“I called,” he said, pulling an empty seat up to the desk, next to Everly. “Where were you?”
“I fell asleep,” Everly said. “I’ve been watching her all day.”
“Where’s Deputy Hardy?”
“Gone. He quit.”
Simon didn’t respond to that. He sat next to Everly, watching the prisoner. “Let me take her,” he said finally.
“What?” Everly turned abruptly, searching Simon’s face for signs of a joke, but found none. He was dead serious.
“Let me take her,” Simon repeated gruffly. He turned to Everly, and Everly didn’t like what he saw. “We can just forget about all of this. I’ll take her and drop her off outside of town, send her along and we can forget about her.”
“No,” Everly said. “Not a chance.”
“What?” Simon said, incredulously.
“I said no. It’s not going to happen.”
“You’re forget
