Skeeter laughed. “You are not in a position to negotiate.”

“Skeeter!”

He waved a hand in dismissal and looked away. “Go. Rose knows which room to use. I’ll give you five minutes to use the restroom, and then I expect you to be in that room with the door closed behind you.” He started to open the front door, but turned back to deliver a final warning. “And don’t even think of trying to leave. We’re watching, and a couple of my men are trigger-happy.” Then he walked out, leaving me alone with Mason and all my biggest fears.

Mason pulled me into a hug, crushing me to his chest. “We’ll get out of this.”

“I know.” But I was certain we were referring to two different things.

We went to the restroom, and Mason insisted on standing outside the door while I was inside, acting like he was afraid to let me out of his sight. I couldn’t say I blamed him since I was feeling the same way. After we finished, we headed to the bedroom. Mason stopped short of entering the room.

“There’s a lock on the outside of this door.”

My heart raced, although I wasn’t sure why. I hadn’t noticed the lock before, but it stood to reason they’d lock Mason up so he couldn’t run away and spill what he knew. And truth be told, I wasn’t altogether surprised Skeeter wanted to lock me up too. I had tried to escape tonight. Twice. But my sense of betrayal came from the fact that Jed had been the one to steer me toward this room.

Mason hesitated, but though it clearly killed him to do it, he ushered me into the dark bedroom and shut the door behind us.

My voice broke. “Mason, I’m so sorry.”

I barely finished my sentence before his mouth found mine. He pulled me tight against him, as if he couldn’t get me close enough, and buried his other hand in my hair. His mouth ravaged mine, and I could barely keep up.

I clung to him, crying again. I couldn’t believe he was kissing me after my confession. That he still loved me after finding out the truth.

He pulled back, his hand sliding from my hair to my face. “You’re crying,” he whispered in horror. “Did I hurt you?”

“No. I’m just so scared.”

Mason led me over to the bed, and he sat down on the edge of the mattress, bringing me with him. I clung to him while we waited. A minute later, footsteps clomped down the hall, paused, and then walked away.

Mason got up and moved over to the single window. Light filtered through the panes, but I couldn’t make out anything outside. The room had been so dark when I made the bed, I hadn’t noticed.

“The panes are painted,” Mason said, coming back to sit by me. “It’s a very effective holding cell.”

“Holding cell?”

“No furniture. No curtain rods or lamps. I bet there’s not even a light bulb. Nothing to use as a weapon. I’m surprised there’s bedding.”

Of course it was a holding cell. How could I be so stupid? “There was only a bottom sheet,” I said, sounding disheartened. “Jed let me put on fresh linens.”

He sighed.

“Mason.” The tears were back, and I couldn’t stop them this time. “I’m so sorry.”

His hand found my face, and he leaned his close to me and whispered, “Shh. We’ve gotten out of worse scrapes than this one. At least Malcolm is more stable than Crocker. Or is he? You’ve had more experience with him than I have.”

I tried to catch my breath. “He can be a reasonable man, but when he gets something set in his head, it’s hard to dissuade him. He doesn’t suffer disloyalty.”

“And you? How does he treat you? Has he threatened you?”

“He threatened me in the beginning. But I’ve always stood up to him, and he’s not used to that. Bruce Wayne said I was like a new puppy. Skeeter found my disobedience and belligerence cute, but he’d soon get tired of it.” I took a deep breath, my voice shaky. “I worried I went too far last night. I’ve ruined his reputation. I’m afraid he’ll never forgive me for that. But he won’t hurt me.”

He pulled me close.

“But I’m not sorry. I couldn’t just stand back and do nothing.”

“We’ll be okay,” he murmured, stroking my head. “He obviously wants you to go through with the meeting tomorrow night. Even though you think he won’t hurt you, I know you’ll be safe until then. But I can’t believe he’ll agree to a wiretap. He’ll want to hand out his own punishment, and it would be counter-intuitive to involve the police. He’d risk incriminating himself.”

“Skeeter was in hiding when I came up with this plan. But Jed agreed to go along with it. He doesn’t want me to go to prison, and he knows we need to find evidence against J.R to keep that from happening. It took some convincing, but Jed agreed it was a good plan. Honestly, I think they’d both sooner kill him than meet with him. The meeting is purely for my benefit.”

“Why would Jed risk pissing off Malcolm to help you?”

How could I explain this without upsetting him? “Skeeter watched over me in meetings, but he couldn’t be there when I questioned his men. He made Jed my bodyguard and told him to put my safety before his own.”

“And he just did it?” he asked.

“It’s complicated,” I sighed, resting my cheek on his shoulder. “I think Jed grew fond of me—”

“He’s in love with you?” His tone was harsh.