Who wants another sneak peek of THE SECRET HUSBAND?  The next installment in The O'Connells series will be released tomorrow, but you can read Chapter 2 now!

He says he’s innocent, and he needs her help. 



Her first response is to say no, but Karen knows Jack isn’t the kind of guy to ask for help from anyone, especially not from the ex-wife he openly despises and hasn’t seen in years. She knows there must be more to the story—but what she doesn’t know is that the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murder could be the reason their hasty marriage ended so badly.


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Chapter 2

She took in the concrete walls, the gray, the kind of place where she spent way too much time with people who’d found themselves on the wrong side of the law. This time, she struggled between being overwhelmed and numb as she listened to the echoes outside, wondering too many things.

Could the deputy who’d led her back to the interrogation room she was standing in now smell the liquor on her? She should have gone home to her one-bedroom condo. She shouldn’t be here now, and she didn’t know what she was more freaked out over, the fact that she’d dropped her little bomb about Jack Curtis to her brother when she’d sworn to take it to her grave or the fact that she was now waiting for the man she loved and hated all because he’d called her. Like, who did that? Evidently, she still hadn’t learned.

She heard the door. The sound of the county jail was one she didn’t think she’d ever get used to. Instead of sitting and waiting for her client, she stood frozen, unable to feel the dampness under her arms, the ache in her toes from the pumps she’d shoved her swollen feet back into.

Jack was a man she hadn’t seen in…how many years? Six, seven—no, eight.

There he was, being led in by a cop her brother no doubt knew. He was cuffed, in a white dress shirt and dark pants, ultra-conservative, tall, dark, and handsome. He was burned in her memory, but he wasn’t as she remembered. God damn him, he looked even better.

She just gestured to the cop with her chin as he took off the cuffs and then left the room. She still hadn’t said anything. For the first time in her life, she swore, she was at a loss for words. At the same time, the only thing that kept her standing there instead of striding over to Jack and slapping him was the fact that her fingers were digging into her bare arms, which the short cap sleeves of her dress didn’t hide.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” he said. Yup, that was the same deep voice that had been able to talk her into anything, including having a ring on her finger before he could yank the rug out from under her.

“I shouldn’t be here, considering the difficulties you caused me,” she said. “Pretty sure, from the restraining order and the sheriff’s last talk with me, where he reminded me to grow the fuck up, move on, and never come near you again, that this here is a bad idea for me. But you know that already, so I can’t help wondering why you called me. You killed someone?”

At least she’d managed to add a pissed-off edge to her voice even though it was killing her to stand there so calmly.

He glanced to the door, and she took in his heavy five o’clock shadow. When he rubbed both his wrists, she took in the way his sleeves were rolled up and didn’t miss the cut and elegance of his suit pants—no, a tux. It looked as if it had been made for him, by the expense of the cloth. Yeah, that was custom tailored. His fingers were bare, but then, the cops would have taken everything when they booked him.

“So they said, but it’s not true. You look good.” His blue eyes were frigid, icy, far different than hers. He lifted his chin. “I see you’re a redhead now.”

She wasn’t sure if he was mocking her, and she found herself reaching up to her hair. She’d settled on the color a few years back. It was pulled up and back, and she had to fight to keep her self-doubts, which had kicked the shit out of her confidence, from resurfacing.

“Look, Jack, you didn’t call me here to talk about the shade of my hair, and I can’t help wondering why you did call me. This makes no sense to me, because you shouldn’t be that desperate for a lawyer. The phonebook is flooded with them. Take your pick. I can’t seriously be your only option. I’m very well aware of how you feel about me. Out of all the lawyers to call, why me?”

Yes, she was dedicated, a pit bull, and she fought for her clients, but she was well aware that there were better lawyers out there. The way he was watching her had her remembering everything, the good, the horrible. He had been there one day, gone the next, walking out the door with a suitcase and his final words: It’s over.

“Why not you?” Jack said. “You’re a lawyer and you’re good, and I need one.”

She also knew bullshit. The tension was so thick that her stomach churned, and for a moment thought she might be sick. She was furious that she couldn’t feel anything for him. “Right, so you call me? You know what I remember, Jack, is the day you left me. I stood there, eating my heart, as you packed a suitcase and walked out the door, and as you did, remember what you said to me?” She had to force the lump in her throat away as she swallowed. She couldn’t finish reliving that moment. It had gutted her, the way he looked at her, the way he spoke to her.

