Free Falling Read Free Page A

them into the backseat
of his cruiser.
     
    ~*~
     
    “I can’t believe this,” Free muttered. She
surveyed the small holding cell Phil had left them in more than an
hour ago. How could he do this to her? She and Phil went back a
long way. He probably knew Free better than anyone else in the
world. Understood her better, too. But this? She closed her eyes
and shook her head. “I just can’t believe it.”
    “Believe it,” Mac growled in response.
    Free snapped her eyes open and glared at her
cellmate. And to put them in the same holding cell…that was just
wrong.
    “This is your fault.”
    “My fault?” His eyes sparkled with
indignation. He moved his head slowly, solemnly from side to side.
“Lady, you are one piece of work.”
    “You—” Free started to point an accusing
finger, but the weight of his hand stopped her. She stared down at
the metal bracelets that joined them. “I know this isn’t right. He
should have removed these when we got here,” more to herself than
to the man standing before her.
    “Well, if you hadn’t poked him the chest with
that deadly weapon,” he glared at the offending hand now cuffed to
his “we might not be here right now. Do you have any idea of the
consequences of assaulting an officer of the law?”
    Free jerked her hands to her hips, pulling
him nearer in the process. “If you hadn’t tried to kill that
wonderful old tree—”
    A muscle flexed repeatedly in his handsome
jaw. “It’s my tree,” he ground out. “I can kill it if I want
to.”
    Free was really angry now. She had thought
the humiliation of being pushed into a police car and brought to
the police station had quelled her rage, but she’d been wrong. It
hit her full force now. She leaned in dangerously close to Mac the
Magnolia Murderer. “Just try it, buster, and I’ll be on top of you
like—”
    His blue gaze connected with hers and the
rest of the statement stalled on her lips. His nostrils flared. He
was so very close. Closer than she had expected, closer than he
should have been, and still not close enough. All strength of
conviction suddenly whooshed out of her, along with the air in her
lungs. Long fingers from the hand cuffed to hers closed around her
waist and tugged her even closer. His breath feathered across her
lips. His scent assaulted her senses, making her week-kneed.
    His unrestrained hand came up to her face,
and he traced gentle fingers down her neck. “Now that,” he
murmured, his lips threatening and promising a kiss, “is an
interesting proposal.”
    “Free! Oh my God, Free, are you all
right?”
    Alex . Free and Mac jumped apart as far
as the cuffs would allow, both looking anywhere but at each other.
Free gave herself a mental shake to clear the haze that had settled
inside her head. She smiled with relief when Alex reached the cell
and peered through the steel bars.
    “I’m fine, Alex,” Free assured her friend
when she saw the fear in her eyes.
    “Phil is on his way to get you out of there
right now. Honey, I’m so sorry it has taken so long, but he refused
to release you until McFerrin’s attorney” she arrowed a piercing
gaze at Mac “had been contacted.”
    “Mac, I got here as soon as I could.” The
voice came from a tall, good-looking man who walked up behind
Alex.
    Alex whirled to face him. “What the hell are
you doing here?”
    The man smiled. “Why, I’m representing my
client, of course.”
    Alex looked from him to McFerrin and back.
“Since when are you representing this man? I’ve never see his name
on any of the files at the firm.”
    He arched one dark, unabashed eyebrow. “Since
John Whitaker, his attorney in Atlanta, asked me to.” The man
stepped around Alex and extended his hand through the bars toward
Mac. “I’m Jake Larsen.”
    Mac took his hand, a wide grin splitting his
face. “Thanks for coming, Jake. John told me all about you.”
    Alex laughed derisively. “Well, it couldn’t
have been good.”
    Free drew her eyebrows