Page 37 of My Silver Fox Savior

“They’ll probably find out you’ve been working solo cases.” He takes another big pull, then flicks the butt away. “That’ll mean my job’s in the shitter, too, but I might make it through. You won’t.”

“Because shesawme with Landon Cross? What the fuck? He’s a good person.” That fierce certainty grips me again. It’s like the universe is trying to make me fight for him, even when I was the one who was going to bury what we did. “Why does the director hate him so much?”

“It’s that job I mentioned.”

“The apple tree,” I groan, shaking my head. “How am I supposed to take this seriously when I don’t know what happened?”

“Ask Lan?—”

“I thought you were just telling me never to see him again. Or did I hallucinate that?”

He lights another cigarette. “Fair point. Okay, it’s like this: simple, short, and sweet. Landon Cross went to visit a woman who wanted help leaving her husband, who was an abusive father. Landon visited, and then something happened, an argument maybe. We’re not sure what, but it ended up with Landon hanging that man from the apple tree at the end of the garden.”

Everything in me turns cold. “What?” I whisper out hoarsely.

“Then he used some police contact he had to get off scot-free.”

“So you’re telling me he killed a child abuser,” I say, my head spinning, “and you hate him for it?”

“I’ve got a friend. Hell, he was all our friends. His name’s Petey. He was one of the best social workers I’ve ever met. He saved more kids than I can even count. Once, during a job, he slapped an abuser across the face. He got jail time for that. He’s never allowed to work again. Our industry is littered with cases like this, but big bad Landon Cross can murder a man and get away with it.”

“You’re justguessingit was murder.”

“Everybody knew. Even the local sheriff told me the autopsy showed signs of a struggle and strangulation. It wasn’t aself-induced event. Get it? Yet Landon got away with it and then went on to another case, another photo op. We have to work frominsidethe system.”

“Landon told me something similar once.”

“Then he’s a goddamn hypocrite.”

“If the man was hurting his kid, he deserved to die.”

Carter takes another big puff, the biggest yet. He exhales with a ragged cough. “Maybe you’re right, but in that case, we should all quit and become serial killers. You might think I’m some jaded old ass, but I believed in this system once. On my good days, I still do, and you wouldn’t be here ifyoudidn’t.”

My head feels so clouded with everything that’s happened. I move away from the cigarette smog and take a deep breath. “So you’re telling me, if I’m seen with Landon again, I’ll lose my job?”

Carter tilts his head. “You sound like a cop trying to get me to admit to something on tape.”

“If I’d known this is what you were going to tell me, I would have recorded you,” I say, “but you’re safe. Don’t worry.”

“Good, because I’ll never tell you this again. It’s a heads-up, a courtesy. If I were you, I’d forget about Landon.”

“Let’s just focus on work today,” I snap. “I don’t want to speak about my personal life.”

He nods. “Fair enough. Just remember what I said.”

For the next five hours, I focus on the moment-to-moment stress of working alongside Carter. We’re a team again, handling the depressing case of a seriously neglected one-year-old. Afterward, we head back to the office for some paperwork. I can sense eyes on me, an extra edge to my interactions with my coworkers, like they’re already labeling me an outsider for even being vaguely associated with Landon Cross.

It’s enough to make me want to scream, especially with the Mom stuff added on top of it. So, to be with Landon, I’d have to hurt Mom and risk my career for what? A relationship that can only last months, at best?

At my desk, I bury my head in my hands, the depressing thoughts coming thick and fast, a bombardment one after the other. “A girl’s here to see you,” Carter tells me, abruptly approaching my desk.

“What? Who?”

Carter shakes his head. “She said she’ll only talk to the nice lady called Lily. You better see what it’s about before we send her home. She took the bus here from God knows where.”

“How are you going to send her home, then?”

“We were hoping you would help with that.”

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