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 wasthat?”
“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 thisout 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 beawful. 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 Rowanwas 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?”
