Page 45

Story: Darkness Echoes

Rowan grabs Nix’s hand and pulls him toward the small seating area, and Jay is impressed by his restraint in not simply picking him up and carryinghim around, caveman-style.

“That would be so nice, Alex. Is there anything you’d like us to sign for you? I can’t offer a photo right now as…I am hardly presentable.”

Luca is so fucking cute in his hoodie and knee-length skirt, Jay worries about his impact if he were any morepresentable.

“No, you look so good. Like for real. So, so good.”

The desk clerk sighs without taking his admiring gaze off Jay’s beta. Shaking himself out of it, he winces. “But…I don’t have any albums here. I am working tomorrow afternoon, too. You know, if you wanted to come back down?”

Nix pops up beside the desk, having escaped Rowan to frown at the clerk for admiring his mate, and again, Alex blinks.

“Oh, uh, hi. Whoa,” Alex says, but goes on to mutter, “So pretty…” under his breath.

Jay knows exactly what he’s thinking, and Rowan does too, which is why Jay can hear him growling from across the lobby.

“Could we get a key to our room? My husband is feeling under the weather. I’m worried someone might die.”

Yeah, Alex-the-ogler in a death-by-Rowan accident.

“And thanks for not telling anyone about us being here, Alex,” Nix says, and Jay can feel the vibration of his omega voice tingle down his spine as Alex nods vacantly.

“Of course. Here. Room 208.”

Alex swipes four keys. “Could you sign here?”

Nix signsNix Fosterand scampers off to drag Rowan toward the elevator, their bags in hand.

“What do we owe you? We’ll pay cash if that’s okay. We are trying to keep under the radar, just in case,” Jay offers with his best dimpled smile, just to see Alex swallow.

“Thanks, buddy. We’ll sign those albums for you before we go, for sure. Leo will be by sometime, too.”

“Awesome.”

Jay has more than enough cash for two nights in a family suite with twoking-size beds and a pull-out couch. It has a small kitchenette and a large bathroom with decent water pressure. Ever since they’d met Antonio in his office with only a single, lipstick-stained dollar bill to their name, Jay has taken to carrying far too much cash.

The room smells stale, and Rowan starts looking in every closet and every drawer as if he expects an intruder.

“You okay, big alpha?” Jay asks with a small smile in place. “I’m going to get the others at that mall back on Gulf to Bay Boulevard. I’ll knock. Trust no one but pack.”

It sounds ridiculous, but Jay means it.

The younger enigma nods and takes up a place right behind Jay as he exits the room, and Jay waits to hear the door lock and the chain slide in place before he heads for the stairs. He avoids the lobby by exiting the building at the parking lot entrance and walking out to the street so he can hail a taxi for the short drive to the mall.

He finds the others hunkered down in the corner of the food court, with Finn and Leo eating ice cream and fries while Grayson paces back and forth nearby, looking pale and irritable.

“Hey, pretty. Where’d you dump the car?” Jay asks, rubbing his hand over Grayson’s head.

“In the dealer’s lot next door. Leo’s idea. They won’t notice it for ages. Gid wanted to run it into the water somewhere, but I told him real people don’t just dump brand-new cars in the bay in broad daylight. He’s been likethatsince we got here.”

Thatmeans absolutely stone-faced and 100% livid.

As expected, Gideon is standing guard, and the ten-foot section of empty seats means he’s been scaring people off either with scent or subsonic growls. Maybe it’s the combination of both, lending to his terrifying aura. Even Death herself would run the other way. Still, when Finn says they should bring food back for the others, Gideon hands over his wallet. “Cash only,” he growls. “Hurry. The others are alone.”

There’s no need to point out that Nix is as dangerous as the rest of them combined. Especially since he doesn’t want to bring it to Gideon’simmediate attention that it was Nix’s SUV the white van was after. Or how they knew where they were, or where they were going, or…fuck, what a mess.

Once they have food in hand, Jay breaks it to Gideon that the best way back to the motel is a taxi, rather than stealing a car from the dealer’s lot.

It takes some time, and only the reminder that his “babies” are unattended and alone calms Gideon enough for Jay to finally wave down a passing taxi. It’s small, so Jay charms the driver with an extra-large tip to let Leo lie folded awkwardly across the others in the backseat so they’d have room for the bags.