Given everything I’ve said and done, I have no right to throw stones. I’ve hurt people too. But I’ve never thought of myself as someone who’d be associated with trafficking women.
Just fucking one forcibly in the tunnels beneath the school, apparently, and participating in a frat-wide?—
No. I’m not thinking about any of that right now. It’s distracting, and I don’t have the time to waste on a moral dilemma right now.
Blaze strolls right up to the front desk, charming smile pasted on. The clerk sitting there is a middle-aged woman with deep red hair and a nice blouse. The guard sitting by the chair by the only door is well-muscled and on alert as soon as we walk in.
“Hey!” Blaze greets. “Pam, right? I’m Blaze. Tim should have told you I’d be coming in?”
Pam sits up straighter. “Oh. Yes, Sir.” She gives Blaze a once over. When she looks at me, I can see the moment she dismisses me as ‘the help.’ “I’ve been told you want a tour of the hotel?”
Blaze nods. “Yeah. I haven’t quite decided what I want. I mean, I have an idea, but I need to be sure.”
I hear Pandora giggling in my ear. “Anidea? You sound like such a douche, Blaze.”
He does, but it’s necessary.
“Stop distracting him,” River murmurs.
Pam gets up and nods to the guard. He swipes a keycard on the door and opens it. Pam and Blaze step through easily.
He sets his hand out to stop me. “Tim didn’t mention you.”
I want to retort that no one mentioned him either, but instead, I regard him with as much blandness as I can muster. “Where Mr. Bouchard goes, I go,” I say.
I’m aware that I’m not really Blaze’s bodyguard — and that there’s little enough I can do with an armed guard present — but I don’t want to be left behind. I know Blaze can handle himself in situations like this and that I’ll be at a disadvantage, but I don’t want to risk letting him go anywhere by himself.
“He’s with me,” Blaze says in an impatient tone. “Alvarado’s here to look out for me. I’m sure you’re good at your job, but I don’t know you. I don’ttrustyou. I trust Alvarado.”
“Ooh, hetrustsyou, Asch,” Pandora says.
If the situation wasn’t so precarious, I’d be tempted to snark back at her, but I keep my mouth closed.
Besides, the words send a strange sort of fluttering through my stomach because I want him to trust me. I don’t want to think that he might only be saying these things because they’re expected.
I need to believe that he actually does need me around.
Pam lets out a loud huff. “Just let him in, Vince. Blaze is Mr. Bouchard’s son. He can have the extra security.”
The guard grumbles, but he finally relents and clears the way for me.
I don’t bother to thank him. He’s the help too, after all. I fall into step right behind Blaze, scanning our surroundings.
They’re nicer than I’d expected, though I’m not sure I’d thought they’d be rundown and decrepit. This is a Bouchard operation, after all, and George Bouchard operates in style.
It doesn’t make the place any less dangerous, though. Pretty wallpaper and pleasant scents in the air don’t erase the fact that they’re holding women against their will here.
While Blaze makes small talk with Pam, I make note of everything around us. Which path we take, where the cameras are, what the security is.
I also notice that Pam never once offers to let us “browse” on our own. Blaze hints a few times that she doesn’t need to guide us, but she’s very insistent.
She must be part of the security, too.
Pam stops in front of a room at the end of the hall. “All right. You said you wanted a skinny blonde.” She taps her keycard against the lock.
I hear the click as it opens.
Blaze moves to go in, but I grab his arm to stop him.
