Page 112 of The Casting Couch

“Bradley Mitchell?”the cop asked, his voice clipped as the device beeped.

Bradley’s face went tight.He didn’t blink.

“On parole,” the officer said.

The cuffs clicked shut around Bradley’s wrists.

“No,” I whispered, heart hammering so loud I thought it might burst out of my chest.

Bradley didn’t meet my gaze.They marched him toward the squad car, his shoulders rigid as stone.

The sidewalk felt suddenly empty—like the air had been sucked out of the world.I raced up to Bradley while they were cramming him into the backseat.“Bradley, I love you!I promise I’ll take care of this.”

Bradley’s eyes met mine, and despite the handcuffs and the cops, his face split into a smile.“You do love me?”

ChapterTwenty-Seven

Bradley

The cold steel bench beneath me was hard enough to bruise my ass, but I barely registered the pain.My body was in this holding cell, sure, but my brain… my brain was back in that squad car, where Nico looked me in the eye and told me he loved me.

Nico loves me.

The words burned like neon behind my eyelids, looping through my head like a chorus I couldn’t turn off.I held onto them like a life raft, desperate and shaky, while everything else around me crumbled.

The jail cell was as bleak as I remembered: cinderblock walls painted a sickly shade of beige, buzzing fluorescent lights that flickered with a strobe-like cruelty, and a single narrow window too high to see out of.A metal toilet sat in the corner like a threat.Everything stank faintly of bleach, sweat, and something sour I didn’t want to identify.It wasn’t just jail.It was purgatory, and I was stuck in it again.

At least I didn’t have to deal with fucking Marvin.

I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, and ran my fingers through my hair.It was greasy, unwashed, and stuck up in too many directions.My hands trembled slightly, whether from adrenaline or anxiety or just the sick déjà vu of it all, I wasn’t sure.I’d been here before—literally and metaphorically—and I knew better than anyone how time stopped behind bars.Every minute stretched like chewing gum on hot pavement.

And yet, through the fear, through the bone-deep dread of being back in a cage, one thought stayed bright in my mind: Nico said he loves me.

I laughed under my breath, a short, startled sound that echoed too loud in the small space.I probably looked unhinged.Hell, maybe I was unhinged.Because what kind of person sits in a holding cell, heart pounding from fear, and grins like a fool because their maybe-boyfriend said I love you?

But it mattered.God, it mattered.After everything—after prison, and lying to people who cared about me, and almost ruining this one good thing—I had someone who still saw something worth loving.Someone who looked at my wreckage and still wanted to climb in and build a home.

And now I might lose him.Again.

I stared at the floor, at the scuffed concrete covered in little black skid marks from too many shoes pacing too many miles.How long would they keep me here?A day?A week?Longer?The idea of being trapped again, away from Nico, away from the life I was finally starting to rebuild, made my chest seize up.Not just with panic, but with shame.

I had just begun to believe I might deserve this good thing.And now it was slipping through my fingers, all over again.

A sharp knock on the steel door snapped me out of my spiral.It creaked open, and Brooke Keeland stepped in, clipboard in hand, tight bun, no-nonsense energy.She looked exhausted.Maybe from dealing with me.Maybe just from the job.Either way, her eyes flicked to mine with a mixture of weariness and concern.

“Bradley,” she said, voice flat but not cruel.“You’ve really done it this time.”

I flinched.Not from the words, but from the disappointment behind them.“I know,” I muttered, not quite able to meet her eyes.

She walked in slowly, dragged a plastic chair from the hallway, and sat across from me.“I’m not here just to scold you,” she said, crossing one leg over the other.“There’s something you should know.”

I felt a flicker of something.Hope?Terror?I couldn’t tell, but it lit up the hollow space in my chest.

“That handsome guy you keep bringing up, Nico,” she added with a faint smile.“He came to see me.”

My breath caught.I blinked hard, like I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined it.

“Said he wanted to explain everything.Gave me the whole rundown.And honestly...it made sense.”

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