For a few minutes I sit, sweating, trying not to overthink the situation. Then the door opens and a man comes in. I know who he is.
“Mr. Prescott,” I say, nodding. “I’m so sorry for everything.”
I’d be lying if I said I haven’t thought about Lance’s dad pulling some strings and making this all disappear. He could do that, couldn’t he? I should be thrilled that he’s here, but his face tells me he’s sure as fuck not about to grant me a get-out-of-jail-free card. He regards me with icy blue eyes a long time before speaking.
“You’re a friend of Lance’s?” he asks, taking off his suit jacket and draping it over the chair facing me.
“I am.”
He nods, taking a seat. “He threw you under the bus, said the coke was all your idea, he didn’t know about it.”
That motherfucker.
“I’m not an idiot,” the man says. “You’d think as a politician’s son Lance would be a better liar.” He smiles and waits for me to laugh, but I’m still too pissed off at Lance to joke around.
“Lance said not to call or you’d kill him,” I say.
Prescott nods. “That I believe. How come you didn’t listen?”
“Alicia was OD-ing. I couldn’t let her die. Did she make it?”
“She did, yeah. So, congratulations. You saved a life. You should be proud.”
“Thanks,” I mutter.
Neither of us speak for a moment; I don’t know what else there is to say.
“Reed, you’re going to tell the judge that Lance’s story is true,” says Prescott. “He didn’t know you were going to bring drugs, you’ve never done that before. You pressured him and the girl into doing the coke and Lance was the one who finally called the police.”
At first I feel like I’m having a stroke. My vision blurs, my heart redlines and I feel a stab in my side.
“I called the police,” I mumble, playing out the scenario. “My voice will be on-”
“No one’s going to hear that,” says Prescott, his voice calm and level like this is just another day at the office. “You’re going to take the blame for this completely, and Lance will be off the hook. You’ll get probation, maybe weekend jail. In return, I’ll give you a job in my prison system as a guard, and you’ll do a better job of keeping Lance out of trouble from now on.”
I’m going to-
A job in-
What?
“I’m headed for the hospital to see Lance and his druggie slut girlfriend,” says Prescott. He gets up and throws on his jacket. “You’re a smart guy, Reed Nolan. My son needs a friend like you. So, what’ll it be?”
—
When I finish the story, Quinn stares at me, a tear rolling down her cheek. “You took the deal,” she says.
“Yeah. I took it.”
Chapter 26
I can’t believe how fucking furious I am. “He used you, Reed. He took advantage of your situation and made you his… I don’t know, a tool,” I say.
“He kept me from going to-”
“Bullshit,” I snap. I’m pretty mad at Reed too. He should have stood up for himself — told the truth about what happened that night. He shouldn’t have let himself be used to protect scum like Lance and his father. “You may not have been an inmate, but you’ve been in jail this whole time.”
Reed gets out of bed and starts getting dressed. “He gave me a good job, Quinn. It was either that or keep delivering pizzas. I went from living off tips to having a full salary and benefits. And when Darren recruited me to work at Walker, I had a job I actually enjoyed and a purpose to my life.”