Convicted Read online

  Lisa stopped trying to think. She closed her eyes and just let herself feel. Three years ago, Deacon Campbell had been her first thought upon waking and her last upon going to bed at night.

  What had happened that night at The Circle K?

  "Maybe," she said, in a voice that sounded dreamy and far away. "Maybe it could have been someone else...."

  The door to her office flew open with a bang. Startled, Lisa opened her eyes as violently as the door. Allegra fell into the room clutching at the doorknob.

  "Were you eavesdropping?" Lisa got up from her chair. "Allegra, were you listening to us?"

  It was a rare occasion when Al couldn't think of anything to say, but now all she did was open and close her mouth and stammer feeble excuses. Equally as rare were times when Al seemed to actually feel guilt for her outrageous behavior, but now thankfully seemed one of those times. Lisa was irate.

  "What on earth is wrong with you?" she cried. "I've had enough, Al, I really have! Are you crazy?"

  "Don't you call me that," Allegra said, finally pulling herself together.

  "I think I'd better go." Deacon gathered his papers and files and moved past Allegra out the door. "Lisa, I'll talk to you later."

  Damn. "Allegra Shadd, I could smack you right in the face," Lisa snapped when he'd gone.

  Allegra set her jaw. "Go ahead!"

  This was worthless and suddenly all too much. "I've got to get out of here," Lisa muttered, pushing Allegra aside. She grabbed for her purse atop the printer table, but it was gone. "Where's my purse?"

  "Why don't you ask your jailbird boyfriend?" Allegra asked slyly.

  "Don't be an idiot," Lisa said, but suspicion made her pause.

  "Go on," Allegra urged. "Ask him. He was right there."

  "Deacon didn't take my purse." A quick search of the office showed the bag was gone.

  "Terry says once a thief always a thief," Allegra said in a sing-song voice.

  "Since when do you care so much about what Terry says?" Lisa snapped. "Fine. I'll go down to Deacon's office. He doesn't have my purse."

  The walk to Deacon's office didn't take more than three minutes, but Lisa found herself dragging her feet. The door was closed and she hesitated after raising her hand to knock. She would be insulting him just by asking if he had her purse. She couldn't do it.

  Allegra didn't let her sister falter. She stepped up to the door and rapped soundly on it. Deacon's voice, muffled, came from inside.

  "Come in!"

  "Go on." Allegra shoved Lisa on the shoulder.

  Lisa opened the door. She didn't want to do this. Allegra didn't bother letting Lisa speak either.

  "We're looking for Lisa's purse," Allegra said boldly. "Did you take it?"

  The wounded look Deacon gave Lisa was enough to make her turn around. "He doesn't have it, Al. Let's go."

  "Wait," Allegra said. "Don't you even want to check? Just to be sure?"

  "No," Lisa said.

  "Go ahead," Deacon told her. "Check."

  She shook her head. "No."

  "Are you sure?" Deacon asked her. The answer she gave would mean more than just whether or not she wanted to check his office.

  Lisa didn't hesitate this time. "Yes. I'm sure."

  Allegra made a sound of disgust. "You're an idiot."

  Lisa didn't care. Deacon's smile was warm enough to turn her insides to melted butter. Maybe, Lisa thought, she'd start eating butter, after all.

  Chapter 6

  * * *

  What a difference a week could make. Deacon and Lisa had gone from being wary adversaries to laughing together over stupid jokes. Even now, he watched as she chuckled with one of their student interns about the antics of a popular television cartoon duo. Deacon lifted his face to the bright spring sun squinting against the glare. The heat felt good on his skin. He'd been feeling a lot of heat lately, and only some of it from the warmer weather.

  He could fall in love with a woman who wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. More than dirty actually. Downright filthy. He watched Lisa wipe her skin on the faded denim jeans she wore, admiring the way the action pulled the light blue cloth so tight against her....

  "Rear?" Lisa asked.

  Deacon snapped to attention, feeling like a little boy with his hand in the cookie jar. "What?"

  Lisa gave him an odd look. "I asked if you wanted to start working on the rear."

  Hell, yeah is what Deacon wanted to say, but he knew she meant the rear of the garden plot. Not hers. "Sure. Just let me grab a drink."

  "It's roasting out here today." She met him at the truck and took the chilled bottle of water he handed her. "I can't believe it's only April."

  Lisa raised the bottle to her forehead and rubbed it along her skin, then dropped the cold plastic down to the base of her throat. Deacon felt his own throat constrict at the sight. He'd been around plenty of women whose every action was planned to push a man's buttons. Women like Allegra, for example. But Lisa did nothing more than breathe and he felt like a teenage boy again. A horny teenage boy.

  "It's really coming together." Lisa nodded toward the work crew setting rows of perennial grasses along the brick path. "How's the pond?"

  Deacon watched the movement of her throat as she swallowed, wanting to put his mouth on the tender skin there. "Almost ready for the fish."

  Lisa smiled at him, completely oblivious to the affect she had on him. "We'll have this put to bed way before deadline."

  Put to bed. The picture that phrase called to Deacon's mind was one he'd have to shove away, and quickly, if he wasn't going to embarrass himself. "Want to walk over and check it out with me?"

  Lisa tilted her wrist, then scowled. "Damn, I keep forgetting I lost my watch. I'm meeting Terry at noon for lunch."

  Would it be stupid and childish to lie to her about the time just so he could steal some of her time away from Terry? Of course. Was Deacon above being stupid and childish? When it came to Lisa, he didn't think so.

  "You've got plenty of time," he said, though noon was only about ten minutes away. "C'mon. You can tell me which fountain head you like better."

  The pond was only a short distance from the rest of the garden. Eventually, a stone path would connect the two spaces, but for now they trudged through dirt and clods of grass. The rough ground made walking tricky, and Deacon reached out a hand to steady Lisa when she kicked a rock out of the way.

  "Oh, Deacon," she said, looking at the quietly churning expanse of water. "The kids are going to love this!"

  He hoped so. It was his best work so far and Deacon was proud of it. He showed her the two types of heads for the pump--one would create a bell of water and one would make the water spurt up in a traditional fountain spray. "Which one?"

  Lisa touched the bell fitting. "That one."

  Installing it meant wading into the knee-high water. "I'll do it later."

  Lisa tilted her wrist again, letting out another frustrated exclamation. "Damn!"

  Even when he'd known her three years ago, she'd never been without a watch. Constantly checking the time was a habit of Lisa's, one that was almost obsessive and nearly unconscious. She'd check her watch in the middle of a sentence and continue without missing a beat. It used to bother him, like she always had someplace else to be, but seeing her without the familiar timepiece on her arm seemed strange.

  "What happened to your watch?" He tried to lure her into conversation that would make her forget about meeting Terry. At least for a few more minutes.

  She shrugged and looked annoyed. "I don't know. I always, always leave it on my dresser next to my birthstone ring. A few days ago, it was gone."

  Over Lisa's shoulder he could see the Memorial Park parking lot. A shiny blue cruiser had just pulled in alongside The Garden Shadd truck, and a tall blond figure was stepping out. Terry. Deacon kept talking.

  "Maybe you took it off someplace else."

  Lisa shook her head. "I don't think so." She laughed a little uneasily. "Then again, I s