Sweet Sinful Nights

One week later

Shannon kissed Brent goodbye at the door to his house. Now, it was their house. “I’ll see you late, late, late tonight in the Big Apple,” she told him.

“I’ll be counting down the hours till you knock on the door dressed as a sexy room service French maid.”

She furrowed her brow. “Just exactly what kind of hotels do you stay at, Brent?”

He winked. “The kind where my wife shows up at midnight.” Then he kissed her. “Have a great rehearsal.” He swooped in for one more kiss. “See you tonight.”

She shooed him out the door. “Go. You’ll miss your plane. You need to be fresh and ready to impress the ladies of Tribeca tomorrow.”

“With you by my side, it’ll be a piece of cake,” he said, then left for the airport.

She finished getting ready for work, pulling on a pair of black leggings, a tunic tank top, and high heels, then tossing her favorite scarf around her neck—the silk, blush pink scarf that Brent had given her. A thin, wispy thing, it was perfect for the summer heat. She had a final on-site rehearsal today with her dancers at Edge. The San Francisco debut had been a smashing success, and with the show set to launch at Edge in Vegas next week, Shannon wanted to make sure everything was perfect. She’d catch a late afternoon flight to New York and land in the Big Apple at midnight. That would still give her plenty of time to go to the picnic with Brent tomorrow, and support him in this key business deal. Tribeca was making him jump through some crazy hoops, and though she might not agree with the neighborhood association, she was ready to stand by her man, and to show, too, that his wife supported him. More importantly, she wanted him to know that his job mattered to her. That it wasn’t a source of friction as it had once been, and that they were in this together now.

The weekend was packed and was sure to fly by in a whirlwind. After the picnic tomorrow, they’d visit with Julia and Clay in the evening. Shannon was thrilled and a bit nervous to meet her brother-in-law’s wife for the first time. She wondered if they’d give her and Brent a hard time for “eloping,” just as her brothers and grandma had done. Of course, that hard time lasted all of five minutes because her grandma then declared she’d start planning a wedding celebration party with barbecue and beer for both families. The menu pleased her brothers, and the party planning pleased her grandma. Julia and Clay were coming to the party in a few weeks, but Shannon was eager to see them tomorrow night, too. Then she and Brent would fly back Sunday morning in plenty of time for Shannon to visit her mom on Monday when Ryan returned from his own weekend business trip. Departure was slated for the crack of dawn on Monday to allow for the five hours of desert driving between Vegas and Hawthorne, a small town with a big prison.

Whew.

She was exhausted just thinking about everything on the agenda. But maybe she was mentally drained, too, in advance of the visit with her mother. As she finished applying mascara, she fast-forwarded to visiting day at the Stella McLaren Correctional Center. Her stomach churned as she heard her mom’s voice in her head, as she imagined that desperate, manic look in Dora’s green eyes—the same damn shade as Shannon’s. Surely she’d be trying to convince them once again of her innocence. But not just convince. Dora wanted to prove she should be a free woman. That had been her mission for some time now. The fact that she’d met with a lawyer gnawed at Shannon.

It was that little detail that twisted her gut. That made her worry. Her mom was losing touch with reality, but surely a lawyer wouldn’t have come to have his ear bent with her mother’s latest obsessive claims. If a lawyer had visited, something was up, and Shannon needed to know what that something was.

As she slung her purse over her shoulder, her phone bleated from inside the bag. She fished it out to find an incoming call from an 800 number, one she didn’t recognize.

“This is Shay Sloan.”

The phone was silent, and Shannon was ready to hang up when she heard a tinny voice say, “This is the operator. Will you accept a collect call from the Federal Bureau of Prisons?”

Her stomach plummeted. She managed a yes, and five seconds later her mom was on the line.

Cooing.

Her mother actually cooed when she heard Shannon say hello.

Her mother launched into rapid-fire chatter. “I can’t wait to see my sweet babies. Are you and Ry-Ry on your way? Will I see you any minute? I’ve been waiting all morning for my babies. I even put on lipstick today. I can’t wait to see you. I’m so excited I had to call. I hope you don’t mind.”

Shannon sighed, a sad, wistful sound. Her mom couldn’t even get the date right. “Mom, it’s Monday. We’re coming on Monday. When Ryan is back in town.”

Her mother gasped. “No, no, no. It’s today. Did he tell you Monday?”