Page 119 of Last Chance Love

“One you’re still going to go through with.”

“With or without you.”

I sighed, closing my eyes and pushing my face into the thin pillow they’d provided. It was a desperate plan, doomed to end in miserable failure, probably with him in a cell next to mine. I couldn’t even count the number of laws he’d be breaking or how much trouble he’d be in. That would go double if he dragged me along for the ride.

I was already doomed, so breaking out of jail, even short term, wasn’t going to do much to me. Him, however? That would result in a lot of trouble, which he didn’t need when he was so close to the finish line. He had his whole life ahead of him, and here he was, bound and determined to risk blowing it up for me.

I remembered how much he could burn himself with his strange little impulses and how much I told myself I needed to trust his instincts. “Is this desperation?Justdesperation?”

“I don’t think so. I think something in me is telling me this is right, and notjustbecause I want it to be.”

“Fucking hell.”

“That sums things up nicely, I think.”

“I hate myself.”

“Mmm, normally that’s concerning, but that tells me you’re on board.”

“How long do we have?”

“Ninety minutes.”

I looked down at him. “Well, that’s enough for us to get there and get in, and that’sifthere’s no one there but Gideon. Anyone else, we dip out, and you abandon this plan for good. Deal?”

It wasnotthe deal he wanted, but I wasn’t going to back down anymore than he was. There were dozens if not hundreds of ways the plan could backfire, and the chances of it somehow working in our favor were…well, they weren’t zero, but I doubted they were even one percent. It wasn’t necessarily doomed to fail either, but despite all my misgivings, if he was going to do this, I would prefer he do it with someone who could make it faster.

“Fine,” he said, and I could hear the begrudging in his voice. “But we need to get moving now if we’re going to go.”

“Alright,” I said, getting to my feet. “But I’ll be honest. After I saw you and calmed down, I almost hoped you’d brought lube instead of this insane plan.”

“If this goes right, we’ll have all the time in the world to need lube.”

While that was a tantalizing idea, I wasn’t going to hold my breath. I was going because I wanted to make this as easy and quick as possible, not because I believed there was any real chance of success. If I let him go without me, I’d hate myself,especiallyif he ended up in trouble.

I stepped out of the cell, feeling that creeping sense of dread grow, but I pushed it down. “Where’s Max?”

“He went strolling off in that direction,” he said, pointing toward the right, which led toward the edge of the property. “Probably trying to get as far from us as possible. Probably had the same idea you did when he thought I was coming to spend time with you.”

“That or he wanted privacy while he had fun with Riley on the phone,” I muttered. “God, if we get caught, Max?—”

“Then it’s probably a good idea we don’t get caught, huh?”

“I’m not a fan of this cavalier attitude you’ve got going on right now.”

“It’s that, or I start thinking too hard about what we’re doing and spiral out of control. Which is something I do not need to be doing while I’m trying to play super spy.”

I groaned softly at his choice of words, but I let that be my only sound. Grabbing his arm, I pulled him in the opposite direction to Max and toward the nearest buildings. Although I’d never been to the part of the property the jail sat on, I had been on the ranch long enough to know where we were and needed to go.

Generally, wandering around the ranch at night was a bad idea. Not because you’d get in trouble, there weren’t any guards to keep an eye on people, it wasn’t necessary when there was nothing for people to get into, and trying to escape was a terrible idea. It was usually extremely dark, and unless you knew the layout, you could easily get lost and wander around until you found trouble or your cabin.

Considering I had been here a few years and worked night shifts, I’d learned the layout pretty well. There was also enough moonlight to keep an eye on our path. The same moonlight that could have exposed us if there was anyone around, but I tried to keep to the shadows as we moved quietly. I tried not to linger because I didn’t want to waste precious time beingtoocautious.

It probably only took ten minutes to loop around the Big House and come to the plaza at the front. The lights inside the clinic were bright, though partially obscured by the blinds.

“Let me look to see if there’s anyone in there,” Leon said in a low voice. “At the front, that is.”

“And if someone is and they see you?” I hissed, grabbing his arm before he could dart off.

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