Free The Heart Heist by Alyssa Kress

it any better. But how had she managed to do this to him, dammit! Fear and helplessness started to rise in his throat. "Tell me how this rumor got started."
    Kerrin hesitated, and her gaze dropped to Gary's hands, which curled into powerful-looking fists before flexing out again. She was quite sure he wouldn't mind using those hands to wrap around her neck. "I -- it might have been...partly...my fault. You see, I used that as an excuse the day I went to visit you at Chino, and again the other night when I met you in Bishop. I -- I told my brother Matt I was interviewing someone for the position of summer school teacher." She frowned. "But for the life of me I can't figure out how the connection was made between you and this imaginary teacher."
    Gary groaned. "That hardly matters, I suppose. How many people think this?"
    Kerrin closed her eyes. "Pretty much the whole town."
    He groaned again, deeper. "You're going to have to set them straight."
    "Set them straight -- how? By telling them who you really are?"
    Gary turned aside then and swore; softly and viciously and more completely than Kerrin had ever heard in her life. She leaned against a boulder and folded her hands in her lap. It was just steam, she told herself, though it was pretty damn hot steam. She let him finish his tirade and then gave him a few minutes to cool down.
    Meanwhile, guilt ate at her. It was her fault his cover was blown. Her fault if he didn't get a chance to earn his ten year reduction. On the other hand, there was one possible solution.
    "You should do it," she said. "Be the teacher."
    He turned on her. " What ?!"
    "It's not my first choice, either, Gary. Heaven knows what would happen to my job if the State Department of Education found out who I hired, but there's too much inertia here. It's impossible to backtrack."
    He stared at her out of animal, angry eyes.
    "And if you look at it logically," Kerrin went on, gathering enthusiasm, "this job could solve a lot of our problems. I mean, it gives you the perfect excuse to be in town, and it's only three hours a day. Of course, that doesn't count preparation time -- "
    "Enough." Gary's voice, though not loud, cut her off. He walked a step closer to her, tipping his head. "Has it occurred to you that I am not a teacher -- that, in point of fact, I am very far away from being a teacher?"
    "No. I mean, yes, of course it's occurred to me." Kerrin flushed. "But you wouldn't really have to teach. I have all the lesson plans from when I taught the course myself last year. All you'd have to do is follow those. It's almost like...babysitting." She paused. "I'd help."
    "Just what I need," Gary sneered, "your help."
    Kerrin bit her lip, watching as he turned away and looked bleakly out into the forest.
    "Dammit," he whispered.
    But she could almost see his mind working, revising, calculating. Her first impression of him was that he had remarkable innate intelligence. It was that impression, together with the way he'd worried about her arriving safely home the other night, that had decided her to propose he actually take the class. Marty was right. Gary wasn't dangerous. Or rather, he wasn't violent. And...she wanted him to have his chance.
    At length he turned to her, his gaze wary. "Just what is this class I'm supposed to be teaching?"
    "Health."
    "Which means -- what?"
    "Um, well. That would include your basic personal hygiene, dental health, diet and, uh, of course...sex education." Kerrin winced at this last subject on the list, knowing it was her own personal bane, but Gary seemed to find that the only redeeming feature of the business.
    "Sex, hmm. Well, at least that's one topic I know about. I suppose there are books."
    Kerrin was bewildered. "About sex?"
    "For the class."
    She brightened. "You're going to do it, then?"
    He gazed off into the distance. "I've done a lot of stupid things in my day, but this is definitely going down as the dumbest of them all." He looked back at her. "When does the class