Page 120 of Falling Too Late

Mario put his hand up, halting me from following them into the condo. “It’s fine, Wren, we’ll talk about it later. Just wait out here while we go take a look.”

The officers announced their presence and went inside. I waited out in the foyer, my phone gripped tightly in my hand,mind running wild. I wanted to call Alex, but I knew he wouldn’t be happy with me.

As the anxiety built, I made every excuse for Jon. Maybe he hadn’t known Alex was alive either. Maybe he was so stricken with grief that the person on the table really had looked like Alex. Maybe there was just a mistake in the prison filing, and it really was an honest mistake, and I had been shutting him out for no reason.

But how did someone fuck up this badly? Why did none of Alex’s letters get to me? There had to be an explanation for this. I was going to find out.

“Wren, he’s back here.”

The anxiety dissolved, and I headed inside, careful where I walked. The two officers had Jon sitting up on his bed. One crouched down in front of him.

“W-ren?” Jon said when he laid his bloodshot eyes on me. “Wren, I’m so s-s’ry.”

“He’s drunk,” Mario said, and I could smell the alcohol permeating from his pores.

I took a step back; I didn’t want to talk to him like this.I despised drunks, and I wouldn’t even entertain this for a moment.

Jon tried to stand but swayed, so the officers put him back on the bed. His hair was a mess; he was wearing a white undershirt and blue boxers. I'd never seen him look sonotput together before.

“Thank you, Mario.”

I was too angry at Jon to feel sorry for him right now.

“Anytime. Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

“N-No, Wren. . . Come b-back,” Jon stuttered.

I ignored Jon, leaving with Mario. I told Berny to let Melissa in the next time she came by and shot her a text, letting her know what I saw. I didn’t want the responsibility of a drunk Jon on me. I had enough of my own shit to deal with, and this wasn’t going to be another thing I added to my plate.

Mario walked me to my car, where of course there was aparking ticket on it. Mario took the ticket and told me he would deal with it.

“What is this about Alex?”

“I really don’t have all the answers, but Alex is alive. There must have been some kind of mess-up with the paperwork or?—”

“Wren, that’s a huge fuckup.” Mario would know better than me.

“I know.” I looked at the time on my phone. “You should come by my place this afternoon. I’m doing a thing and I’d like to introduce you two.”

CHAPTER 44

ALEX

“Ezekiel,what do you and Nikolas do?” I walked around his study, looking at all the old paintings he had displayed.

“What do you mean?” he asked, shuffling through the papers on his dark cherrywood desk.

“What do you do for work?”

“Niko didn’t tell you?” He chuckled. “We are just financial backers.”

“I don’t know what that is.”

“Someone wants to buy something, start a business, but they don’t have money. We support them financially for a cost.”

“A cost?”

He put the papers down and leaned back in his chair. “Yes, a cost. It could be anything. A stake in the company, repayment plus interest, maybe they have something that has the same value, or?—”

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