Free A Dangerous Affair by Jason Melby Page A

oh shit .'"
    "Can Varden really track us with this?"
    "Like a deer in a rifle scope."
    "Great..."
    Marvin opened the chapter summary again. "You play football?"
    "I played a little college ball."
    "You must have played linebacker. You got the shoulders for it."
    Lloyd thought about his brother's offer at the car wash. "Can you spot me some coin?" he asked Marvin straight up.
    "You lose your wallet in the rain?"
    "I'm good for it."
    Marvin closed the book and reached under his pillow, producing a billfold. He folded a Jackson in half and passed it down to Lloyd. "A white dude asking a brother for a loan? Never thought I'd see the day. Keep this on the down low. I don't want every motherfucker in here trying to tap me for some paper."

 
     
     
    Chapter 13

     
    Leslie Dancroft wedged a yellow legal folder in her overstuffed cabinet and closed the drawer on her fourth felony case in three days. An assistant public defender, she worked the gamut from DUI arrests to attempted murder charges, representing indigent parties who lacked the financial wherewithal to buy their way out of a conviction. An average law school student, she'd passed the Florida Bar on her second attempt and joined the Public Defender's Office for a two-year stint. Fifteen years and several hundred cases later, she questioned her desire to continue the job with crazy hours, lousy pay, and minimal recognition from her peers who'd chosen the private partner track.
    Unlike the hired guns she countered in legal circles, she drove a used car and shopped at discount malls, trading materialistic wares for the chance to make a difference. Never one to back down, she fought hard with all the passion and tenacity of a high-priced attorney on retainer, making friends and enemies along the way.
    She blew her puffy red nose in a moisturized tissue and rubbed a dollop of hand sanitizer on her hands. She needed more than a few sick days to regain her strength—she needed a serious vacation. Not a sit-around-the-house-and-sulk vacation, but a big budget trip to a spa in Sedona or a bungalow retreat on the sugar-sand coast in Bermuda, where her biggest decision would involve a choice between a salted margarita or a frozen daiquiri.
    "You dropped this," Public Defender George Anderson announced, stooping to retrieve a packet of Tylenol Cold from the floor by Leslie's desk. He wore a paisley silk tie around his unbuttoned collar. An honors graduate and former law professor, he made his mark as a public defender who knew how to grease the wheels without getting his nails dirty.
    Leslie opened her desk drawer to grab her purse, ignoring the new case file in her boss's hand. "Have a nice evening."
    "I was hoping you hadn't left yet—"
    "Forget it, George."
    George stared in Leslie's direction with his wandering eye turned up at the ceiling—a genetic flaw most juries found unnerving despite his professional appearance. "You don't even know what I'm going to say."
    "Yes, I do, George." Leslie gathered her purse and her attaché case. "I'm at the ass end of a fourteen hour day and halfway to a glass of cold Riesling with my Chinese take-out. Whatever you're hiding in that folder can wait."
    "I need a favor."
    "I'm all out of favors."
    "I wouldn't ask you if it wasn't urgent," said George.
    "Define 'urgent.'"
    George scratched at his shirt tag. "Would you be serious for a second?"
    Leslie motioned to the stack of accordion folders piled on her desktop calendar, marred with coffee ring stains and ink-smeared phone numbers. "I'll give you 'serious,' George. Drop another case in my lap and I'll strangle you. Slowly. Until your eyes pop out of your head."
    "I have another case I need you on."
    "And I need a date with Brad Pitt. That doesn't mean it's going to happen."
    "Leslie—"
    "I have ten open cases and a cold. I haven't slept three hours in three days. Find another lackey to do your bidding. I'm out of here."
    "I really need you on this one."
    Leslie sneezed. "What about