Luka
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be confused or pissed off.
What didn’t help was that I didn’t know what to be the most confused about or who to be the most pissed at.
All I knew was there were a whole lot of things I’d been kept in the dark about, and now, before I could get any answers, I was being dragged out of Mr. Shepherd’s office.
Well, not literally dragged. As bold as Reggie was sometimes, he was smart enough to realize that touching me, let alone taking me anywhere by force, was a quick way to have a limb removed.
I didn’t want to leave the office as it was; I wanted answers, and I wanted them right now.
I wasn’t being given a choice, however, and that wasn’t doing a whole lot to improve my mood.
All I could do was be led out of the office.
To my surprise, I wasn’t taken back to the resort proper, but into the room Reggie used to introduce new intakes.
I would give myself some credit; I waited until he’d closed the door and locked it behind us before I snarled, “What the fuck was that?”
“That was your boyfriend deciding to drop the information equivalent of a nuclear bomb on us,” Reggie snapped.
I took a step back, my gut twisting. “He’s...not my boyfriend.”
“It’s a figure of speech,” he grumbled as he went to the desk and crouched down before reappearing with a bottle of liquor and two glasses.
“Where the fuck...in the intro room?” I asked incredulously.
“There are also bottles in my office,” he said, and I heard something heavy thunk. “But in here? It’s locked up tight in a safe that, as far as you’re concerned, doesn’t exist.”
“Eat my entire ass,” I growled.
“You’re not my type,” he said with a grin that made me want to reach across the desk and throttle him.
Instead, I accepted the drink, downing it in one go, and immediately regretting it as the liquor went down hard and hit my churning gut like a fireball.
I was well aware that Reggie was watching me closely, though, his brow raised while watching me down the entire shot, and I kept my features as still as possible, not to give away that I was fighting for my life.
Forcing a grim smile, I slid the glass back, and with the same amused expression on his face, he poured another, which I resolved not to down like I had the first one.
“So, why exactly are you so pissed at me?” Reggie asked, putting the top back on the bottle and setting it on the desk. “I didn’t know the truth about him anymore than you did.”
“I’ll deal with him later,” I promised darkly. “You, however…what the hell was that?”
“What the hell was what?” he asked, his brow creeping back up again.
“Wiggle that brow at me one more time, and I’m ripping it off,” I threatened, dropping into one of the chairs opposite him before I actually followed through on my threat.
I knew my temper could be bad sometimes, but everything going on was too much at the moment.
It felt like my brain was surging into overdrive, and if I didn’t find a way to get it out of my system, I was going to explode.
The problem was, the only way to get this out of my system was violence, and I really didn’t want to do that.
“Don’t go too far,” he warned. “I’m not exactly in the best of moods right now.”
“Why? Because the guy you were trying to finger for the crime he didn’t commit turned out to be someone you couldn’t touch? God, that must be awful. How are you able to deal with it?” I asked caustically.
“I wasn’t trying to finger him for anything,” Reggie snapped as he too sat down, and I wondered if his reasoning was the same as mine. “In case you missed what was discussed, everything has, in fact, pointed to Rowan.”
“Everything?” I asked dryly. “Because it seemed to me there were a few gaps in your understanding.”
“What are you defending here? Him? Or are you pissed off because there was a chance he could have done it? It isn’t as if he wasn’t keeping something from you, something you didn’t pick up on.”
I ground my teeth. “As I said, I’ll deal with him when I get the chance. I don’t need you to tell me what I’m feeling and why I’m feeling it.”
“You’re the one pitching a fit.”
“And you’re trying to spin it back on me. What the hell was with you ambushing us in his room like that?”
Reggie stared at me before letting out a huff. “What did you think was going to happen? We knew pills were being passed around, one to a Guest who is supposed to be sober. He wouldn’t tell us where he got it, but it’s obvious it was from inside. It’s not as if he’s left the resort.”
“And you what, immediately decided to go after Rowan?” I wondered, still pissed, but I still didn’t make much sense.
It wasn’t as if they’d known anything about his real background, and as far as I knew, there was nothing to indicate that Rowan was responsible for the pills being passed around either. “Make this make sense.”
