“I’m going to see Lynch.”
“Masters!” Scott called out.
I ignored him and continued my stride toward the stairs.
Scott yanked me by the arm and spun me around. “You think he’s going to sit back and ‘hear you out?’ Have you lost your bloody mind?”
“Get off me,” I cautioned, eyeing his hand on my bicep. Scott released me and I turned my attention down the hall. “I have nothing left to lose, and I’m not letting her spend another night in the hole for something she didn’t do.” I continued forward. My only goal was to get Mia out of there. Scott followed close behind, his loud boots against the floor reminded me with every step. “You don’t have to babysit, Scott. I believe I can make it to Lynch’s in one piece.”
“You need an escort,” he muttered behind me. “Plus, I wouldn’t miss this show for anything.”
I didn’t bother knocking and pushed through Lynch’s door. The lights in his office were dimmed, curtains closed, and the chap snapped from his desk, startled.
“Have a nice nap?” I asked, and dropped in the chair across from him.
Lynch sprung to his feet, his attention jumped from me to Scott with surprised brown eyes. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Mia’s being set up,” I pulled the note from my pocket and tossed it over his desk, “She doesn’t belong in there.”
His eyes dropped to the note before returning to me. A single exhale left him as he fixed his shirt and retook his chair. “I was wondering how long it would take before you showed up here. If my calculations are correct, you’re a day late,” he sneered.
“Fuck your calculations. Release her!” I snapped, running on thin ice, withdrawal, and desperation. At the corner of my eye, Scott took a step forward, and Lynch held up a palm in the air to stop him. “We both know she’s a target in a bloody game, and Jude only a pawn. I’m sure there’s another one out there who planted the key. The only way to draw this arsehole out is to get Mia back in her dorm.”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to suck them right back in. I hadn’t thought this through. Mia was safe in solitary. No one could touch her there. But what if Lynch was forced to hand her over to authorities?
“She’ll be on twenty-four-hour watch,” Scott added. I didn’t bother turning to face him, kept my sights fixed on Lynch and took notice in the changing expression crossing his face. The thought of Scott tailing Mia twenty-four-fucking-seven wasn’t on my bucket list, but it was the only way. My knee bounced from the new plan unraveling, and I pressed my palm over it, trying to keep my emotions in check.
It’d been too long since Lynch spoke, but then finally … “And you’ll be the one to watch her?” he asked, looking past me to Scott.
I turned in my chair for the first time and Scott looked to me then back at Lynch. “No, sir. Not me.”
My brows raised. “What do you mean, not you? You already fancy the girl, may as well watch her, yeah?”
Scott narrowed his eyes. “I have a duty to uphold. Ten patients to look after. I don’t have time to be Jett’s personal bodyguard.”
“Duty?” I asked in disbelief and stood. “If you were watching her in the first place, none of this would’ve happened. The dead cat in her room, the glass in her mattress … all of it could’ve been avoided if you did your bloody job,” I turned to Lynch, “You know about that right? While you were sound asleep, Mia fell over her mattress only to be sliced open by planted glass. Her entire back scarred!” I turned back to Scott, “Where were you then?”
“What is he talking about?” Lynch asked Scott.
Scott took long strides toward me and jabbed a finger against his heaving chest. “I carried her! And for four hours I pulled out each piece of glass, one by one—
“Enough!” Lynch slammed a fist into his desk and his name plate bounced to the floor. Scott took a step back, and red burned in his eyes. Eventually, this would have come to a head. “I hired you to look after her!” Lynch shouted.
Those words grabbed me, and I slid my eyes back to Lynch. Look after her? “You mean watch her, right? Because if I didn’t say so myself, it sounds like you fucking care about her. Which I know isn’t true. In everyone’s eyes, Mia is the spawn of Satan, here to cause destruction and stir the pot, or at least it’s how she’s treated.”
“You know what I meant,” Lynch corrected.
“No, I don’t know.” My temples pounded from it all. “All I know is, Mia is getting out, and I’ll look after her. I don’t trust anyone.”
Lynch laughed and fell into his chair. “This is great. The blind leading the blind,” he said through a humorless chuckle. “I’ve been working here too bloody long. Accounting keeps sounding better and better.”
I flexed my jaw and leaned into his desk. “This funny to you?” my arms picked up a shake, and I closed my hands into a fist. “Release her, or so help me God, the next person to be investigated is you.”
“Masters,” Scott stated and placed a hand on my shoulder.
“No fuck that,” I shook him off, “this whole place is a fucking joke.”
“This place is the only reason you’re not in jail, and Mia not in some mental institution in the states,” Lynch reminded me. “I’ll release her, but threaten me like that again, I’ll make sure your next home is the inside of a jail cell.” A few beats of silence and heavy breathing passed before Lynch turned his attention over to Scott. “You will be watching her, Ethan. One mistake by either one of them, they’ll both be sent away for good on Oliver’s account.”
“What about the police?” Scott asked through gritted teeth.
Lynch picked up the note and dropped it into his desk drawer. “I’ll do my job, you do yours,”—he slammed his drawer shut— “Now get out of my office.”
As soon as Scott and I exited and the door closed behind us, he stopped me in the hall. “That was an ace move,” he took a step closer, “but if you cock-up my plans here, I won’t hesitate to take you out.”
“The only person you’re taking out is Mia from confinement. Then I’ll be the one to look after her. I don’t trust you, and you sliding into her fucking bed at night because of her night terrors days are over. Next time, you come get me.”
The office door opened, and Lynch poked his head through, eyes bouncing between the standoff in the hallway. “Did you skip your meds after lunch today, Masters?”
I had forgotten the charade I had to keep up with. “I’ll go now.”
Trusting Ethan’s next moves were to the basement, I shoved my hands in my pockets and took off.
The new nurse had her back turned toward me at her desk when I arrived, flipping through paperwork clipped on a clipboard, and I dropped my shoulder against the wall and cleared my throat. The nurse turned in her chair and looked up at me. Blonde hair, brown roots, and bright red lipstick greeted me. Then she smiled, and her teeth glowed against the red shade. The nurse was young, and I wondered what she was doing in a place like this.
Her eyes dropped to my knob in my joggers, and I shifted in place. “My pills.”