Bad Boy Savior (Bad Boy 4)

Since my visit was scheduled for seven, I made sure James dropped me off at the facility at five forty-five, just to be on the safe side. When I arrived, there were already people waiting in line in front of a metal detector. We were made to remove all outerwear and jewelry other than wedding rings and medical alert bracelets. Everything went into a lockers and we were then each given a key to our locker. After that, I had to fill out a visitor's form and wait while my ID was put through a computer search. I was then given a lanyard with a printed card with the floor and room number where I would go to meet Hunter. The other visitors seemed more familiar with everything and were ready, scribbling down their info on the visitor's forms and lining up to go through the metal detector. Once the clock struck six, we were shuttled through the detector and our hands stamped. After that, we went through a set of doors and had our stamped hands checked under a UV light. Finally, we took the elevator to our respective floors and then to a special room for visitors. It was tiny, with a desk, a metal stool, and a glass partition dividing the room in half. There were holes in the glass so you could supposedly hear the person you were visiting.

It was horrible.

After I was seated, the door opened and in walked Hunter, wearing a jumpsuit.

He looked haggard, his hair a mess, his skin pale.

He sat on the stool and faced me, smiling sadly.

"You came," he said, and I was shocked that he felt that way.

"Of course I came," I said, and leaned closer, because it was difficult to hear him. "How are you holding up?"

He shrugged. "I've been worse. Frankly, cells are better than some of the places I've slept."

I smiled, but I didn't know what else to say.

"Aren't you going to ask me if I did it?" he said, his eyebrows raised.

"Did you do it?"

"Do you think I did?"

I shook my head. "You were angry when you saw what he did."

"I was," he replied. "I wanted to kill him, but I didn’t."

"Who did?"

"Sergei."

"You know that?"

He nodded. "Yeah, he set me up. I'll tell you all about it when I get out."

"When do you think that will happen?" I said and leaned closer. "I miss you."

He smiled softly. "I miss you. I feel like I just found you and now here I am."

"If you're innocent, they'll drop the charges."

He shook his head, his expression dark. "So trusting," he said. "I don’t have the same faith in the justice system that you do. Not after what happened to Sean."

"If you didn’t do it, they'll find evidence and let you go."

"Unless they want me for it. My family isn't exactly liked by the FBI or the local police. I thought they liked me, personally, but now I wonder…"

"Tell me what happened. Why were you in Alexandria?"

For the next hour and a half, Hunter told me about his trip to Alexandria. He explained about his meeting with the FBI's Child Sex Crimes unit about Spencer's ties to a child prostitution ring using Russian and Eastern European girls who were hoping to come to the USA and become models.

"They have to know you didn’t kill him, Hunter. Why else would they work with you if they didn’t trust you?"

He shrugged. "It all comes down to timing. My prints were on the weapon. If it was possible for me to have killed him because of his time of death, they'll indict me and I'll go to trial."

"So his time of death is important," I said, nodding in understanding.

"It depends on what the coroner finds. If there was any chance that I did it, I'm afraid I'm going down for it, even though I didn’t do it. Sometimes, the police start down one line of investigation and can't see any other options."