The Ring Bearer Read Online Free PDF Page A

back.”
    “You left.” Danato’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t just break them out then.”
    “I was on my way out the door, when Clark caught me. He talked about having that meeting with you.”
    “Yes, I understood that part.”
    “No, you don’t, because Clark wasn’t offering a meeting so we could discuss what happened. He was offering a chance for me to keep my mouth shut so he could describe the events in his own words. He expected me to back him up.” Cori could see Danato wasn’t surprised by this. She wasn’t being blunt enough. “Danato he was going to kill me.” His eyes widened like she hoped they would. “I don’t mean he was angry enough to kill me. I mean he had the gun pulled and he was seeing if I would cooperate to cover up the mess, or if he would have to kill me. The line was drawn and I barely kiss-assed my way over it.
    “After he was done threatening my life, he threatened Efrat and the others. He put their lives in my hands. I know your mad Danato, but I was going to wind up walking in with a lie either way last night. Either my lie or his, and I chose mine.” Danato looked at her hand, but didn’t take it.
    “Then what happened.”
    “I left.”
    Danato stepped forward and leaned on her door. She didn’t attempt to reach out to him since his presence was not intended to be affectionate. “Explain to me why you didn’t pick up that phone right then and call me.”
    “I didn’t think you would help the way I wanted you to.”
    “You didn’t think I would help let them go, you’re damn right I wouldn’t.” He glared at her through the bars.
    “No, I didn’t think you would help them at all. I’ve read the files Danato. They have no convictions. Hell they don’t even have any charges against them. You signed the paperwork to put four people in this prison and hold them indefinitely when the only crime they committed was not cooperating with a militaristic government.”
    “That’s what you got out of reading those files. You think I housed them for the money.”
    “What other interpretation is there?”
    Danato moved away taking a moment to think before he responded. “Invasion of privacy aside, did you happen to see another file in that drawer?”
    Cori thought back to that night. “There was one other file marked deceased in red,” she offered more as a question than a statement.
    “I take it you didn’t read it.”
    “No, I wasn’t interested in lingering,” she murmured.
    “Did you wonder why it was in there?”
    Cori sighed not understanding why he was dragging out his point. “No, I was preoccupied. Why are you even bringing it up?”
    “You said that there was no other way to interpret why I would sign on the elementals when their histories were clean.” Danato turned to her. “I am offering you another interpretation so that your flagrant mistrust for me can be alleviated,” he spoke softly but the disdain was still there. “The deceased prisoner file was my wife’s.”
    Cori was already looking at him, so she couldn’t afford more shock than her mouth dropping open and her eyes bulging. She couldn’t remember the first conversation they ever had about his wife. She couldn’t remember if he had mentioned she was a prisoner.
    At the same time she realized how close she was to getting answers about the part of Danato’s past that he refused to share. She respected his privacy enough not to pester him about it, but she wasn’t sure she would have passed up the file if she had understood what it was.
    “Did you check the dates by the signatures in the elemental files?” Cori shook her head. She could already see where this was going and her heart ached to think of it. “It’s the same date as on that deceased stamp on the front of her file. I signed those papers the same day a signed my wife’s death certificate.” She frowned at him as he approached the bars. She reached her hands out to him, but he bypassed her and reached through the