Page 150 of Love Me Reckless

Results… what the fuck is she talking about? “I don’t understand.” I can’t seem to touch the envelope. Like if I do, whatever bad news she’s delivering will become a reality.

“It’s your termination notice.” Her eyes flash. “The drug test came back positive.”

“No, no, no,” I say, shaking my head. The drug test from today? This can’t be right. “That’s bullshit. I don’t do drugs. I’ve never done drugs. I don’t even drink. Ask anyone!”

She takes a step back from my outburst. The sudden anger in her expression is like a knife to my gut. She believes I would put thesafety of our guests in jeopardy by getting high on the job. I want to shake her.It’s not true!I want to scream.

I ball my fists at my sides to keep from doing just that.

This is not real.

“Thank you, Leslie,” Stu says in a firm voice.

Leslie spins on her heel and hurries from the office, shutting the door softly behind her.

“Let’s go,” Stu says, rounding the desk.

I’m tempted to barrel through him, to fight my way out of here if I have to. But Stu is six-foot-four and outweighs me by fifty pounds of solid muscle, at least. Plus, the entire Finn River security team is seconds away, and from what I’ve heard, are highly trained in martial arts, plus every single one of them carries a weapon, so even if I managed to subdue Stu long enough to get out of this room, I wouldn’t make it very far.

And as much as I want to break out of here, the thought of hurting Stu makes my skull throb. Stu’s been on my side since the day we met, helping me get hired here and making sure I felt welcome. He’s only doing his job.

It hits me that I’m no longer employed with Finn River Ranch. I don’t have to scrutinize the fine print to know that proof of drug use is an automatic termination. As a mechanic, I’m responsible for guests’ safety. Which means I need to be one hundred percent sober at all times.

Will my crew find out? The knife in my gut twists tighter. McTavish, with his big heart and short fuse, will think I let him down. They all will.

My roommates, who’ve become good friends, won’t want anything to do with me.

I’ll have to move out.

How could everything be going wrong so fast?

There’s no way my test was positive. There’s a mix-up. Once I get out of here, I’ll contest it. There has to be an appeals process, right? I’ll give blood if I have to. Fuck, I’ll give them a kidney.

There’s another possibility, but it pains me even to think of it, because it’s so cruel. Could this be retaliation from Kirilee’s family? A sure way to turn my life upside down?

I let Stu lead me down the hall to the security hub manned by a rotating team of experts monitoring the security cameras, drone footage, and other surveillance systems located throughout the property.

A tall, fit man in a dark suit joins us inside the door.

“Our lead cyber security agent Malcolm Fisher will take it from here.” Stu hands over my phone to the man, then turns to me, his gaze brimming with disappointment. “Looks like this is goodbye.”

I have the urge to at least shake his hand, thank him for the opportunity this job has offered me. Thank him for giving me a chance. But my heart is locked in a vice, so I turn away and follow Agent Fisher to a workstation.

He asks me the same questions, my banking info and every scrap of personal information in existence right down to my previous addresses. Then Agent Fisher turns his attention to his screen.

The room is dim, with TV screens mounted on the wall, where images flash in real time. Cars coming in and leaving the gate. Views of different parts of the property—the lodge entrance, the lobby, the maintenance yard, the bottom of each ski lift, and several locations in the village. Men and women sit at monitors with headsets. Drone footage of the snowy property and its handsome perimeter fencing flit across several other screens.

I tune out the soft tapping of keyboards and the hum of the vent system keeping the high-tech electronics cool.

Where is Sheldon? What’s he planning?

Not being able to talk to Kirilee right now is stealing my concentration. I need a solution that gets me out of here.

What if Kirilee believes that bogus drug test?

Focus.

My gut tells me to keep quiet about Sheldon. Agent Fisher won’t let me go if he thinks Shel and I are working together. His team willwant to bring Sheldon in and interview us, breaking us down until one of us cracks. I can’t let that happen, because there’s no telling what kind of lies Sheldon will concoct to save his own skin.

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