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“I thought you wanted to let me in on the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”
He shoved a card key in his back pocket and placed his hand on her lower back. “I think we’re safe right now, but nothing is one hundred percent.”
“Okay, I can accept that.”
They took the elevator down to the basement floor, one level below the lobby, and Max walked her to the door of the spa. He touched his lips to hers. “Enjoy yourself.”
Ava checked in, relaxed in the waiting room with a cup of tea and some aromatherapy and then followed her masseuse to one of the back rooms. When the masseuse left her, she undressed and slipped beneath the sheet on the table.
She closed her eyes, the hushed atmosphere of the spa already working its magic and the gentle New Age music soothing her nerves. What if she told the masseuse that she’d just killed a man in a bus station bathroom? The Hippocratic oath she’d taken never seemed further out of reach.
The masseuse returned to the room, and they exchanged very few words as she started working on her back.
The masseuse cooed. “You have a lot of tension in your shoulders and neck. I’m going to work on those knots.”
Lady, you have no idea.
Ava responded with an unintelligible murmur as the masseuse dug her thumbs into her flesh.
Ninety minutes later, kneaded, pinched and pounded, Ava rose from the table a new woman. She paid with Tempest’s cash and left a generous tip.
Back in the real world, she hoped Max had gotten rid of that laptop without getting detained by hotel security. She hoped someone had discovered Snyder in the bathroom and had already ruled his death a heart attack. And she hoped her brother had come through with a usable lab and the chemicals she’d need to mix up a batch of T-101 antidote. Was that asking too much?
She could feel the tension creeping back into her shoulders already. Maybe the spa could give her a daily appointment—she’d need it.
Stepping from the spa, she spotted Max lounging against the wall down the hallway past the gym. The stress that had been clawing its way back into her muscles melted away.
Maybe she just needed a daily appointment with Max.
When she approached, he pushed off the wall. “I don’t even have to ask how it was. You look...relaxed.”
“I’ll be more relaxed once you tell me how things went on your end.” Despite herself, she scooped in a breath and held it.
“Arnoff’s laptop is safely on its way to Florida.”
“Where it will get plenty of fun in the sun.” She touched his arm. “Do you think it’ll work?”
“It bought us a little time, although we don’t know who’s here checking up on your brother.”
“Maybe that was a simple break-in. God knows, Cody attracts his share of trouble without even trying.”
“I doubt it, but at least we know the person here working for Tempest is not one of the T-101 agents. They’re all being tracked with that program. I might have some trouble handling another T-101 robot, but not anyone else.”
“That massage made me incredibly hungry. Did you eat lunch yet?”
They continued past the gym and he pointed at the weight machines behind the glass. “I could use some lunch, and then I’m going to work out. If I can’t take advantage of the spa here, I’m going to at least use the gym.”
“Sandwiches in the lobby restaurant?”
He took her arm and propelled her down the hallway. “If you don’t think you’ll float away.”
She covered a yawn with her hand. “Do I look like I’m floating?”
“Yep, and I’m glad to see it. I told you I’d take care of the computer.”
She pressed the elevator button. “What about Snyder?”
“It just so happens that I overheard a couple of the bellhops talking about a man found in the men’s room at the bus stop—an apparent heart attack victim.”
She held up her crossed fingers. “Let’s hope the coroner concurs with the initial finding.”
“Believe me, Snyder’s next of kin will make sure that they relate a history of heart disease. Tempest protects and conceals the deaths of its agents. You haven’t heard anything about what happened in New Mexico, have you?”
