Page 92 of After All The Wreckage

As I said it, I put three twenty-dollar bills on the counter with my palm covering most of them. It was more money I couldn’t afford, but I still slid it toward him. The guy was around my age, and he looked at the money with a flicker of hope in his eyes. He turned back to his computer, banged around a bit, and then said, “There is an upgraded room I can move them into.”

Five minutes later, Gage and I were on our way upstairs. We made our way down the lushly carpeted burgundy hall to the room across from Walden’s. I tilted my head in the direction of his door, listening for sounds coming from the suite, but heard nothing.

Gage slid the key card over the reader, and we ducked inside.

I hardly noticed the lavishly furnished blue-and-white interior as Gage rolled the suitcase inside. The single king-sized bed made my heartbeat pick up and my stomach twirl. But if I did my job right, we weren’t going to be here at night. We weren’t going to be here long enough to even pull back the covers.

I went to the house phone sitting on the nightstand and punched in the hotel code for Walden’s room. It rang and rang, the hotel’s automated voicemail finally picking up.

He could be in the shower. I’d give it another ten minutes and then try again.

I pulled the suitcase up on the bed and unzipped it.

Gage stood across from me, eyeing the packages inside. “What’s all this?”

I ripped open the first plastic container, palming a device the size of a dime. “Wi-Fi enabled camera with audio.”

“That tiny thing?”

I nodded. Turning it on, I connected it to my phone in practiced moves before stepping out our door. I flipped the lock so the door didn’t shut all the way and took a slow breath as I eyed the hall, grateful to find it empty.

My gaze scoured the wallpaper and wainscoting, wishing I’d gotten a white device instead of black before finally placing it as inconspicuously as possible along the door frame.

Back inside our room, I brought up the app and checked the view to ensure it captured the door across the hall.

It would do.

I went to work on the rest of the equipment, tearing open two more camera packages. The first was like the one I’d just stuck outside, but the second looked like a USB charger I could plug into any electrical outlet. I pocketed them both before opening another square box and pulling my computer out of my messenger bag. I set the devices on the desk in the room.

“What are you doing now?” Gage asked, leaning over my shoulder.

The scent of him surrounded me and his breath coasted over my neck. My body reacted as it always did, jumping to attention, begging me to turn my head and join our lips once more. To find some relief from the insatiable yearning I’d had for him for a decade. The bed was right there. How long would it take to lose ourselves in each other?

I cleared my throat, forcing myself to focus on my computer.

“This is a key card machine,” I said. I logged into the hotel’s Wi-Fi, opened the internal code, and found my way into the employee-only access. From there it was an easy jog into their admin systems, including the key card software. I hooked the machine I’d bought to my computer and pulled the second key card the clerk had given us from the envelope. I placed it into the machine and reprogrammed it for Walden’s room.

“Won’t that make his card not work?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No. If he’d declared it lost, they would have generated a new code, but this is just creating another version of the one he already had.”

“And you’re going in there? To his room?”

I rose, the movement forcing him to move back slightly, but our chests were still practically touching. Energy zipped between us. We stood there for a few beats before I eased around him to pick up the hotel landline, once again calling Walden’s room. It rang unanswered.

“Give me your phone,” I said. He handed it over without question. I installed the camera app on his phone, logged in, and brought up the camera I’d installed outside our door. “Watch this and text me if you see Walden.”

“It’ll be too late if he’s already at the door. I’ll wait in the hall. There was a bench by the elevator. If he comes, I can text you with enough time for you to get out.”

“Won’t matter. If he’s already in the hall, he’ll still see me come out of his room.”

“Rory.”

“You said you believed in me,” I told him, and my eyes locked on his. He was worried. But for the first time in a few days, I finally felt in control. Cameras, technology, and surveillance were the things I excelled at.

“I do.”

“Then watch the camera and text me.”