Read Online Don't Say a Word by Rita Herron - Free Book Online

trial.”
    Dryer cleared his throat. “Your Honor, we are seriously worried about Mr. Dubois’s safety—”
    Judge Mattehorn cut him off. “I will order administrative segregation until the next court appearance.”
    Judge Mattehorn pounded his gavel then stood, dismissing the proceedings and leaving Antwaun in shock. Even with administrative segregation, he faced the gruesome reality of spending more nights in jail, quartered near some of the very perps he had arrested.
    The anger of injustice rolled through Damon. The judge’s ruling only cemented in his mind the fact that Kendra Yates might have been right about a dirty cop on the force. Someone who could have accessed Antwaun’s accounts and planted money to make it appear as if he’d accepted a bribe.
    Or maybe someone who also had a judge in his pocket….
    * * *
    A LL NIGHT , C RYSTAL HAD struggled with nightmares about her face. She spent the morning with Maria, reading to her until her nana arrived.
    Finally, she crawled back into bed and fell asleep, but images of another life taunted her. A beautiful family. A mother who loved her and was worried sick about her. A man who’d cared for her. No, she’d been wrong. He was bad. He didn’t love her. She was surrounded by small children, yet they were starving. They needed her.
    She jerked awake, bathed in sweat. Dark storm clouds obliterated the sunlight outside and cast a threatening, dreary gray hue on the room that mirrored her mood.
    â€œCrystal, you had a bad dream again.”
    Lex. His husky voice reverberated through the shadows.
    â€œYes,” she whispered, reaching for his hand. The scaly skin should have made her withdraw, but she barely noticed. Oddly though, his hand felt colder. Almost icy to the touch. And he didn’t seem to react to her face at all. Maybe she wasn’t so hideous…
    â€œI dreamt I had a child somewhere.” Her voice caught. “A baby crying for me.”
    He squeezed her hand, brushed her hair from her cheek. “You will find your way, my sweetness.”
    Tears clogged her throat. “But I’ve been gone for months. What if I have a child and he or she has forgotten me?” Panic seized her chest and turned her voice into a whimper.
    â€œYou will find your answers,” Lex said calmly.
    â€œDr. Pace says I need to heal more. I hear what he’s not telling me—I need more surgery. This latest treatment didn’t work.”
    â€œDo not believe everything he tells you.” Lex’s brittle tone sent goose bumps down her spine. Footsteps sounded outside the door, then suddenly a cold wind blew through the room, rattling the windowpanes. “He has his own agenda.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” He had been everything to her these last few months: doctor, friend, savior.
    â€œDon’t trust anyone, Crystal. Even Dr. Pace.”
    Crystal shivered and turned to face Lex, but he was gone, and, once again, the room was empty.
    * * *
    T HE REST OF THE AFTERNOON was a virtual nightmare. Damon and Jean-Paul met briefly with Antwaun and Dryer, but Antwaun was so volatile that they spent their short time together attempting to calm him. Jean-Paul gave him a good dressing-down about behaving inside, keeping a low profile and putting his ear to the wall. Sometimes, insiders talked, and Antwaun might possibly learn something helpful from one of the inmates.
    Such as who had set him up. Which cops the prisoners liked to work with.
    Antwaun finally agreed, and adopted his game face. The Chameleon—if there was one thing he knew how to do, it was to play a part. Lie.
    Surely he wasn’t lying to them about his innocence.
    Jean-Paul went to the station to look into the offshore account and see if he could find out who had planted the bribe money, while Damon drove to his parents’ to give them the bad news.
    His heart wrenched at the pain on their faces. Even as he assured them