Page 18 of Sackett (Demented Souls #17)

S elena buckled her seatbelt and looked around again. Wondering how these men knew what was going on and how they’d found her so quickly. How they’d rescued her so easily, or it seemed that way at least.

Voices around her told her they were talking but she didn’t have what it took to pay attention and figure it out. A voice in the back of her mind told her she was in shock, and that it would be okay. But right now, she wasn’t sure she believed it.

It was all she could do to focus on the now. What was happening at this moment and in the next. She knew she should shake this off and figure out what would happen next, but her mind felt like there was something thick and sticky stuck in the gears she imagined kept her brain moving.

She wanted nothing more than to get back to her hotel room and to take a shower, though the thought of how the hot water would sting her feet made her wish she could skip it.

But she knew if she tried, she’d never be able to sleep, and she needed to get some sleep before the meeting with her client tomorrow. No that was later today.

When the vehicle started moving again, Selena looked up, hoping she didn’t look as pathetic and panicked as she felt. She was still in the SUV, though she knew that part. It was once more just her, Sackett and the man who had introduced himself as Maverick.

She found herself watching what little she could see of his face in the rearview mirror.

How had she not known this was Dana’s boyfriend?

She knew her friend, well, friend was a bit more than what they were, friendly acquaintances?

Yeah, that was more accurate. Had she even known Dana had a boyfriend?

She tilted her head, still watching him, as she thought about it.

Yeah, she knew. She thought she might have seen him before, in the shop, but there was a difference in seeing someone in the daytime in a cupcake shop at home and hundreds of miles away, at night and staging her rescue.

Her rescue. Had she really had to be rescued like some weak damsel in distress? Just the idea made her want to hang her head. She should have been able to save herself like the kick ass strong woman she tried to be. She had to be.

“Selena?” Sackett’s voice registered, but his tone let her know he may have said her name more than once before he’d caught her attention.

“Yes?” she said, shaking her head as she tried to focus.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. Just thinking.” She didn’t want to tell him all the directions her mind had gone. Or that it felt like she was struggling to put words together, at least words she would say out loud.

“I don’t know if you heard, but Maverick said we couldn’t get a room at your hotel tonight. Apparently, there’s some conference in town and they’re booked.”

She blinked at him, not sure why that mattered. They could just stay somewhere else, right?

He seemed to realize she wasn’t connecting the dots.

“Selena, we can’t be sure these nut bunnies don’t know where you’re staying and won’t try to take you again. You can’t stay alone. We can either find another hotel and get us all a room there or we can stay in your room with you. How many beds do you have?”

“One,” she said with a frown. “But it’s a suite. There’s a sofa in the other room. A chair too, I think.” Did they really think the people she’d just gotten away from, that they’d rescued her from, would come after her again?

She tried to remember what Mr. Smarmy had said. Something about people not getting away from them and that they’d find a way to get Donna back.

A shiver went through her as she thought about it. Yeah, she’d feel better if she wasn’t alone, at least for tonight. She’d worry about tomorrow after a little sleep.

“We’ll figure it out,” Sackett said, drawing her attention back to him.

She needed to get out of her head. She watched him, not seeing much more than his outline reflected in the moonlight but it was enough to distract her.

She kept watching him as they made it into town.

There were more lights, and she caught flashes of his face.

Sometimes she caught him looking toward her, but mostly he seemed to be looking ahead of them or even behind them.

What was he watching for? Was he making sure her absence hadn’t been discovered or that they weren’t being followed?

Where were the guys on motorcycles?

“Where is everyone?” she asked. “There’s no way you will all fit in my room, even if people sleep on the floor.”

“They left,” Maverick said.

She looked at him in the mirror again.

“Left? But it’s late, where will they sleep?”

“They’ll go north, find a place to get some sleep on the other side of the state line. Probably around Cheyenne.”

Selena nodded, wondering how far that was and if they’d have any trouble getting there. She couldn’t help but wonder again why they would drop everything and come help her, especially since she was a stranger to them all.

Was their bond to Donna that strong? She didn’t think even Donna knew them that well, but there had to be some reason. A reason she didn’t yet understand and wasn’t sure she ever would.

“What size shoes do you wear?” Maverick asked, as he turned off the road into the parking lot of an all-night drug store.

She told him. He pulled into a parking space and got out. She frowned and looked at Sackett. “What’s that all about?”

“He’s finding something for you to wear, at least into the hotel. I assume you’ve got more shoes there?” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, if you need to, we can get you more shoes tomorrow, and you can do your own shopping.”

“Oh.” Why hadn’t she thought about not having shoes, about having to walk into the hotel barefooted?

In what seemed like no time, Maverick was back, a plastic bag dangling off one hand. He got back into the car and passed the bag backwards.

“It’s not much but they’ll get you into the hotel.” He started the car, and she opened the bag as he backed out of space and got back on the road.

In the bag she found a pair of black canvas shoes, like she’d worn as a teenager, and a package of thick fuzzy socks.

They weren’t socks she normally would have worn with shoes, or at least shoes where they would be seen, but they were thick and would be soft against her sore feet.

She couldn’t help but smile at how thoughtful he’d been as she pulled everything out, setting the shoes on the seat beside her.

She fumbled for a moment with the socks, trying to figure out how to get them apart.

A click caught her attention. She looked up to find Sackett cutting the connector holding the shoes together with a knife he’d obviously pulled from one of his many pockets. When he’d finished, he offered her the knife, handle first.

“Careful, it’s sharp.”

She looked at the knife, then down at where her hands still trembled. Without a word she just handed him the socks.

He cut the little plastic bits then handed them back.

Selena shook her head and wondered what was wrong with her, but picked up one foot and gently pulled a sock on, then the thin shoes, glad it was too dark to see how bad the damage was and that she had the extra layer of the fluffy socks to walk on.

“Where’s your room key?” Sackett said, once she’d gotten both shoes on, drawing her attention again as he put her briefcase into the seat beside her.

She dug into the pocket where she’d put it this morning, then replaced it after confirming it was there and hadn’t been taken or moved while they were working on her feet.

The SUV slowed and turned. She looked up and realized they’d reached the hotel.

“I’m on the fourth floor.”

“I know,” Sackett said.

She frowned at him wondering how he could know that.

“You gave us the room number earlier.”

Of course, how had she forgotten that? No, she pushed the self-recrimination out of her head. She had a lot going on tonight and she was still not quite as with it as she’d prefer.

“Ready?” Maverick asked, looking in the mirror, Selena wasn’t sure if he was asking her or Sackett, but did it matter? She was more than ready to go up to her room where she could try to figure out what to do next.