Page 95 of His Virgin Romance Series

“Don’t be too hard on her,” he said, as though he knew exactly what I was thinking. “She really does love you.”

I looked up at him. “So you have spoken to her.”

Manolo only smiled.

“She didn’t believe me,” I said softly. “I thought she knew me better than anyone else in the world… Turns out it took one measly arrest to change her mind and break her faith in me.”

“There is overwhelming evidence that points to you in all this,” Manolo reminded me.

“I don’t care,” I said heatedly. “She knew me. She should have known what I was capable of.”

“Sometimes love can blind…”

I frowned. “I just told you, she believed me when I was accused of—”

“What I mean is that she probably thought she had been blind because she loved you,” he explained. “She probably thought she had missed the signs because she cared about you so much.”

“Is that her excuse, or yours?”

Manolo smiled. “You’ve been in there barely five days, Jared,” he said. “You don’t get to be this bitter.”

“Is it strange that I’m more worried about my relationship than about my job?” I asked.

Until I’d said it out loud to Manolo just then, I hadn’t actually admitted as much to myself. I felt a small amount of release, except that it was hollow because I was so hurt and angry with Rachel for actually believing that I was guilty, especially when it was her own brother who had put me in this position.

“It’s not strange,” Manolo said kindly. “You love her.”

“Fat lot of good that did me.”

“Hey, you haven’t been found guilty yet—remember that,” he said sternly.

After Manolo left, I had an hour to myself that felt more like five and then a cop came to get me from my cell. He didn’t tell me what it was about, and I didn’t ask. He led me to a room where Victor sat, waiting for me.

“I have good news,” he said, as I walked in.

I held my breath and sat down, hoping that it was really good news and not just spin that he was trying to dress up for my benefit.

“Okay?” I said cautiously.

“They caught the guy who framed you,” Victor said immediately.

“No!” I said, my voice coming out in one heady breath.

“Yes.”

“Fuck!” I nearly yelled. “You really did?”

“We followed the leads you gave us, as well as the leads that Rachel gave us—”

“Rachel?” I said, frowning at him.

“She visited Officer Manolo two days ago,” Victor told me. “And, she told him about her brother.”

“Her brother?” I said, in confusion. “I thought she believed Brent was innocent and I wasn’t?”

“As to what she believed, I can’t say,” he said. “I only had a short conversation with her. But she discovered a few bags of drugs in her brother’s closet, and she connected the dots I suppose.”

“She came to the station?”

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