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hands through the window.”
    Skylar and I exchanged a look before she got obediently to her feet, pulled up her bedding—folding it quickly and putting her book into the space between her pillow and blanket—then shuffled over and obeyed the command to put her hands through the opening, while balancing her belongings on her arms.
    â€œWhere’re you taking her?” I asked.
    â€œNone of your business,” said Stern.
    â€œAh,” I said. “Tomorrow, I’ll be sure to sing your praises to the FBI director so that he can pass them on to the warden.”
    Stern Eyes glared hard at me. Good thing I’m immune to that whole “if looks could kill” thing. “A spot opened up in solitary,” the CO said grudgingly as she snapped the cuffs on Skylar. “And since you seem to have friends in high places, you get this ten by ten all to yourself.”
    â€œLucky me.”
    â€œLet’s see if you still feel that way in the morning,” the charming CO replied with a smirk. She then moved a bit down the corridor and the cell door buzzed and began to slide open. Skylar kept her head down, submissively waiting for the cell to open all the way before stepping through. It upset me to think that prison had taken that sunny, bright-eyed woman from the photo and turned her into a beaten, battered shell of a person. She seemed so resigned to her fate—unjust though it might be.
    â€œSkylar,” I called, right before the door clicked to a stop.
    She didn’t look at me, but I felt like she was listening.
    I stayed on the bunk, but I leaned out a little while Stern Eyes waved Skylar forward. “I’m gonna help you,” I called to her. She made no acknowledgment of it. She simply took two steps forward out of the cell, and I knew that she put about as much faith in my words as she had left in the justice system.
    The cell door buzzed again and it began to close. I got up and waited for the bars to slide across the threshold. Skylar and the guard quickly disappeared from my view. Grabbing the bars, I put my mouth between them and called out again. “I will, Skylar. I will!”
    I wanted so much to reach her. To give her something to hold on to. A tiny light in the darkness. But as I extended my energy out toward her, all I felt was an empty sort of resignation.
    That bothered me more than I could say.

Chapter Three
    I ’m pretty sure that Stern Eyes wanted me to spend a night in jail totally freaked-out and unable to sleep, but the truth is I slept like a rock. I woke up hungry as hell, but instead of getting ready to grab some grub with the other prisoners, I got up, made my bunk, and paced the floor until a new CO appeared at the door to my cell.
    I held my wrists out in front of me, and when she nodded, I scooted forward and slid my wrists through the small window by the lock. “Time to go home!” I sang, even before she could tell me. Some days it really pays to be psychic.
    As happy as I was to be let out of the cell, my psychic sense didn’t predict what would come next, which was basically a lengthy sit-down with Matt Hayes while he pleaded for my release with Judge Schilling’s clerk on the phone in the same small visiting room from the night before. In the end I was forced to write a lengthy apology to the judge and agree not to press charges against him for assaulting me in the courtroom. It irked me that Judge Schilling was coming out ahead in the deal, but Matt offered me little sympathy when I protested both the required writtenapology and the agreement not to press charges. “What can I say, Abby? You pissed off a federal judge to the point where he lost his temper and wanted to
end
you. Even if he ultimately gets tossed off the bench for it, no judge who hears about what you did will welcome you back in the courtroom until you show some remorse for your part in provoking Schilling and respect for the post in