As I lay back on my jailhouse bunk, I stared up at the ceiling. Counting the many cracks within the plaster was one way I tried to pass the time. It had been thirty-six hours since the ATF busted into the clubhouse and sent my world careening out of control. While I’d had a few misdemeanors in my day, I’d never spent a night in jail. I’d always been bailed out the day I had come in. But now I was facing gun and drug charges, and if the ATF got their way, I wouldn’t be getting out for a long time.

Of course the ATF made me think of Samantha, which caused my traitorous heart to ache. I never imagined a woman could wound me so deep, but she did. All the time we had spent together had been a lie. She was a fucking fed working me for a case. I had heard of women playing men before, but I never thought I would be one of the sad saps it happened to. Samantha deserved a fucking Oscar for her acting skills. I had thought she truly cared for me—that we had something special going on. Something like what Rev and Deacon had.

But I was wrong. So fucking wrong. Not only had she screwed me over, but she had screwed over my brothers. Seething anger coiled within me at the reminder of how she acted as though she had cared for them just as she had for me. But she hadn’t. All she had wanted was to keep rising in the ranks in the bureau. I was sure our case would win her a fat promotion. While we rotted away in jail, she would enjoy more money and a higher rank. Just the thought caused my fists to clench at my sides and I longed for a way to lash out.

More than anything, I wished I had my brothers to confide in. From the time of our arrest, Rev, Deacon, and I had been separated. The thought being that we couldn’t easily come up with stories or plea deals if we weren’t a solid unit with our president, vice president, and sergeant at arms. Deacon and Boone had been sent to a jail in another county, while Mac and I remained at the jail where we had originally been brought. As president, Rev was seen as the greatest threat, and he had been put in solitary, away from us.

At the sound of jangling keys, I lowered my gaze from the ceiling to see a guard strolling up to the cell. “Up and at ’em, Malloy.”

“What’s going on?”

“You got a visitor,” the guard replied.

Mac and I exchanged a look. “Mike must have some new information on the case,” I said as I hopped down off the bunk.

“As much as the club is paying him, he better come up with a hell of a lot for us,” Mac grumbled.

Once the guard swung open the door, I stepped outside and followed him out of the cellblock. After we went down a long hallway, he stopped at a room on the right. When I stepped inside, I found it empty except for a table and two chairs. One of the walls had a two-way mirror, and I couldn’t help wondering who was on the other side. After sitting down, I raised my handcuffed fists at the officer. With a shake, I asked, “Aren’t you going to take these off me?”

He shook his head. “Powers that be said they stay on.”

I narrowed my eyes. “What the hell for?”

“You might pose a danger.”

“To my lawyer? That’s fucking unlikely, since I need his happy ass alive to get me out of here.”

After glancing left and right, the guard said in a low voice, “It ain’t your lawyer.”

I leaned back in my chair. “If it isn’t my lawyer, then who the hell is it? This room ain’t for visitors.”

Before the guard could answer, the door blew open. Never in a million years did I expect to see the person who walked into the room.

It was Samantha.

Or at least it was a version of her. It sure as hell wasn’t the woman I had known before. Gone was the Samantha who wore heavy eyeliner, skintight jeans, and cleavage-baring tops. In her place was a steely professional in a black pantsuit. Her long dark hair was swept back in a bun.

When our eyes met, I shot out of my chair. “Get her the fuck out of here!” I spat.

“Bishop, I need to speak to you,” Samantha said in an even tone.

“I ain’t got one thing to say to you but maybe Fuck you. That’s it.”

The guard glanced from me to Samantha. She shook her head. “Leave us.”

“Miss, I don’t—”

Samantha’s dark eyes burned with fury. “And I said leave us!”

He held up his hands. “Fine, then.”

After he had shut the door, Samantha crossed the room to the table. Her heels clicked along the linoleum floor. Without a word, she pulled out the chair across from me. She tossed a giant folder on the table and then sat down.

We stared each other down for a few seconds before Samantha drew in a ragged breath. “Bishop, I—”

“Look at you. The secret agent woman.”

“I’m not a secret agent,” she argued.

“Considering what you were doing to me and my club, you might as well have been a spy. Right?”

“I was there to compile what information I could about the Raiders’ suspected gunrunning with the Rodriguez cartel.”

“You were spying.”

“I was doing my job. The one Gavin and I were sent in there to do.”

“Gavin? I suppose you mean Marley. Yeah, that was a tough pill to swallow, too. Not only was the girl I was falling for playing me, but it turns out my friend was in on it as well.”

A pained look came over Samantha’s face. “He was my best friend, Bishop. He was the one who wanted me to give you a chance. He really did enjoy being around you.”

Her words caused a deeper ache in my chest. “Whatever. It still doesn’t make it right what you did.”

Samantha’s eyes filled with regret. “For what it’s worth, I’m truly sorry.”

Man, this girl could act. Bitch. I cocked my eyebrows at her. “You’re sorry? You fucked up my life and the lives of my club brothers and all you can say is you’re sorry.”

“I am very sorry. But the fact is, I didn’t fuck up your life. You and I both know your enemies did that.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, it is.”

