Closing my eyes, I listened to his breathing and felt my body relax. I couldn’t fall asleep, but I felt myself enter strange territory where I was still thinking, but it just drifted through my thoughts. I didn’t know what the future held for either of us, or if there would really be help for Rowan, but I had to try. Maybe he would accept help, or maybe he would leave Arete without looking back, returning to the way he had lived his life before.
That was ultimately up to him.
I only became aware of the passage of time when a sharp beep jerked me back to reality, and I looked around in confusion. Rowan was stirring. I smirked when I realized that, despite everything, he had fallen asleep. Another beep brought my eyes to the door, and I frowned at the pad beside it, seeing it was lit up. Grunting, I got up, hearing Rowan grumble as I jostled him while clambering over his long limbs to go to the door and see that there was someone outside trying to get in.
“The hell,” I muttered as I looked at the time. Not only was it too early for a guest to be visiting, but I had never known Rowan to have a visitor that wasn’t me. I glanced back to find Rowan sitting up in bed, looking at me with an unreadable expression, before he gestured at me.
Assuming it was permission to open the door, I deactivated the privacy mode and opened it, blinking when I saw who was standing on the other side. “Uh, good morning.”
Reggie stared at me for a few heartbeats, regret creeping across his face. “I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”
“We spent the night talking,” I told him, speaking slowly, not just because I was surprised to see him here so early or at all, for that matter, but I didn’t want to give away the fact that I had been here a lot longer. “What, uh, what’s going on?”
Reggie stepped forward, looking around the room, then sighed and closed his eyes. “Damn.”
“What?” I asked, trying to figure out what could be causing him distress, until my eyes fell on the table. “Oh, shit.”
We had left the pills out.
“Yeah, shit,” Reggie said with a sigh. “Okay, well, I guess what’s done is done, the two of you, come with me...now. Leave everything here, come as you are.”
I looked back and expected to see anger, bitterness, even sadness on Rowan’s face, but there was only resignation and determination. When he met my eyes, they shone with a hard light I didn’t recognize, but his smile at least seemed genuine. “You heard the man, let’s go.”
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. EverythingI had seen of him up to this point said he meant both those things. No, he had not done that.
But whathadhappened?
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.”
