Love or Money Read Online Free Page A

me. You forgot about me all this time, and then you walk in here like nothing ever happened…” To her horror her voice broke, and she pressed the heels of her hands up against her eyes to stop the tears.
    He didn’t say anything, and for an anguished second Riel wondered if she’d scared him off, if he’d make his excuses and leave. She almost wished she could take back her words. But then she heard him suck in breath through his teeth.
    “I can’t believe it. You mean that dick didn’t tell you?”
    She wiped her eyes and looked at him. “Tell me what?”
    He gazed at her uncertainly, his eyes darting to the door as if he could see through it to discover hidden listeners. “I thought he would have at least told you , but he must not want you to know.” His eyes searched hers. “If I tell you something, you gotta promise not to say anything.”
    Her brow furrowed. Her hurt began to ebb, replaced by curiosity. “Of course.”
    He reached out tentatively and put his hand on her waist again. “Isaias told me not to write you, or accept your calls if you called me…which you didn’t, by the way.” He raised his eyebrows.
    “Isaias wouldn’t give me any money to make calls, or give me people’s phone numbers or anything,” Riel said. “He said I’d talked to the wrong person and gotten myself snitched off, and that I’d just make it worse if I talked to them from prison, but that’s bullshit. I don’t know who snitched, but it wasn’t you or anyone I talk to.”
    Evan’s brow furrowed. “I thought the guy you were delivering to was the one?”
    Riel shook her head. “No. I heard he got five years. He wasn’t the snitch.”
    “Huh,” Evan said. He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then he shrugged. “Well, I don’t know who it was. But Isaias, like, ordered me not to talk to you, and I ended up figuring out the real reason why.”
    Riel frowned, her scalp prickling. “What was it?”
    He reached up and brushed a lock of hair from her shoulder. “A guy I know said that Isaias cut some sort of under-the-table deal to keep you from serving an ass-ton of time in federal. Part of the deal was that we couldn’t give them any reason to connect you with the organization. It had to look like you were just some small potatoes runner acting alone for your own benefit, or someone might have gotten suspicious and connected the dots. Then a lot of people would’ve gotten in trouble.”
    A chill ran down Riel’s spine. “I knew he’d done something. I looked at my court papers after the plea bargain, and they said I’d only been carrying a hundred grams. I had three bricks on me when it came down. I thought that attorney he got me was just really good, and got the evidence excluded or whatever.”
    Evan grinned dryly. “No lawyer is that good.”
    Riel stood there, stunned, as Evan’s fingers drew tickling patterns on her waist. “I had no idea Isaias and Maria were that well connected,” she said.
    “Oh yeah, they are. They don’t talk about it, and that’s how Maria’s survived as long as she has.”
    “I also can’t believe he’d do that for me.”
    Evan shrugged. “You have to take care of your own.”
    “Why didn’t he tell me all this, then? Why let me think that you…that everyone had just forgotten about me?”
    “That I don’t know,” Evan said. “I figured he would have at least told you.”
    “And why did I get busted in the first place? I spent a lot of time thinking about it, and never did figure it out.”
    “I don’t know that either,” he said. “But I’m glad you’re out.” Gently, with a faint, hopeful smile, he pulled her closer again. “Will you forgive me, Rielita? I would have written if I could have. I didn’t want to ruin your deal and get you in trouble.”
    He wrapped his arms around her, and she let him. She pressed close to him, his warmth seeping into her like balm. She couldn’t keep her hands from creeping up under his t-shirt, feeling the