid goes. He’ll let the boys know, and you make the arrangements. Be careful, though. You’ll have to be sure our friend doesn’t... But hell, I don’t have to tell you how to handle the details. You’ve never let me down before.”

“And I won’t this time.”

Billy nodded. His people almost never let him down. They knew that anyone who did it once wouldn’t be around to do it again.

EVERY TIME SHE HEARD footsteps in the hallway outside the office, Hayley froze. Thus far, though, none of them had belonged to Sloan Reeves.

She was starting to wonder if he’d actually bother “stopping by,” as he’d so casually put it. Maybe he’d just call, avoid having to deliver the bad news face-to-face.

She told herself not to assume the worst. But promising he’d try to convince Fitzgerald and actually doing it were two different things. Even if he honestly did his “level best,” believing she at least had a chance of getting what she wanted was probably just a pipe dream.

It was all she had to cling to, though. And thinking about going day after day without seeing Max, about how the ordeal would be even harder on him if—

“Dr. Morgan? Gentleman would like to see you.”

When she looked up her throat went dry. Sloan Reeves was standing beside the correctional officer.

“Thank you,” she managed to say. “I...there’s no need to wait. I’ll see Mr. Reeves out of the secure area when we’re done.”

The officer nodded, then headed off, while Sloan stepped into the office and closed the door.

As he turned back toward her, she searched his chiseled face for a clue to Billy’s decision. She saw none.

“Mind if I switch this on?” he asked, taking a tiny tape recorder from his suit pocket and setting it on her desk.

“No.” But why would he want to tape their conversation?

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