Free Men Out of Uniform: Three Novellas of Erotic Surrender by Maya Banks, Sylvia Day, Karin Tabke Page B

said as he rose.
    Rick also stood and they nodded their good-byes and then headed back out to Rick’s truck. For a long moment, Rick sat behind the wheel staring moodily out the windshield.
    “Goddamn it,” he finally said and he pounded the steering wheel with his fist. “She was telling the truth all along. She went home with us because she wanted to.”
    Truitt nodded tightly. “Yeah. We fucked up. Christ. What a load of crap. The coincidence of all that going down like that? Has to be astronomical.”
    “Or maybe it wasn’t coincidence,” Rick said grimly. “We don’t have the details, but it’s entirely possible someone saw their opportunity and used Jessie as the scapegoat.”
    “We need to get over to her place. Do you have her address?”
    Rick swore and then picked up the phone to call Bull.
    Twenty minutes later they pulled up outside Jessie’s apartment to see her car parked out front. Truitt breathed a sigh of relief. At least she was home. They would make her listen. They had no other choice.
    Both men got out and just as they got to the door, it opened and Jessie nearly ran into them, lugging a suitcase behind her. She stopped hard and would have fallen but Rick caught her arm and steadied her. Truitt could still see the wince when her leg took too much weight.
    As soon as she locked onto them, she hastily backed away. The suitcase fell to the porch with a clunk.
    “Are you here to arrest me?” she asked in a shaky voice.
    She looked small and fragile and Truitt swore at the fear in both her voice and her eyes. He reached out to touch her, to somehow offer reassurance but she jerked back, making herself a smaller target.
    “No honey, we’re not,” Rick said gently. “We’re here to tell you that an arrest has been made. You’re no longer a suspect.”
    She stared blankly at them for a long time, her mouth open. Her gaze darted back and forth and then she shook her head as if she hadn’t fully understood what Rick had said.
    “Just like that?” she asked hoarsely. “I’m not being arrested?”
    Truitt shook his head. “No. You’re under no suspicion.”
    Tears filled her eyes and then she looked away as she wiped at her eyes with her palms. “Everyone will think so though. It was all over the news today. I’ll never get another job.”
    “We’re going to fix that,” Truitt vowed. “The department owes you. The chief is going to take care of it. No one will think you’re remotely guilty.”
    She swallowed hard and then color suffused her cheeks. “You can’t fix it for me. You can’t control what other people think. What they think they know. What they know is that my face was all over the news. Some may not even remember why, but they’ll know there was something about me that they should be cautious about. So, no, you can’t fix this for me.”
    Truitt couldn’t stand it any longer. “Sweetheart, let’s go inside. Were you going somewhere?”
    “Yeah, I was going to my friend’s apartment to stay with her. She called her dad about a lawyer since we were convinced I’d be arrested any moment. I’m not going inside with you. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
    “Jessie, please,” Rick said softly.
    Her eyes flashed. “Do you know I said the same thing? I said please believe me. But I get that it was your job, okay? I’m not mad, because it looked like I killed someone and you had to do your job. I get why you had to stay away from me. Do you want to know what I don’t get and why I’m angry?”
    Truitt swallowed and let his hand fall.
    “I don’t get why you looked through me like I was nothing to you. Like I had betrayed you. I get that you may have thought so, but you condemned me without ever asking. You never once asked me if I did it.”
    Shit. There was nothing he could say because they hadn’t asked. They’d been too wrapped up in their anger over thinking they’d been used.
    “I know you had a job to do, but would it have killed you to have said