Page 2 of Last Chance Love

At the time, the offer had touched me. It wasn’t like I was given many opportunities with responsibility and respect. My job was to look after my assigned mentees, Tier Threes and Twos, and do what I could to guide them. It didn’t take long for me to realize just what a goddamn trap it was.

Every person under my ‘tutelage’ was someone I needed to guide through the program as effectively as possible. Sure, the ranch picked its participants in the program carefully, working with a pool of guys who weren’t convicted of murder, rape, or domestic violence. They also had another selection process. I didn’t know what it was, but it was based on their history, before and during prison, and probably a few other things they didn’t tell me.

Most of the time, the cards were stacked reasonably well, so someone would make it through the program, but that wasn’t a guarantee. I’d bet good money most of the guys here understood all too well that even with things working in your favor, luck and fate could take a turn and dump you on your ass in a ditch.

Right now, that came in the form of an angry redhead.

“Well,” Mona said, nostrils flaring, “you heard the man. Explain.”

Patience was and wasn’t her best quality. I’d been in the program a few years now, and I’d seen her in action. When things were going well, she had all the patience in the world. Even when things didn’t go how they were supposed to, if the failure operated under whatever parameters she had decided, she could still show an abundance of patience and understanding. It was when things went to hell in a handbasket and someone royally screwed up what they weren’t supposed to, that she started to get a little testy.

“He had a call earlier,” I said, glancing between them. “From home.”

“And?” Mona asked, brow furrowing. “Plenty of the men here get calls from home. Quite regularly.”

“Not Reno,” I said with a shrug. “Of the calls he’s received, and there aren’t many, only three have been from home. We know because it’s listed as one of his emergency contacts. A sister, Mara. Who calls him once a month. Her last call was two weeks ago.”

“So she happened to call a couple of weeks early. He’s only been here a few months, and it’s hard to see a pattern that early,” Mona said with a wave of her hand, but I noticed the shadow on her brow was easing slightly.

If there was one thing I could say about myself, my instincts for people were generally good. Not perfect, but it came in handy, especially with this new job. If anything, I’d been trying to teach myself not to ignore my instincts. If I had ignored them less, dismissing them as overreactions or paranoia, I wouldn’t have ended up…well, in this spot. Or at least not in prison.

“Because I don’t believe in coincidences,” I told her finally. “Look, Iknowhe’s got a bad attitude. Anyone who’s been around him for five minutes knows that.”

“He is pretty grumpy,” Mr. Isaiah said, the smile returning to his face. “Reminds me of a certain member turned long-term farmhand we have.”

“I don’t think we can compare Max and Reno,” I said with a wince, although imagining Max’s face if he heard the comparison was pretty funny. “Max is…different.”

Mona opened her mouth, but Mr. Isaiah leaned forward, looking curious. “Why do you say that? I remember having both of them in this office, and I got the same impression. Chip on their shoulder, angry at the world, but something…just something there that might mean they could make it through this place and land somewhere better.”

For a moment, I was sorely tempted to ask about when he’d seen me for the first time. Like everyone else in the program, I was introduced to the place and dragged upstairs to meet the big man in charge. He’d struck me as somewhat larger than life, but there was something genuine and grounded too. Somehow, his big grin and thick accent only seemed to enhance the genuineness of his interest and the warmth of his heart.

Yeah, if I were going to get poetic, it would probably be better not to open that particular can of worms.

“Max is, well, my impression is, he just plain doesn’t like people. Not because he hates them or because people screwed him over, but because he doesn’t like them. Certain people might have hurt him, but that’s not him holding it against the world. That’s just who he is as a person. I’m sure some people could get through all that crankiness, but it’s not like there’s anything wrong with him.”

“Ah, but there is with Reno?”

“Oh yeah,” I said with a laugh and then quickly schooled my face to something more serious. It was probably a bad idea to laugh about how screwed up someone was when you were in charge of taking care of that person. “He’s angry at the world and people. Not just…not wanting to be around them, he’s always actively angry with everything. Life, people, friends, former partners, all of them have probably screwed him over at some point, and he’s just…done with it. Covering himself in anger, maybe people won’t try to get close, and if they can’t get close, they can’t hurt him again.”

“And you got all this from…what? The amount of conversation you’ve had with him?” Mona asked doubtfully. I didn’t like it, but I didn’t hold her doubt against her. I knew she believed in the program wholeheartedly, but she also had to be practical, and if Reno could be a black spot on the ledger, then she had to consider letting him go.

“Look I…I grew up in a bad way,” I said, knowing I was about to gloss over a lot of history. “And I saw other people grow up badly and what it can do to them. And I’ve seen a lot of people end up like Reno. It’s…pretty common, actually. He’s got a lot of anger pent up.”

“And you don’t think that anger finally came to the surface?” Mona asked, taking a sip of her drink.

“I mean, he had to have gone through the selection process you guys do.”

“Of course he did. Everyone does.”

“A process I’ve heard you say you have a direct hand in.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Yes. What’s your point?”

“My point is, you would have already known he had anger problems. I can’t imagine you would have overlooked something like that. Not…without a good reason anyway.”

“Oh, you can’t?” she asked, her jaw tightening slightly.

“You’re not one to make mistakes, especially if it’s a mistake thatmightmake the program look bad,” I said, sensing the ice beneath me starting to crack alarmingly. But I needed her to understand that even if Reno wasn’t the most forthright and sharing of people, she had given him to me, and I had been paying attention. “So I can only guess that you either thought his anger wasn’t that bad…or you figured there was more to him than just that anger.”

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