Page 9

He was slick, and that scared me. While Brooke was gesticulating wildly and asking something about Rocky Mountain elk, Chris checked his phone, put it back in his pocket, then, while he was shuffling to get comfortable on the barstool again, he reached out and plucked Brooke’s room key from her jacket pocket.

If I hadn’t been watching for it, I wouldn’t have spotted the move. He was good.

Which meant he’d practiced.

Which meant we were in trouble.

I leaned around Brooke, cutting off her conversation, and looked right at Chris.

‘Sorry. Do you know where the restrooms are?’ I asked, pushing down my nerves.

‘Uh, in the lobby, I think.’

‘Thanks.’ I gave him a big, toothy smile.

I didn’t want to leave Brooke alone with him, but I couldn’t see how else I could get us out of this stupid situation.

The lobby was busier now with people waiting for a table in the bar, which made me slightly more confident to go to the restroom.

If Chris tried anything with Brooke, there would be plenty of witnesses.

Just in case he was watching, I went and washed my hands twice, then headed back to the front desk.

A man stepped away as I approached, giving me the perfect opportunity to slip in.

‘How can I help?’ The receptionist’s nametag said SUSAN and she had a friendly smile on her face.

‘Hi,’ I said. ‘I’m so sorry, but my cousin has lost her room key and it was still in the wallet with the room number written on it. We’re worried someone might pick it up and …’

Lying was easier, I found, when I had a clear objective. Susan nodded, already tapping her keyboard.

‘What’s the room number?’

‘Two-ten. It should be in the name Summer.’

‘I’ve got you,’ she said. ‘Give me a second. I’m going to cancel both keys and give you new ones.’

‘Thank you so much.’

After a few minutes, Brooke glanced out into the lobby and noticed me waiting. She frowned, and I shook my head at her, trying to silently tell her it was fine.

‘Here you go.’ The receptionist slid two new key cards across the counter to me. ‘The old ones have been wiped.’

‘Great, thank you.’

I put both cards into my wallet and tucked it securely into my purse. Chris wasn’t going to get his hands on these.

‘Everything okay?’ Brooke asked as I took my seat at the bar again.

‘Yeah, fine. I just wanted to check what time breakfast is available tomorrow. Since we’re leaving early and all.’

She nodded but still looked confused. We had confirmed that at check-in.

‘So, Chris, what do you do?’ I asked, and Brooke looked even more confused that I was suddenly taking an interest in him.

‘I’m in shipping,’ he said.

‘Chris spends a lot of time in South America,’ Brooke added.

I was delighted to hear they’d been getting to know each other so well.

‘What do you ship?’ I asked, ignoring Brooke’s glare that was clearly telling me I was being rude.

‘Nothing exciting, I’m afraid. Mostly avocados and other fruit and vegetables.

Produce that has a fairly short shelf life.

There are lots of logistics involved to make sure we’ve got the right people at either end so they’re delivered on time.

’ He laughed, too high and definitely fake. ‘I’m boring you.’

‘Not at all,’ I said with a sweet smile.

For the next hour I got progressively more snarky, cutting off Chris mid-sentence and earning increasingly furious death glares from Brooke.

I didn’t want to sit with him anymore, but I couldn’t tip him off that I’d seen him taking our room key.

And, unlike me, Brooke didn’t seem to want to get up to use the restroom.

I had no way of telling her what he’d done, other than pissing her off to the point where she wanted to leave.

‘We should get going,’ Brooke said eventually, and I felt my shoulders slump with relief.

‘Right,’ I said.

‘It was really nice to meet you,’ Brooke enthused at Chris, and I forced myself to smile at him.

‘You too. Have a safe trip, Summer. Jenna.’

I nodded at him and wrapped my hand around Brooke’s arm to drag her out of the bar.

‘You were so rude tonight,’ she hissed. ‘What is wrong with you?’

‘I’ll tell you in a minute.’

‘You have to make an effort, Mouse. You can’t just go through life not talking to people. He was a nice guy, you could have –’

‘I’ll tell you,’ I said tightly, ‘in a minute.’

‘Fine,’ she huffed.

She sulked all the way back to our room. I stopped outside the door and folded my arms.

‘Go on,’ I said, gesturing to the door.

Brooke put her hands in her pockets. ‘Shit. I must have dropped the key.’

