Page 67 of Cowboy Heat

If you could call it an office.

A desk is sitting stationary in the middle, sure, but there’s no computer. No laptop. Just the desk, a chest of drawers, and a shoe rack with a few different kinds of rain boots. A framed map of Robin’s Tree hangs on the wall, but that’s it.

In fact, that’s the only artwork on any of the walls in both rooms. No knickknacks, no pictures framed or otherwise.

It’s a hotel room.

A place to sleep, put your clothes when you’re not wearing them, and then leave.

If Guidry is up to something, that something either travels light or is based somewhere else entirely.

Still, I go through the spaces as quickly and quietly as possible, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Then, like Ethan said, I step back and look at everything missing again. There’s so much of nothing that my eye goes to the map at the wall again. It’s the only framed art. Not even a picture of him, Kissy, or Micah is around.

Maybe that’s important.

I pull my phone out and take a picture of the map. Might as well capture the only thing that separates Guidry’s room from the last Motel 6 I stayed in.

My phone’s in my back pocket, and I’m down the stairs again just in time for the sound of the back door opening to hit me. I press Micah’s room door open, but stay in the hall. He’s hurriedly throwing his empty bag under his bed, paying me no mind.

Is this Guidry coming home?

Damien coming to check for him?

Whoever it is, they’re familiar enough to walk right on in and to us.

It takes me a second to recognize their face. In my defense, the last time I saw Alice Dean, she was bleeding out on the floor of the animal shelter.

“Mr. Montgomery,” she says, surprise in her tone. “I was wondering whose car that was.”

Alice looks pretty good for someone who survived a gunshot wound to the side. I didn’t get the details on the extent of her injuries, but I know she had to go through at least one surgery. Right now, she’s wearing a loose dress that’s gathered at the hip and cut low beneath the armpits. She’s got some kind of sports bra on, and I can see it and a wrap of sorts beneath where her recovering wound would be. She has her hair gathered in a messy bun and is wearing a little makeup. Her shoes are rain boots, no tying necessary. Just slip in and go.

But I don’t know why she’s here.

If it was me, I’d be taking it easy on a couch somewhere. Lest I evoke the wrath of Maximus.

“I was giving Micah a ride home,” I say.

Micah appears at my side, looking around me to the woman.

Since I’m the stranger here, I gauge the rest of my attitude toward her based on Micah’s reaction.

“Alice!”

I move aside as Micah runs up to Alice, and despite his obvious excitement, carefully gives her a side hug. Alice smiles warmly at him, returning it with some stiffness.

I defrost my general skepticism of anyone insideLa Lumiere’s perimeter.

“It’s good to see you up and well, Mrs. Dean,” I add on. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

Alice pats Micah on the shoulder, and the boy steps back. “I’m sorry too for what had to be an unpleasant stop on your tour.” She tries to joke. “But I guess I’m even sorrier for anything that might happen next.”

I tilt my head to the side a little in question.

She nods to the stairs. “Everett has always been so protective of us all here, and well, I worry he’s trying to write this wrong on his own.” She loops an arm around Micah’s shoulders and gives him a meaningful look. “Because as much as I want whoever did this caught, violence should never pave the way to more violence. Right?”

Micah nods. “Right.”

She releases the boy and looks at me again. “So I guess you don’t know where he is, either.”