Page 112 of Last Chance Love

“This doesn’t count against me, by the way,” I said as I gave her the finger.

“My feelings are deeply wounded, and I don’t know how I’ll recover from the pain,” she said in a bored voice, picking up her phone and unlocking it.

“I’m sure you’ll recover,” I said as I left her office to descend the stairs and make for the dining hall. Dinner was in full swing, so I’d decided to try to catch Mona while she was probably alone.

I knew right where I was heading now, however, and instead of going into the hallway leading toward dinner, I went out the main double doors. The porch wrapped around all sides of the Big House, and I headed for the back. Considering everyone and probably their families knew about Reed being ‘arrested,’ she hadn’t felt any reservations about posting the occasional, trusted person to watch over the back building to keep anyone out.

Me, most likely.

But it didn’t seem like anyone was around now. After a few minutes of making sure, I continued toward the thick door that led into the building, grunting when I found it locked. It seemed like a safety hazard in case of fire, with no guards, but I didn’t think Mona would appreciate my criticisms.

I knew there was no other way inside since I’d been in before out of curiosity.

I’d only seen a handful of people forced here, and Reno still didn’t know how close he had come to being in one of the cells.

There was no way in without blowing the door open or finding the key, but I knew that wasn’t the only way I could talk to Reed. I could have done it sooner, but I needed to get more information from Mona. I didn’t want to risk getting caught and getting us both in hotter water. But now I knew as much as Mona was going to tell me, I needed to talk to him.

“Reed?” I whispered as loudly as I dared. Just because I hadn’t seen anyone lurking around didn’t mean there wasn’t anyone who might hear me while I tried to get his attention.

“Leon?” I heard a sharp yelp from the nearest small window, and I shuffled over to it, laying prone so I could see through as best I could. The double meshes made it difficult, and the lighting inside was awful, but I could see a figure moving around. Then Reed grew closer, and some of the moonlight caught his face. “Holy shit, what the hell are you doing?”

“Coming to talk to you, clearly,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “How are you?”

“I’m not sure that’s a question I want to answer right now,” he said, looking around. “Jesus, this is stupid of you.”

“Not really,” I grunted, wishing I could reach through the mesh and touch him. “Everyone’s at dinner, and Mona’s inside probably glaring at the walls because I gave her shit.”

“Not that I’m surprised, but that’s also kind of stupid, sweetheart.”

“They locked you up and are accusing you of stealing and being a dealer. Yeah, I’m pissed.”

“She told you, huh?”

“Not everything. She probably told you more.”

“Not really. I thought she’d come by to tell me more, but she only stops by in the morning with my breakfast. She doesn’t say much, just asks me if I want to take her deal, and then leaves when I tell her I can’t give her names because I don’t know any.”

“What deal?”

“Basically, if I tell her where I’m keeping the money, she’ll put in a ‘good word’ with the parole board. And if I hand over the names of the people I’ve been doing business with, she’ll consider keeping me in the program, bumping me down to Tier Three, and I have to give up any chance of practicing medicine again.”

“Jesus, that’s a tempting deal,” I said with a blink. “Very generous of a woman who seemed pretty pissed off at you.”

“Leon?”

“Huh?”

“I didn’t do this. I don’t know anything about any of this.”

My eyes widened in shock as I realized what was going through his mind. I couldn’t help but push my fingers through the wider mesh to push against the thinner screen in a desperate attempt to reach him. “Reed, listen to me, okay? I absolutely, without a single doubt in my mind, believe you. I’ve never believed you could be guilty.”

“Not even for a moment?”

“Hey, there was a moment, but it disappeared quickly when I realized it was stupid, and so was I for even thinking it could happen.”

His face grew clearer as he pushed his forehead against the screen and into my fingertips. “I don’t blame you. This whole thing is a mess, and I don’t even know how to begin to separate it into anything understandable. Iknewthere were discrepancies at the clinic, but I never imagined they were this bad. I thought it was just your basic inventory issues that happen everywhere.”

“You didn’t noticeanythingweird going on?” I asked.

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