Free For the Sake of Their Baby by Alice Sharpe

home court advantage. The tension and distrust between the two men would suffocate her in either location. She couldn’t let Alex take all the chances and she couldn’t stop thinking for herself just because it was so tempting to rely on his strength. His judgment wasn’t always crystal clear—he was only human and he hated Roger Kapp.
    She began plotting diversions for Alex.
    Nothing ventured, nothing risked, nothing gained.
    Right?

Chapter Five
    There was a giant clock in Alex’s brain, ticking away the moments of his freedom with a relentless momentum that showed no signs of abating. If anything, it was getting worse. What had he accomplished so far? He’d irritated Liz half a dozen times and talked to Dave and that was about it.
    You discovered your wife isn’t a murderer, intentional or otherwise, he told himself.
    All night long, he’d dozed in his soon-to-be-born baby’s room, waking with a start every time fatigue claimed him, sometimes laying there for a long while before realizing where he was. The only thing he’d known for sure was that he wasn’t in jail. It was too dark and too quiet. In jail it was never either of those things.
    Nor was he in his own bed next to his own wife.
    He thrust the post hole digger into the earth and wrenched it free, depositing the soil in a pile beside the hole. He’d been doing this since daybreak, or more accurately, since the dense fog grew light enough to suggest daylight. He didn’t like the fog. He wanted to see the world clearly, not through a curtain of gray, moist air.

    With strong arms, he hefted the digger again and deepened the hole, some of his frustration dissipating with the force of his actions, his brain whirling as he tried to decide what to do next.
     
    L IZ AWOKE with Sinbad tugging on a nightgown button. As she gently batted him away, he licked her fingers and began purring, rubbing her hand with his chin, the sharp edge of one fang grazing the side of her finger.
    “You silly old cat,” she murmured.
    His purr was warm and reassuring, but he soon grew bored with their game. After she let him out of the room, she dressed in maternity jeans and a bulky red sweater to ward off the chill.
    As she attempted to subdue her hair, she heard a rhythmic thumping noise coming from the back of the house and realized she’d been hearing it off and on for quite a while. Looking out the window, she found fog so thick it all but obscured Alex’s tall, strong figure. He was digging holes. He had started the fence. In December. In the foggy cold.
    For a second, she recalled planning that fence, him marching off the exterior perimeter, her wrapped in an intoxicating cloak of impending joy. She could remember wondering if there was anything in the world more wonderful than carrying the baby of the man you adored and being absolutely certain that he adored you, too.
    As Sinbad tore into a can of Seafood Fancy, she went outside. Alex and she had passed the night before in virtual silence, Liz working on the computer, Alex hovering nearby, both tense, it seemed, and both too stubborn to make the first move to resolve anything.
    But now it was a new day and Liz had a new problem—she had to come up with a plausible excuse to getAlex out of the house for the duration of Sheriff Kapp’s visit.
    “You’ve started the fence,” she said as she stopped in front of him.
    His eyes were gray, like the fog, as though stress had bled the blue right out of his irises. He smiled down at her, and as usual, his gaze made her feel desirable despite the fact that as she’d clomped through the damp grass, she’d felt like the Queen Mary churning through a heavy Atlantic swell.
    “I thought it better safe than sorry,” he said, pulling off his work gloves and running a hand through his damp hair.
    She felt a huge lump lodge in her throat. “You mean if you have to go back to jail again.”
    “It’s a possibility,” he said softly. “We can’t ignore it.”
    “Is that why