The Griffin Marshal's Heart (U.S. Marshal Shifters 4)

That handshake knocked you for a loop, he tried to tell himself, but it was hard to argue with the feeling she gave him. It was like his whole soul had been rung like a bell, and he was still feeling the aftershocks. Still listening to the music of them, the way he had listened to her laugh.

And that music was old and strange, just like Keith’s weighted words.

He couldn’t stand the idea that Gretchen believed that his soul was as ugly as Keith had just painted it.

He said, “I don’t know if it would make a difference or not to hear me say it, but—I’m really not either of those things.”

“What?” Gretchen said. She sounded distracted, like she’d been lost in her own thoughts too.

“And I just didn’t want to come in halfway through Moby Dick,” Keith added belatedly. “I wouldn’t understand what was happening.”

Cooper decided not to get involved in the Moby Dick debate. He said, “I didn’t kill Phil. I didn’t turn over any information about my witnesses.”

“I’m sure you’re not the first prisoner to say he’s innocent,” Keith said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“He wouldn’t be the first prisoner to actually be innocent, either,” Gretchen said.

Cooper’s heart leapt. She was the first person he’d even heard acknowledge that it was even technically possible for him to have been wrongfully accused, the first person to not act like the system was guaranteed to be flawless.

His mouth was suddenly too dry for him to talk. To have someone even half-believe him, after all this time—

“You can’t be serious,” Keith said.

“I’m just being factually accurate. There’s such a thing as a wrongful conviction.”

“Not in his case. Don’t tell me you believe everyone who says—”

“Of course not,” Gretchen said sharply. “I’m not even saying I believe him. I just said that it’s possible.”

“I don’t think it is.” Keith twisted around in his seat, turning to face Cooper. His eyes were a gray-blue so pale that their edges almost seemed to melt away like snow. “You left conclusive proof of your guilt behind. You weren’t just criminal, you were careless. That anyone could possibly believe you at this point is—”

“Oh, look,” Gretchen said loudly. “We need gas.”

“No, we don’t.”

“I think you’ll find we do,” she said. Even from the backseat, Cooper could see that her jaw was clenched so tightly that she could be in danger of shattering a tooth.

Keith was in trouble.

And Gretchen had just defended Cooper yet again.

If he escaped at the gas station, he would just be throwing that defense back in her face, humiliating her in front of a stickler younger partner who seemed intent on criticizing her at every turn. If he ran now, she would think he was exactly the man he’d just told her he wasn’t.

This probably won’t be my best shot at freedom anyway, he tried to tell himself. It’s still broad daylight. If I can’t shift, and if I can’t get myself to turn invisible, I’ll stick out like a sore thumb. It wouldn’t be smart to make my move now. I’m not just doing it for her.

Sure. Right.

Absolutely.

5

Gretchen left the car running, which Keith of course had a problem with.

She balled her hands up inside her coat pockets, listening to her teeth chatter as she shivered herself half to death and tried to keep calm. She tried to be the Marshal Martin would want her to be. It was the kind of thing that would have been a lot easier if slush wasn’t currently soaking through her jeans and getting her socks wet. She only had herself to blame for that one, though. She was the one who had decided to pull over even though the gas tank was still three-quarters full.

She was the one who’d forgotten to wear snow boots, too.

“I know you’re not supposed to leave your car running at the pump, Keith,” she said. “That’s why we’re not at the pump.”