THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

metal-barred door clanked as it closed behind her.
    “How long can you hold me here?”
    He ignored her and walked through a doorway at the back that led down what appeared to be a long hallway.
    “What about my call?” she yelled after him.
    She sat in a chair in the corner of the cell and watched the clock tick off the minutes. After fourteen minutes and twenty seconds, the deputy returned. Kasey jumped from the chair, ran to the bars and clutched them, her hands on either side of her face. She hated to imagine how she looked. “Can I please make that call?”
    The deputy picked up a cordless phone off the desk and handed it to her through the bars. “Here you go.”
    “Thank you.” She nodded, then turned her back and dialed Prescott’s number. Thank goodness, she knew the number by heart. “Hi. This is Kasey Phillips. I was supposed to meet with Prescott this afternoon. Can you let him know that I have been…” she turned and eyed the deputy with disdain “…unexpectedly detained and am not going to be able to make our meeting?” She nodded, listening. “Yes. I understand. I'll get back with him to reschedule... Sorry...Yes...Goodbye.”
    She ended the call and began to dial Riley.
    “Ah-ah.” He shook his finger at her. “One call, Ms. Phillips.”
    “But I need someone to get me out of here.”
    “One call is the policy.”
    She thrust the phone through the bars. “Don’t you ever bend policy?”
    “No, ma’am.”
    “Of course you don’t.” Figures she’d get the one no-testosterone, law-abiding rookie in the state. “How long do you plan to keep me here?”
    “Until I can talk to the sheriff.”
    “Have you called him? I’d love to talk to him.”
    “Been trying all afternoon. No answer. It’s his day off.”
    She plopped down in the chair and put her head in her hands.
    The clock ticked to five o’clock. Now, technically, she could be accused of stealing that car. She was supposed to be meeting Scott right now. Deputy Dan cleared his desk.
    Holy shit, is he going to leave me here all night?
    “Sir. Deputy Dan.”
    He looked up from the pile of paperwork he’d been shuffling around. “Yes?”
    “Could you take me down to the diner next to Huckaby’s in Emporia?”
    “You think we’re going to take you out to dinner? We’ll feed you, but you’ll be eating in your cell.”
    “No, I mean I can clear myself if you’ll take me there. I was supposed to meet the owner of the car there at five.” She pointed to the clock. “He should be there waiting for me.”
    His keys jingled on his hip as he walked to the door.
    Her hopes sprang. “Are you going to check?”
    “I’ll be back.”
    She sat, keeping one eye on the door. A few cars passed the building at long intervals. What the hell was she going to do? Why had she wasted her call on Prescott instead of calling Riley?
    I am such an idiot.
    Kasey’s stomach growled. The deputy had been gone for over an hour and she was hungry. She hadn’t eaten all day.
    The front door swung open. She hoped the deputy had some food in tow. But it wasn’t the deputy who walked inside. It was different man, and he didn’t give the wall of jail cells a second look. He headed over to the second desk in the room, a bigger one in the corner behind glass partitions, as if he were looking for someone.
    She walked to the cell door, watching the visitor. “Scott?”
    He jerked his head up.
    It was him. “If you’re here to report your car stolen, you won’t need to do that. The deputy arrested me not long after I left you. He wouldn’t believe that you loaned me your car.”
    “You’re kidding. That’s why you didn’t show. Why didn’t someone call me?” He unclipped his phone from his waistband and glanced at the screen. “Damn. I must have accidentally turned it off after I called the tow truck for you.”
    “Thank goodness you’re here. I didn’t know your last name, and Deputy Dan wasn’t buying my story. Maybe he’ll believe you and let me out of here.”
    “I can do better than that.” He headed toward the cell keys that hung on the wall.
    “No. You can’t break me out. He has all my information.”
    A wide grin spread across Scott’s face. “That’s funny. I had you pictured as an adventurous type of girl.”
    “Yeah, but a law-abiding one.”
    He opened the cell door.
    Kasey didn’t budge. “You’re gonna get me in more trouble than I already am. With my luck, I’ll be the one they make an example of,