Page 104 of Love Me Dangerous

“We have a lounge,” Adam says, nodding to a door on the right of the nurse’s station. “You can wait there.”

“Can we see her?” Jesse asks.

“She’s not awake.”

“I don’t care,” Jesse replies, his jaw tense.

Adam sizes all four of us up, no doubt making some sort of rapid assessment. “Keep it to two at a time, okay?”

I place my hand on Jesse’s arm, hoping the contact will keep him from going off the rails at this nurse who is just trying to do his job.

“We will,” I say.

Adam strides off, his sneakers squeaking on the linoleum.

“You go ahead,” Dad says to me and Jesse, nodding at Neve’s door.

I don’t really want to see Neve hooked up to machines.

“Can I?” Linnie asks.

Dad and I exchange a look, and I read his approval. “Okay. We’ll be in the lounge.”

Jesse opens the door for Linnie, and the two of them disappear inside, the door thumping shut behind them.

The waiting room smells of old coffee. The gray fabric chairs with their angular metal frames look like giant insects. There are crumbs on one of the tables, like someone ate a cookie. The idea is odd, given where we are.

“Is he using again?” Dad asks, crossing his arms.

“I don’t know,” I reply because the signs can be sneaky at first, and really, this is about Neve right now. I’ve never met her parents, but I’ve seen them at the ranch a few times. Her dad is a media mogul in several French-speaking countries and a few other places. Lithuania, maybe.

That Neve is using ketamine for depression management is gut-wrenching. Do her mental health issues have anything to do with her parents’ high-society lifestyle?

Dad follows me to the little coffee service alcove. “What about L.A.?”

“Not sure about that, either.” I search the drawers until I find one with coffee pods and load the Keurig machine with somethingcalled SUNRISE BLEND. My fingers shake as I slide a paper cup beneath the spout. “What do we do?”

Dad gently pulls me to him and wraps me in a soft hug. “I think we wait and see what he needs. What we can do to support Neve and her family.”

Unable to stop the hot tears pricking at my eyelids, I close my eyes and inhale Dad’s comforting scent. “Okay.”

A figure passes outside the room. It’s Sheriff Olson. Dad sees him, too. “I’ll get Jesse,” he says, and slips from my embrace.

Chapter Twenty-Five

SOFIE

“Where’s Linnea?”I ask. Dad and Jesse have just finished talking to Sheriff Olson for the second time. Neve’s parents arrived a half-hour ago, and I’m wary of them jumping Jesse’s shit. As soon as the shock wears off, they are going to blame him. I know I would, given Jesse’s history.

Dad frowns. “She’s not with you?”

Panic flickers at the base of my spine. “No.”

Jesse walks from the lounge, looking wrung out, like he’s been crying, but he takes one look at me, and his body stiffens. “What’s wrong?”

“Is Linn with Neve?”

“No.” He draws out the word, like he’s still processing. “She went to move my bike.”

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