Against my better judgment, I grab the bars and place my face as close between two as I can without actually touching skin to metal. I peek down the hall to see if I can yell for someone to come explain my position.

That’s when Richard appears on the hall threshold holding a folder.

“Well, well, well,” the boss says, walking toward me.

It takes me a minute to believe he’s not a hallucination. Of all the people I didn’t want to see me at rock bottom, my impossibly sexy boss definitely tops the list.

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“They finally tracked down the rental agreement, which was in the company’s name.” Richard stops in front of my cell. “So NYPD called the office to verify your story. Honestly, when the police called to say one of my employees had been arrested, I never imagined it’d be the office’s Miss Goody Two-shoes.”

Is that how Richard sees me? Like a prissy princess? To be fair, I spent years trying to cultivate exactly that image. Still, his words hurt.

“I’m a victim of the system,” I complain.

“Let’s see.” Richard opens the folder. “Unruly conduct, resisting arrest, disorderly person’s offense under animal cruelty laws,” he reads the charges against me. “And driving with the wrong license plate!”

“The car is rented. And I was rescuing the dog from a guy who wanted to send him to pest control.” Mr. Mutt barks his support. “Also, I haven’t resisted arrest, as unjust and unnecessary as it was.”

“It says in here you called the police officer trying to take you in ‘a big, uniformed bully’ and that you accused him of abuse of power.”

“Can you please wipe that stupid”—lips-magnet—“grin from your face?”

“I’m sorry, but this is just too fun. Of all the dumb things you had on that list of yours, I never thought you’d tackle the getting-arrested one.”

“You know about the list?” I ask in horror, releasing the bars and taking a step back.

Richard nods, still grinning.

I slap my forehead. “The night we met. So I didn’t just talk about a list in general, I showed you the actual thing?”

“That you did.”

“But you didn’t tell anyone else about it, did you?”

“No, I promise. But me knowing is the least of your problems.” He taps the folder. “I believe the city of New York now has it on record.”

“Not funny.”

“Not joking. It was in your bag.” Richard searches the file with his eyes. “Item twenty-one, a crumpled sheet of paper.”

I scowl at him. The sheer humiliation doesn’t matter now. I’ll worry about never being able to look the boss in the eye ever again later. First, let’s get out of prison.

“Has everything been cleared with the plate?” I ask again.

“Yes, the rental company admitted it was their mistake.”

“So they know I’m innocent! Why am I still in here?”

Richard can’t help his lips from curling up as he speaks. “There’s still the matter of the other misdemeanors.”