“So what’s your point in being here?”

“I came to make things right by seeing you freed from jail.”

“Just how do you plan on doing that?”

“By testifying for the Raiders at trial.”

What the fuck? She was actually going to help us? She had to have some other angle for wanting to get us off. Narrowing my eyes suspiciously at her, I demanded, “Why would you want to do that? After all, you were working against us.”

“That was before I knew the truth about your club—the fact that you were legitimizing the businesses and that you no longer took part in gun trafficking.”

I stared at her in disbelief. I couldn’t believe she was actually sitting before me and proposing that she help the club. “Tell me something.”

“What?”

“Was it all a lie? I mean, was there a single time when we were together that you weren’t playing me?”

“Yes, I—”

“Wait, I know. It had to be during the fucking, right?”

Samantha’s eyes widened in horror, and she shifted in her chair. “Bishop, please.”

“Ah, two words that I’m used to hearing from you. Of course, I was usually inside you when you said them . . . sometimes I was on top, sometimes you were. You begged me to make you come. Which makes me think that was when you weren’t lying. I mean, women fake orgasms every day, but I felt you come on my fingers and my tongue.”

When Samantha’s face flushed with embarrassment, I glanced over at the mirror with a smirk. “Agent Vargas is one hell of a piece of ass in the bedroom. Pretty fucking insatiable, too. No matter how many times she came, she wanted more.”

The next thing I knew Samantha’s hand came smacking across my cheek. “Fuck you, Bishop!”

I laughed. “Damn, girl, you should get in the ring. If you worked on it, that slap could make a great right cross.”

“You cocky bastard. I’m putting my ass on the line for you, and this is how you treat me?”

“I’m sorry for being a little suspicious of you, considering that everything you said to me over the last six weeks was a lie.”

“It wasn’t all a lie! Everything I told you about my life was the truth. The only fucking thing I withheld from you was the fact that I was an agent.”

“That’s a pretty huge thing to leave out, especially when it was the only reason you were spending any time with me.”

“Only at first. But then I began to care more about spending time with you for myself, rather than the case.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it without saying a word. I didn’t know how to take what she had just said. I wanted to think everything out of her mouth was a lie, but what if she was telling the truth? What if she truly had started out working me for the case until she began to feel something more for me?

Wanting to change the subject, I asked, “What makes you think I would take you up on your offer?”

“Isn’t your freedom enough?”

“I still have to live with myself, and how can I do that if I’m a rat who got into bed with the ATF?”

“Would your brothers honestly think you were a rat for testifying against the man who framed you?”

I didn’t know the answer. I hoped they would understand, especially considering that it was Eddy who had framed us. In the end, I didn’t have a real argument for not taking Samantha up on her offer. “Fine. I’ll say or do whatever I have to so I can get out of here.”

Samantha’s expression lightened. “I’m glad to hear you say that.”

“But let’s make one thing clear. It doesn’t change a damn thing between you and me. Got that?”

Without answering me, she reached out to pick up the manila folder she had carried in with her. Sam had never been one to avoid eye contact, but right now her eyes were completely focused on the folder in front of her. “I need you to tell me everything you can about who could have framed you.”

“There’s only one person it could be.” At the thought of Eddy, a low growl took me by surprise and seconds later I realized it had come from me. Samantha’s gaze snapped up from her paperwork at the sound. “You’re in luck, because if you nail this guy, you can have access to the Diablos.”

Samantha’s eyes widened as she stared from me to the mirror. “The bureau has been trying to get them for a long time.”

“Well, you track down Eddy, and you’ve got the Diablos by the balls, because if I know anything about Eddy, it’s that he has no loyalty. He’ll sing like a canary if you make it worth his while.”

“I see.”

Samantha scribbled furiously as I related what had happened with Eddy at the meeting in Virginia. Her pen stilled when I told her that he was one the behind the shooting. She glanced up to look at me. “This fucker has Gavin’s blood on his hands?”

“Damn straight.”

“I’m going to enjoy nailing him to the wall.”

By then I had finished relating everything I knew, including my theory about how the storm and the power being out enabled Eddy to plant the guns. “I’m sure if you had some agents go over the property, you would find evidence of shoe prints or tire treads.”

Samantha nodded. “I’ll put someone on it.” She shuffled her paperwork and then put it back in the folder. “I guess we’re finished here.”

“I guess so.”

“Once we produce the new evidence at the arraignment, it should be less than twenty-four hours before you guys are let out.”

“Good.”

She rose out of her chair. “I’ll let you know if we need anything else from you.”

When I nodded, she started for the door. As I watched her leave, I once again felt as if my chest were caving in. There was so much I wanted to say to her, but I was too stubborn. Finally I blurted, “Thank you.”

Samantha froze. Slowly she turned around to face me.

“You know, for sticking your neck out for me and my brothers.”

“You’re welcome,” she murmured.

We stared at each other for a few seconds before she hurried out the door. When it closed behind her, I brought my cuffed hands up to rub my shirt above my heart. No matter how I hard I tried, it still hurt like a motherfucker.