Page 51 of Jackson

Who better than the inmate she was whining to see?

“You want to go see Ayen?” I asked her.

Her tail began to wag.

At least while I was gone she could keep him company.

Not to mention it would give me an excuse when coming back here to meet up with him again without the COs catching wind of what was going on between us.

It was the perfect plan.

Roxy let out a soft ‘woof’ in what I imagined as stark approval.

“All right, girl. Give me a second and then we’ll go see him.”

CHAPTER 20

Jackson

“Thanks for meeting me.”

Nina lowered herself into the seat across from me, her wide-rimmed sunglasses still perched on her nose. The bag she’d brought with her, a large leather satchel that I recognized from her court hearings, was set down onto the chair next to her.

“Did I have a choice?” she asked, though there was no real bite behind her words.

“Funny.”

Her sharply cut hair, angled down toward her chin, was slicked back with the arms of her sunglasses as she slid them onto the top of her head. Her beautifully done eye makeup had a dark and smoky look to it, bringing out the clear blues of her eyes, and was angled in a way that complimented her angular features.

Under the table, I was bouncing my leg like crazy. My pent up nerves from coming back from the courthouse early thismorning with the thick folder sitting next to me on the table felt like it was burning a hole in me. I’d chanced a look through it while I’d been waiting for her, only getting to the fifth page before a sick twisting in my gut had forced me to stop.

There weren’t any evidence pictures attached to the documents, but the descriptions alone had made me nauseous. How Ayen went through any of that and still got convicted was beyond me when there were so many more violent offenders out there still walking the streets.

I’d managed to cash in a favor at the county court’s office from an officer friend of mine—who had not so subtly given me a sideways look when I’d told him what I needed to get passed along to me—but had, thankfully, been able to pull some strings and get me the papers without much fuss from the county clerk.

Now, I didn’t know what to do with them. How we would get any of this in front of a judge was beyond me, but that’s where Nina came in.

Hopefully.

“So,” Nina’s voice brought me out of my thoughts. “What’s made you about this inmate so much? Aside from your ridiculously sensitive moral compass.”

I slid the file over to her. “Just take a look?—”

Her hand slapped down on top of it, preventing me from moving it any further. “Jax, be honest with me.”

Tension burned inside me.

My and Nina’s relationship dated way back, far enough that we’d both consider each other childhood friends even if we didn’texactly meet as ‘kids’. She was essentially a part of my life, despite us hardly seeing each other these days.

With her firm taking off the moment she’d made partner, and me running the work program for inmates, we were lucky if we got to texting each other for more than an hour or two every few weeks.

Still, regardless of all of that, I knew I could trust her. At least with helping me figure out if Ayen had a real shot in getting this entire case thrown out or not.

Her knowing about me being intimately involved with him, though?

That was the more dicey question.

“I feel bad for him.” Not exactly the entire truth, but true nonetheless.

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