Rowan
Walking behind Reggie, I glanced at Luka, who was nervously chewing his bottom lip.
Reggie hadn’t said much, other than to tell us to follow him, which wasn’t surprising.
He might have been the original Guide and a playful man at heart, but there had always been a serious thread running through him, and now he was an administrator for the resort.
I didn’t need to guess where we were being taken because there was only one place, and one person.
I was aware of the seriousness of what was happening.
I should have put the pills back, even though I had agreed to go with Luka to tell Reggie.
Then again, I wasn’t expecting Reggie to show up so early without warning.
Something else had to be going on. Reggie hadn’t been in my room except on the day I arrived.
There was no reason for him to be there, so either Luka had messaged the man while I had been dozing, or there was something else at play that we knew nothing about.
As much as my suspicious mind wanted to cast its eye onto Luka and wonder if he had sold me out before I had a chance to make good on my promise, I dismissed that immediately.
Luka was many things, but a liar and a sneak, he was not.
Against all odds, he had said he believed me and wanted to help.
Everything I had seen of him up to this point said he meant both those things. No, he had not done that.
But what had happened?
There was no point in speculation, especially with no information, so I dismissed the thoughts before they could take root in my head.
I would find out, and unlike Luka, I was not worried.
After all, I had never truly been here for the reason I had stated, so it didn’t matter that I could be potentially ousted from the program this late in the game.
The only concern I had was for the man walking beside me.
We were led to the hallway. Rather than heading through the door to the lobby or into the room where I had spoken to Reggie, he led us to a door opposite the Greeting Room.
Pressing a disc to the pad, he gestured us into another hallway with more doors.
I briefly read the signs for a server room, a break room, and one that said, "special access required to enter. "
At the end, some stairs led to another door, this one open.
Since he’d made us go first, I stepped through into an office with a desk at the back, a computer screen, a mouse, and a keyboard.
There was also a tablet, a stack of documents, and a few picture frames.
There was a glass cabinet where a couple of bottles and glasses sat along with other knick-knacks.
There were a couple of filing cabinets as well; one of the drawers was open, showing a neat row of folders that someone must have been combing through.
Potted plants hung green and lush. There was a small sitting area in the corner near the door, where a cup of coffee sat steaming and a book whose title I couldn’t read because I couldn’t read Spanish.
It was a neat and tidy room, and it reminded me of the office I used when I was working.
It had more cozy flourishes than mine, such as the TV screen showing a fireplace, the soft, furry rug that squished gently under our feet, and a few paintings that looked like wild swathes of color rather than anything definable.
A door opened, and Mr. Shepherd stepped out, pausing when he saw us, his eyes drifting to Reggie. A raised brow was all he gave to show his curiosity as he gestured toward Reggie, and I heard the door close behind us. “That was faster than I expected.”
“I guess you could call it luck,” Reggie said, all lightheartedness gone from his voice as he stepped around us. “My third stop of the morning, and I found what we were looking for.”
“Shit,” I heard Luka mutter, and I found myself reaching out to squeeze his shoulder, letting him know everything was going to be okay. Not that I could promise that, but I could at least try to make sure everything would turn out okay for him.
“You’ve said that already,” Reggie muttered. He stood at the desk as Mr. Shepherd retrieved his coffee and sat behind it.
“Sit,” Mr. Shepherd said in a tone that gave nothing away, gesturing to the two comfortable seats in front of his desk. “Or stand, if you prefer.”
My hand was still on Luka’s shoulder. I gave him a little push to guide him toward the chair, and he went reluctantly.
He was nervous, but no one commented as I took the seat next to him and looked at Reggie and Mr. Shepherd.
A glance at the desk revealed nothing except the tablet.
I caught a name I didn’t immediately recognize, but before I could do more than glance at it, Mr. Shepherd reached over and smoothly locked the screen.
“I assume everyone is intelligent and honest enough to know why we’re here,” Mr. Shepherd began, slowly looking between the two of us.
“So I hope we can skip any denials. It’s not often we have to drag someone in here for something serious, as we tend to be pretty lenient, but this. ..this is one of those times.”
Reggie’s expression broke for a moment, showing disappointment. “I was hoping better from you of all people, Luka.”
Before I could open my mouth, Luka spoke up. “We were going to tell you, both of you, I swear.”
Reggie frowned. “And when were you going to tell us?”
“I...” Luka glanced at me nervously, and in a flash of understanding that only came from knowing him, I realized he was afraid. His job was on the line, and he was afraid that whatever he said might get me in trouble but would free him.
That at least solidified my plan to make sure he got through this with his job and reputation intact.
“He only discovered the pills last night,” I explained before Luka made up his mind what he was going to say. “Up until then, he had no idea they existed. If anything, Reggie, you should be proud.”
Reggie raised a brow. “And why is that?”
“Because his first reaction was to confront me, talk to me, and understand what they were for and why I had them. There was no condemnation or judgment, just acceptance and an attempt to understand. He not only conducted himself with the grace and compassion you want out of a Guide, but also, at least in my view, was unwilling to allow me to wiggle out of the explanation he was asking for. I cannot think of how else someone in his position is supposed to react.”
He considered that before looking at Luka. “And why didn’t you alert me right away? From the sounds of it, you waited.”
Luka looked down at his hands in his lap. “I was waiting until today, in the morning or the afternoon, that’s all. I wanted him to... Well, I wanted him included, okay? I wanted him to stand beside me when we told you. I promise.”
“Why wait?” Reggie asked, his expression set in a stern frown, but the tone of his voice was one I’d heard before.
It was the voice of a man who was unhappy with what he had found, disappointed by what he suspected, and desperately hoping to be proven wrong, but who wanted to give the other person a chance to prove themselves.
“What was I supposed to do, Reggie?” Luka asked, and I ducked my head at the sudden flare of anger that made Reggie lean back in surprise. “Go running to tell on him immediately? Should I have called you immediately after putting him on lockdown like some criminal?”
Reggie recovered quickly. “You know the protocols, Luka. You went through the training, and you had it drilled into your head. For something like this, you knew full well that they were not his prescription medications, and that comes under the illegal or illicit substances rule we have in place.”
“And you were the one who emphasized in my training that if there’s something we need to report, we don’t have to drop everything and come running to you unless it presents a clear threat to the guest or anyone around them,” Luka shot back.
“And considering the only threat to him at the time was a bunch of pills, and he didn’t go running to down them the minute I discovered them, I decided to hold off.
Like you said, sometimes the spirit is more important than the letter, so don’t you dare get mad at me for taking the lesson you taught me and applying it in a situation where I had to make a judgment call on my own. ”
Reggie stared at him before clearing his throat. “Fine, then what were you hoping to achieve by holding off?”
“Exactly what I said,” Luka huffed, and I was glad to see he had found his spine and his fire.
At the very least, it meant he was no longer acting like he had arrived at his own execution.
“One of the key things we emphasize around here is taking control of your life, and the first step to taking control is to own up to mistakes. You acknowledge the problem, acknowledge your part in it, and then step up to own it; that way, you can have a measure of control over your life. I wanted him to talk to me first, for me to understand how this happened, and then, when he had done that, and I had tried to be there for him in a moment of vulnerability, I was going to ask him to step up and confess to you at least part of what he had confessed to me.”
“Part?”
“Yes, part. You are not his Guide; you’re not his friend; I am. So I don’t expect him to tell you the full truth as he told me; that’s his prerogative. I’m not going to tell you what he told me, not all of it.”