Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 08 - Vows & Victims by Laina Turner Page B

But I want to hear what he has to say first. I wouldn’t feel right turning him in and not listening to his side of the story.”
    “Just be careful. He’s an escaped convict and whether he’s innocent or not, right now he’s guilty and a fugitive. You’re breaking the law by knowing where he’s at and not turning him in. It could get you in a lot of trouble.”
    “I’ll be careful, I promise,” I said and I couldn’t help but smile.
    “Let me see what I can do to arrange things here and fly to Alkon. I’ll call you back.”
    “OK.”
    “What’d he say?” Katy asked when I got off the phone.
    “That I was breaking the law by not telling the police where he is. But I couldn’t tell whether he thought there was a possibility Dirt was innocent.”
    “I didn’t even think about that,” Tobey said. “What should we do?”
    “We’re not going to do anything until we talk to him, Tobey.”
    “But…”
    “She’s right, Tobey. We owe it to him to hear what he has to say,” Katy said.
    “We owe it to ourselves to stay out of jail. And why would you owe anything to him?”
    “We’ve known him for a long time and I, for one, mean to hear what he has to say,” said Katy.
    “I can understand where you two are coming from, I guess, it’s just hard for me to not still be a little worried about convening with a convicted murderer.”
    I heard the door open and looked over to see Chris walk in. I glanced at Katy and could see her stiffen with anger. I didn’t think I had ever seen her so mad before. I figured I better make sure to keep her and Chris on opposite sides of the room. She looked like she could rip him apart with her bare hands and I didn’t blame her one bit.
    “What’s going on?” he asked. He looked at us warily like we might be trying to stage an intervention or something. An intervention to being an asshole might be nice if there were such a thing.
    “Dirt wants us to meet him tonight,” I said bluntly.
    His eyes grew wide. Whatever he’d been expecting when coming over here, it hadn’t been this. I imagine he thought we were going to gang up on him for hurting Katy.
    I gave him the rundown of the story and he just sat there in shock I think.
    “Are we going to meet him?” he finally asked.
    “Yeah, I think we should. At least hear what he has to say.”
    The more I kept saying it as I recounted Dirt’s request, the more I felt that maybe he really was telling the truth. What I couldn’t for the life of me figure out was why? Why would anyone admit to a murder they didn’t commit? That part just didn’t make sense.

Chapter 14
    I t was nine thirty and we once again were at Katy’s getting ready to head out to talk to Dirt.
    “Should we take one car or two?” Tobey asked.
    “Two. I’m not riding in the same car as him,” Katy quickly answered, meaning of course, Chris.
    “Two it is,” I said.
    “I want to kill him, Presley,” Katy said once we were in the car and headed to the bridge. Chris and Tobey followed us.
    “And he would deserve it.”
    “I haven’t told my mom yet that the wedding’s off. Hell, I haven’t even told Chris yet. He may be stupid, but surely not so stupid that he thinks I would still marry him after this latest revelation.”
    Chris had tried to talk to Katy earlier, but she had very clearly told him to get the hell out. Telling me she just needed some time before hearing his excuses, which I understood, but when you were getting married in a few days, time was of the essence.
    “My mom’s going to freak and she’s going to want to kill him. I guess I should be thankful I didn’t get to Saturday. Obviously, I would have been making the biggest mistake of my life. Right here, Pres, turn!” Katy interrupted herself as I had almost missed the turn to the bridge.
    “Wow, how’d you spot that? It’s completely overgrown. I would have driven past it.”
    “I don’t know. It just looked familiar.”
    The short road through the field to the