Take the Heat

I shivered, and not from the cold seeping in my windowpane either.

Damn it. Why couldn’t he be some ugly old guy? I shouldn’t even be alone with him. Since the recession the marshal service had gone through a series of debilitating cutbacks. Normally two marshals would be transporting someone as dangerous as Royal and he’d be stuffed and cuffed in the back of a gas-guzzling van, so I’d only have to see him at the beginning and end of the trip. Now only a few thin bars separated us, and I didn’t have a partner with me. Someone else I could talk to. So much easier to pretend the prisoner didn’t exist when I could bullshit about weather and bad coffee on the road with a fellow officer.

“If I were you? I would keep my mouth closed and quit while I was ahead. Looks to me like you got a pretty sweet deal, transferring from a maximum security prison to minimum for being such a good boy. Going to be like Club Fed for you. I hear at McCreary they have a prisoner-run garden and even a recue dog program. It’s going to be like going to college. Why do you want to risk your oh so exemplary record by harassing me?”

“Now that is a conundrum worth pondering. Perhaps you make me lose control, Ms. Marshal.”

I scowled at him in the mirror.

Royal cocked a brow at me. “Have to admit, I wouldn’t mind your hands on me once more. I’ve been in prison ten long and lonely years. No conjugal visits. No female visitors that weren’t related to me. Been a long time since I’ve even been in the same room with a woman. And here we are, just the two of us. Intimate quarters. ” He strained in his steel bonds, getting closer to me, closing his eyes as he breathed me in. “Even the smell of your perfume tempts me.”

Jesus. He did have a way with words. Evidently my body had just taken a vacation from sanity, because I began to respond to his sweet talk, a treacherous warmth spreading through me. I bit down on my lower lip viciously, trying to drag my thoughts in another direction. I needed to get it together, pronto.

This whole evening was a bit of a shit show. I’d been out on a date with Tim, a high school math teacher I couldn’t quite decide if I liked or not, when I’d been called in. The marshal who had been scheduled to take Royal had come down with the flu, and I had the misfortune to answer my cell. I’d made my excuses, changed out my low-cut red sweater and tight jeans for a respectable pair of khakis and a white button-down, though I still wore makeup and perfume. On the job I made an effort to appear androgynous so I didn’t attract any more attention than I already did.

Time to put this guy in his place.

“If you don’t shut the fuck up, Royal, I’m going to gag you. Or throw your sorry ass in the trunk,” I threatened. That would so be worth having a letter in my file over.

Due to being pissed off, I turned a curve a little too fast, and the car swerved. Goddamn black ice. I immediately stepped off the gas and turn

ed into the skid, the quickest way to regain control.

But it didn’t work.

The car began to spin, doing a slow one eighty, circling round and round until we rammed headfirst into the concrete wall in the median.

I was lucky enough to be thrown into the airbag, but Royal’s head banged into the steel bars. Thankfully we weren’t going very fast because I’d stepped off the gas.

“You okay?” I asked Royal, glancing in the rearview.

He blinked a few times and shook his head. “Rung my bell pretty good, but I’m fine. Though I’m gonna have a pounding headache tomorrow.” Didn’t have a mark on him. Good. We were both okay, but the car had been crunched up by the concrete pretty good. We weren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I picked up my cell and dialed the boss. “Sir? It’s Blake. Got into an accident on the highway.”

“Shit. You okay?” I liked my boss, Harry Walters. Efficient, loved the job, and no nonsense.

“Yes. Prisoner and I are just fine. Going to call the highway patrol and report the accident, then haul his ass to the county jail for the night. Maybe we could requisition a car from the troopers so I can finish the job?”

“I’ll cut through the red tape and give you a call in about thirty. Keep me updated.” He paused. “Blake, if he tries anything, you put him down and you put him down hard. Don’t trust him for a second.”

“Got it, sir. I’ll keep you updated.” I hung up and dialed the staties. Told them what mile marker we were located at.

Then I turned to actually face Royal. It was unnerving. Even after the accident, he didn’t seem flustered. Just calm. Those dark eyes of his drank me in. Missed nothing.

“Hold tight. They will be here in a few to get us. We got top priority.”

“Tell me, Ms. Blake—”

“Eavesdropping, were we?”

“Can I help it if your supervisor has a voice that carries? Tell me, are you a Ms. or Mrs. Blake? I would hate to think I had a rival for your affections.”

I rolled my eyes. “Enough already. I’m having the night from hell, and your incessant need to talk isn’t making it better. So I’m going to tell you and then you are going to shut up about, okay?” He nodded, but I doubt he intended to keep his promise. “My name is Ivy Blake. And I’m not a Mrs.”

“And do you have a boyfriend?”

“No, I have a girlfriend,” I lied. Let him chew on that one for a bit.