“His room wasn’t the first I visited today,” Reggie said, lips pursing. “What good would it have done if we announced impromptu room searches? We were trying to find out who was responsible.”
I frowned. “You were out that early, going through rooms?”
Reggie sighed. “Yes, believe it or not, but I do things with intention. Most of the guests and Guides would have been asleep when I started my checks. Those I’d checked were told to stay in their rooms, and if I found out they alerted others that I was coming, then they would be dragged into this mess and at least booted from the program.
I can tell you right now I wasn’t expecting to open the door to Rowan’s room and find the pills just sitting out in the open. ”
“Because I had just found them and was confronting him about them,” I said with a snort. “I even had him convinced to come and talk to you, considering he had never reported to anyone that he was dealing with constant pain.”
“You mentioned that,” Reggie said sourly.
“Would that you had discovered them sooner and had him report to us. Then perhaps we could have been spared this mess. Now I have little choice but to continue investigating, but if someone was going into his room and getting the pills, then they’ll now know we’ve taken their supply and will quickly cover their tracks. ”
I frowned. “Reggie?”
“What?”
“Doesn’t your system track who goes in and out of rooms?”
“I...” he blinked, then cursed harshly and slid up to the desk so roughly I winced as he scrambled to get the computer powered up.
“I was so caught up with everything that it completely slipped my mind to check the logs to back up his story. You do realize what it means if there isn’t anything to show, right? ”
“Sure,” I said with a shrug. “But I know he isn’t responsible for this. He’s responsible for lying to us and coming here like a sneaky little spy to keep tabs on us, and responsible for not confiding in me despite...well, despite the fact that I thought we were close.”
“It’s those we’re closest to that we keep the most secrets from,” Reggie said wryly as he began typing.
“Save me from your pearls of wisdom; they only piss me off.”
“Yes, because you’re already a beacon of self-restraint right now,” he said dryly and then frowned. “It’ll take a minute, but at a glance, I can’t see anything unusual.”
“That’s why you have your computer system,” I told him. “That brilliant AI or whatever you want to call it.”
“And it’s working on it,” he snapped, glaring at me. “Are you going to be belligerent the entire time?”
“Are you going to be an arrogant dick who doesn’t know how to apologize or admit he’s wrong the whole time?”
“I’m following evidence. Not my own bias, unlike someone else I could mention.”
“Then mention me.”
“I am! I’m looking you dead in the eye as we speak!”
I glowered. “Is your computer done, or am I going to have to sit here and stare at you all day?”
He snorted. “You have no patience, you know that?”
“I have plenty of patience,” I muttered, though that wasn’t strictly true.
I could be patient, just like I could be calm.
..except when I wasn’t. What I wanted, what I needed, was to get this entire situation settled before I lost my mind.
I also wanted to have words with Rowan, but that was going to have to wait until he was free from Mr. Shepherd’s office. “Just not right now.”
Reggie rolled his eyes and froze as he looked at the screen, and sighed. “Oh...well that’s...not good.”
My heart tripped over itself, “What?”
“Well,” Reggie said with an ugly grimace. “It seems there’s a really good, if not definitive chance that Rowan is not the one I’m looking for.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?” I asked in confusion.
“For Rowan, and you, yes,” he said with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. “However...give me a moment.”
Before I could say anything, he was out of the chair and leaving the room.
After a few seconds, I got up and leaned over the desk, scowling when I saw he’d locked the computer screen, which meant once again I wasn’t going to get answers anytime soon.
With a grumble, I flopped back into my chair and tried to decide if I was more pissed at Reggie, Rowan, or myself.
I didn’t know how long I sat in the chair, stewing on my own feelings, before the door slid open again, and this time, Reggie wasn’t alone. I leaned forward. “Uhh, what is going on?”
Mr. Shepherd had the same stony, serious expression he’d had when we’d first been escorted into his office. “Rowan and I will continue our discussion another time. For the moment, Reggie and I have something far more important to worry about.”
“What the hell is going on?” I wondered as Rowan entered and Reggie peered in to frown at me. “What?”
“Sit tight, maybe you can have your little tantrum at him instead,” Reggie said with a dirty look.
“Reggie,” Mr. Shepherd chided in a tired voice. “You two can have your little squabble later. And you and I will continue at a later date, Rowan.”