Free Fusion by Nicole Williams

absolute certainty Joseph had everything I’d entrusted to him under control.
    So I waited.
    And waited some more.
    By the time afternoon arrived, I was convinced I was five minutes away from combusting from the nerves, so I worked to outlet some of the worry into a rip-roaring set of bench press. I was busting out my fifth set, not even close to winded as I racked four hundred pounds, when a shout blasted my way.
    “Hayward!” The prison guard who seemed to hate me just out of principle that I was better looking than him motioned at me. “You’ve got a visitor.”
    I sprung off that bench like it was a vat of hot lava, untying the arms of my jumpsuit at my waist and sliding it back over my arms. The nerves wilted down; someone was here to give me an update. I didn’t care which brother it was, even if it was stick in the mud Nathanial, I was going to kiss them square on the face next time I saw them when a pane of glass wasn’t separating us.
    I was all but skipping down the hallway while the grim faced guard followed along behind when I felt it. The shock that originated at the core of me and zapped down every last nerve I owned.
    I felt her.
    A burst of excitement was dampened by an internal, oh, crap .
    Emma came every Saturday during visitor hours, exchanging flirty, longing, desperate, and‌—‌when it came time to say goodbye‌—‌sad looks and words. I lived for those ten minutes every Saturday afternoon. For those few minutes when she was aware I was near her and able respond when I told her I loved her.
    However, given today was a school day and technically a no visitors allowed day, and given what had happened and what or who she’d seen last night when he should have been locked up miles away, I knew exactly the reason for today’s impromptu visit.
    Even at that‌—‌knowing I’d be dodging impossible questions and inadequate answers‌—‌I was looking forward to seeing her. My stride lengthened until I found myself staring at the prettiest face I’d seen in two hundred years of looking. Nothing but five feet and a plate of glass separating us.
    Something in my DNA made it incapable for me to exude anything that resembled shyness, but right now, as her eyes took me in with a mixture of wonder and confusion, my smile felt kind of shy.
    I slid into my seat and picked up the phone, automatically pressing my hand against the glass like I could let myself puncture through it and feel her warmth instead of its chill.
    “Hey, Em,” I said, feeling that ache in my gut balloon. You would have thought having her closer would deflate it, but it somehow only made it larger.
    “Hi, Patrick.” She was looking at me, but not in that way I’d grown used to. The I-want-you-here-and-now-and-forever look.
    I cleared my throat. “Not that I really care since I get a few unexpected minutes with you, but how did you manage to coerce the Gestapo into letting you in during non-visiting hours?”
    She wiped the smile, shy and all, right off my face with the look she leveled at me. “Oh, I don’t know,” she said, tapping her fingers over the tabletop. “How about I’ll enlighten you if you enlighten me?”
    This could have been one of those instances where I played dumb. I was, after all, a pro at it, but something about Emma’s I’m-a-woman-on-the-verge look assured me this wouldn’t fly.
    A response required another clearing of the throat.
    Holding up her hand as I prepared to explain in the most informatively vague way I could, she said, “Before you try to appease me with a pack of white lies, let me stop you.”
    Stop me she did. Just from the way she was holding me with those green eyes would have shut me up had her words not been up to the task.
    “I know there’s something different about you. Something that isn’t like the rest of us. Something that isn’t like anyone I’ve ever known.”
    I had to bite back the dozen automatic responses that came with this segue. Inserting a list of