‘No, you didn’t.’ I tried to fight back my frustration and instead pulled one of the new keys out of my wallet and let us into the room, then I put the chain across the door and flipped the deadbolt, too. ‘Chris pickpocketed you.’

‘What? No, I must have dropped it earlier,’ she said, patting her pockets.

‘I saw him, Brooke!’ I said, my voice rising. ‘I literally watched him take the key from your pocket. He was good at it, too, so he’s probably done it before. I knew he looked like trouble.’

She gaped at me. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Yes!’

‘Oh my God! And you didn’t tell me?’

My fingers curled and I clenched my jaw. ‘I’m telling you now.’

‘You could’ve told me earlier! You let me talk to that creep for hours !’

‘So you would’ve believed me if I’d told you downstairs?’ I said, challenging her.

Brooke opened her mouth to argue, then shut it again.

‘And what do you think he would’ve done if I’d confronted him?’

‘I don’t know,’ she murmured.

‘Me neither. I tried to get you out of there as soon as I could, but you wanted to keep talking .’

‘Ugh. I feel dirty.’ Brooke sat down heavily on the end of the bed.

‘He’s probably still going to try to get in here,’ I said, leaning against the dresser.

‘You think?’ she looked up at me with worried eyes.

‘Yeah. He doesn’t know I got the key wiped.’

‘Should we switch rooms?’ Brooke asked.

‘I don’t know.’ I paced over to the window and glanced at the dark parking lot. ‘Probably not. That would be even more obvious now.’

‘Okay.’ Brooke stared at me for a long moment, jiggling her knee with what I assumed was nervous energy. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

‘You trust people too easily,’ I replied, and went to wash the eyeliner off my face before bed.

I got the gun out of Brooke’s duffel bag and left it on the table next to the locked door, strangely comforted that we had it.

Not that I was sure I could ever use it.

I’d never fired a gun, and just the thought of pointing it at a person was terrifying.

Tonight, though, it would be another layer of defense.

I tried to move the dresser in front of the door, too, but it seemed to be screwed into the wall, so that plan went out the window. I checked the door bolts once, twice, then a third time, and still decided to stay awake.

Brooke took the bed closest to the bathroom. That was fine by me. I wanted to be closer to the door in case something happened. Brooke had protected me from the last creepy guy. Now it was my turn.

I decided to read one of my vintage romance novels as Brooke slept, mostly to keep myself distracted. Reading about other people’s success in their love lives was a much-needed antidote to my own romantic failures.

It was after midnight when I heard footsteps on the walkway outside and sat up a little straighter. I glanced over at Brooke, who was sleeping deeply. The footsteps paused outside our door, and suddenly my heart was thundering in my throat.

I was wearing pajamas.

Of all the things to suddenly be anxious about, wearing pajamas shouldn’t have been top of the list, but it was. I felt exposed, and cold.

The door handle shifted, just a fraction.

As silently as I could, I slipped out of bed and walked on the balls of my feet over to the door, trying not to be too loud or obvious.

The person – people – outside weren’t doing the same.

‘Are you sure this is the right room?’ A woman’s voice.

‘It’s written on the fucking card.’ Chris.

There were two of them.

Shit.

I pressed my back to the door and this time felt it when they held the card against the reader. I licked my lips, scared, terrified , but determined to stay quiet.

A subtle pressure. Then again, a little harder. They tried the handle, and I felt that too. The movement rattled my bones, and with it my nerves.

‘It’s been disabled,’ the woman said. ‘For fuck’s sake, Chris.’

‘Don’t blame me! The ratty one must have done something.’

My anger flared. The ratty one was me .

I was pissed off now, rather than scared, and so I dared to lean in to the peephole.

Chris was instantly recognizable, though I hadn’t seen the woman before. I was good at noticing people, and I definitely hadn’t seen her around. She was tall, statuesque, like Brooke, but blonde, with a very slim, pointy nose.

‘All right. Let’s go.’

For some reason, I was more scared of her than I was of Chris. He was creepy and probably wanted to rob and/or rape us. Those were known things. I had no idea what she wanted, and that was infinitely scarier.

I kept watching as they went back to the parking lot and crossed over to a black van that I could barely make out in the shadows. Chris threw something into the back, then they both disappeared.

They could still come back here tonight.

So I’d stay awake.

Just in case.

It wasn’t like I’d be able to sleep anyway, with all the adrenaline rushing through my veins.