She met his eyes. “I think I have a right to, being as we’re sharing this crummy motel room and all.”

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

“Yeah,” Mason said. “I suppose you do.”

*  *  *

Jess watched Burke pull a chair across to the end of the bed, to where Lucy lay with her snout just hanging over the edge of the blanket. He scratched Lucy’s head again, and the dog wagged her tail, and Jess felt a pang of jealousy at how familiar Burke was with the animal.

She’s mine, she thought. She’s mine, and you’re not going to take her from me.

Burke sat forward. Rested his elbows on his legs and clasped his hands together. Looked at her, earnest, right in the eye.

“It was first-degree murder,” he told her. “That’s what I went in for.”

Jess burst out laughing. “God help me,” she said. “Of course it was.”

Burke studied her. He didn’t say anything. She kept laughing, wasn’t sure if she’d ever stop. Just her luck, the one man in her life who seemed a little bit decent and he was a convicted murderer; why the hell not?

Then she thought of something. “You said you never fired a gun.”

“I haven’t,” he said.

So, what, did you stab a guy to death? Beat him? Shit, first-degree murder’s the worst of the worst. What the hell did you do, Burke?

He caught her expression. “It was nothing like that,” he said. “What it was, there was this guy I used to hang out with—Dev, everyone called him—a couple years older than me. He was like my big brother, my best friend, and my dad all rolled into one. My dad was never around much, so I guess Dev kind of filled that void.”

He sat back in his chair a little bit. Rubbed his chin. “We got into whatever trouble you could think of, me and Dev, drinking and drugs and whatever else. I was a pretty angry kid back then, and so was Dev, too, and we kind of fed off each other. I always wanted to impress him, show him I was cool enough to spend time with, you know?”

Burke wasn’t looking at her anymore. Wasn’t really looking anywhere, down at the floor, lost in his memories.

Then he shook his head, as if to clear his thoughts. “Anyway,” he said, looking up. “Sorry. You asked what I did.”

“It’s okay,” Jess said.

“Yeah, well. There was this liquor store Dev wanted to rob. I don’t even think it was for any good reason, just for the hell of it. I was going to wait in the car for him to come out, you know, the getaway driver.”

Jess nodded.