The table was between them, and there was something about the way he stood there, so strong and tall. She wasn’t sure what to make of his expression. Evidently, she’d never been able to read him, and obviously, he wasn’t going to answer.

“You told me not to contact you, that it was over,” she said. “You told me this should never have happened, that it was a mistake—that I was a mistake. That’s what I remember.”

He’d stared at her as if he’d hated her. She’d never forget that one look. It haunted her still, and so did the papers she’d been served, which were tucked in the bottom drawer underneath the velvet box that still held his ring, which she couldn’t believe she’d kept.

“What do you want me to say, Karen, that I’m sorry? That’s not why I called you. I think you know you’d be the last person I’d call if there were another option for me.”

There it was, exactly why she didn’t understand why he was calling her now. She just shook her head, looking at a man who’d crushed her and broken her heart into a million pieces, so much so that she hadn’t thought she’d ever be whole again.

“I don’t want to rehash the past,” Jack said, “because that’s not going to get me out of this fucked-up situation. Don’t think it’s lost on me how convenient it was that all of this went down now, and I’m stuck in jail until I can go before a judge on Monday morning. Just get me out of here. I don’t want to rehash something that’s done and over.”

The dismissal in his tone was another reminder of how he seemed able to shut his feelings off with a flick of a switch. All it did was bring that long-buried hurt back, the hurt she thought she’d somehow made sense of. Apparently not. She let her arms fall to her sides, feeling that overwhelming sense of unreasonable anger.

“You know what?” she said. “You were right about something in what you said to me: This relationship of ours has run its course. Now this, here, you calling me to come and…what, get you out of jail and off a murder charge I don’t even know anything about? No. Find yourself another lawyer. Although I empathize, I won’t help you. I will not allow you to break my heart and fuck me around again. Remember the restraining order you managed to get against me? Well, it still exists, and here I am, breaking it. I still have it in my drawer at the office, kind of a reminder of how stupid I was. All you did was make a call, say I threatened you. Yeah, maybe I did in one of those hundreds of messages. Yet here you are, calling me. You killed someone? I don’t get this.” She took a step and then another, taking in the door and wanting nothing more than to get the fuck out of there.

“Karen, you don’t get it. You have every right to hate me, and I know I hurt you—but no, I didn’t kill anyone!” he yelled.

She turned, feeling his anger. At the same time, she just didn’t understand. Why her? Why had he walked away? Why had he done what he’d done? That was the one thing he’d never shared with her.

He pulled in a breath and ran his hand through his thick dark hair, the soft waves. How could she forget wanting to run her fingers through his hair? “That was the only thing I could do at the time to see that you stayed away from me,” he said. “I think you know me well enough to know that I don’t do something without a reason, and I certainly wouldn’t be calling you for help, but the thing is that you’re the only one who can help me and who I can trust.” The passion in his voice was so direct. Yeah, passion and heat had never been their problem.

“You’re wrong,” she said. “I don’t really know you. How can I be the only one who can help you? That makes absolutely no sense, Jack. What is this, this game? Is this just something else to fuck with me, to fuck with my head? It’s been a long time, and I’ve got a good thing going for myself. Why are you here, trying to mess with that?” She was leaning forward, breathing in and out. She hadn’t realized she’d been yelling back at him.

He shut his eyes and exhaled. “Please, Karen, I’m not trying to mess with you. I wouldn’t do that…” He inhaled roughly and glanced to the side. “This may sound absolutely crazy, but when I was arrested and heard the charges, the who, why, and where, all I could think of was calling you—even though I knew the best thing for you would be for me not to call. Please, Karen.”

He lifted his gaze, and all she could think was that the look in his eyes was raw and real. Maybe he was messing with her, but at the same time, she knew what she was going to say the minute she opened her mouth, and she tried to will it away.

“I hate you, Jack.”

He nodded as if he understood. “And you have every right.”

“Fine. I’ll see what I can do to get you out. No promises. Then you find yourself another lawyer.” She put her hand on the door and pounded with her fist. “Let me out,” she snapped, and the door opened.

“Karen…” he called out as she started out the door and the deputy stepped inside. “Thank you.”

She took in the motion as he was cuffed. She didn’t know a damn thing about what had happened. Instead of saying anything back, she just nodded and kept walking, knowing her brother was standing and waiting outside, and she’d just done the one thing she’d promised herself she wouldn’t do: help a man who had destroyed her and broken her heart.

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