Yesterday's Tomorrows Read Free Page B

allowing her to back us slowly away from the hostile situation.
    Without thinking about it, I placed my hand on her back and guided her back in the direction we'd started earlier. I couldn't help but notice how she flinched at my touch. What the hell was that about?
    "We're not done, Madelyn Stone," Mrs. Regis hollered, but she halted her advance at the dark look I threw over my shoulder.
    I felt Madelyn suck in a deep breath and shuddered as she quickened her pace. I wasn't sure what she was trying to get away from the most, Mrs. Regis or my touch. The thought that it might be me furthered my irritation.
    I didn't have a lot of sympathy for people who broke the law, especially for someone who took someone’s life. Sure, there were exceptions, but if Ms. Stone had been found guilty, I assumed this hadn't been one of those situations. Not that our system was perfect, but I believed in it.
    Regardless, she'd done the time our justice system deemed appropriate, and on her first day out of prison she'd been attacked. I'd seen her face lose its wide-eyed wonder and happiness when she saw Mrs. Regis. I'd been so angry at the time I'd lost to this errand that I hadn't considered what meaning the day held for Ms. Stone. I was somewhat ashamed of my earlier behavior toward her.
    While I sat in that horrible waiting room for what felt like hours, I'd been prepared to meet some bad-ass, rough-looking ruffian, full of insolence and aggression. Instead, I found a humble young woman who looked simultaneously nervous and excited. Despite the lack of refinement of her accommodations, her skin still looked almost like porcelain, colored only by a light sprinkling of freckles across her high cheekbones. It served as the perfect canvas for her large, eyes, the color of which I couldn't distinguish from across the room, hidden as they were beneath long eyelashes, but appeared intelligent and assessing...and absolutely the kind a man could get lost in. Her hair was pulled back into a single braid, but I suspected if it were loosened the strands would be like a paint sampling of various shades of reddish-browns that reached to the middle of her back. She was the kind of woman who didn't need makeup to be attractive; her natural coloring and features were pretty enough without any enhancement.
    It was hard to tell about the rest of her, dressed as she was in an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of loose jeans. But given that she didn't fill any of it out, I suspected she had managed to keep herself in shape over the past several years. Overall, despite the drabness of her appearance, she was very pretty - in a poor waif kind of way - that made me think she'd be drop-dead gorgeous with very little effort. Maybe that's what had gotten her into trouble in the first place.
    I'd known about Ms. Stone since I was part of the board meeting that discussed starting this new work-release program in the first place, but I hadn't given her much thought until a couple of hours ago when I received a phone call from John McCloskey. He notified me he was going to be in court all day and asked if I would meet Madelyn and escort her to her new apartment that had been arranged for her. There weren’t a lot of people who knew her background so his choices were limited, and obviously, this below a firm partner’s status.
    As a rising star whose name was already being bandied about for future partnership, I wasn't in a good position to say 'no.' I wasn't an ass-kisser, but I also knew when a request was more of a directive, never mind all the work I needed to finish today. Somehow, this woman had my boss wrapped around her finger. I understood second chances and fresh beginnings, but was a legal firm a good place for a felon to land a job, much less receive housing and a small cash stipend to help her get started? I'd expressed such a concern during the meeting, but all three partners were completely on board with the idea, especially about this candidate that McCloskey