Page 49 of Take the Bait

“Oh, no. Just the opposite. He’s completely sane.” The man sighed. “He’s also brilliant. A gifted young physician.”

“How’s he holding up in jail—the current situation notwithstanding?”

The doctor replied, “Better than most. He deals well with regimentation and confinement. Follows rules. Gets along well with the other inmates.”

“What’s all this if he gets along so well with everyone, then?” Cam waved at the infirmary full of wounded inmates.

“A Slavic gang made a move on him. After this display, though, I doubt he’ll have any more trouble with the various gangs in here.”

“Either that, or they’ll kill him.”

The doctor leaned close. “Between you and me, I think this attack was supposed to kill him. Talk around the jail has been that the Russian mob has it in for the Koronov kid. If the Russians don’t get him, the Eastern European gangs will try to curry favor with the Russians and do it for them.”

“I’m prepared to sign off on protective isolation for Alex.”

The doctor snorted. “Who’s gonna go near this kid when he all but kills—casually, I might add—four of the toughest mob enforcers in the whole jail?”

“Why’s his lawyer having to argue him out of killing someone else, then?”

“You know, I did overhear him asking one of the guards yesterday how to get a parole board to turn down an inmate for early release. It’s almost as if he seems determined to stay in jail.”

Cam stared over at Dani and her client, frowning. Something weird was going on, here, and Dani was caught up in the middle of it.

Concern not only for her career but also for her safety surged through him. It was all he could do not to rush over to her, bundle her up in his arms and carry her out of here right this second.

Thankfully, she huffed loudly just then and looked up. Their gazes met, and a smile entered her eyes. He strode swiftly to her side. “All done for tonight?” he asked.

She nodded and he was relieved to get her safely out of the jail. Even in her rumpled gray suit, she looked smashing, and this was an all-male facility.

As a guard buzzed them outside the locked section of the building, Cam murmured to her, “Next time you come here, do me a favor and wear a burlap sack.”

He gaze snapped up to his. “Why?”

“Even the guards can’t keep their eyes off you. The prisoners would lose their minds.”

She snorted as if she didn’t believe a word he was saying. Did she really not know how attractive she was?

He couldn’t tell if she her silence on the ride back to his place was thoughtful or worried. Either way, he left her alone to think. He knew all too well the necessity of working through elaborate mental logic trees in their line of work.

Finally, as they pulled into his garage, she sighed.

“You okay?” he asked. He turned off the car and turned to face her in his seat.

“Between you and me, and completely off the record, I’m worried that I’m out of my depth with Alex. I would hand him off to a more experienced lawyer at WMP, but Alex barely trusts me. No way would he trust some slick shark.”

“Maybe you could ask for a co-counsel to be assigned at your firm?” Cam suggested.

She sighed again.

“What?” he prompted.

“Swear this goes no further than the two of us?” she asked.

“I swear.”

But she still hesitated. What in the world was up with Alex Koronov that had her so freaked out? Cam waited out Dani’s long silence.

All at once, she blurted in a rush, “Alex instructed me to do a lousy job of defending him or else he’ll fire me and find the worst public defender in the city to work his case.”

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