Page 42 of Clever Deceit

The pictures showed a glossy motel with a swimming pool and even hot tubs in some of the rooms. We just needed somewhere cheap for the night, and this seemed to go way above and beyond that.

“It would be,” he remarked. “But it’s super cheap because it’s so late, they just want to fill the rooms for the night. How about it? It’s only about twenty miles from here.”

“Sounds perfect,” I agreed, sinking back into the seat and breathing a sigh of relief. I was happy to let him call the shots for tonight. My brain was so fried, I wasn’t sure I would have been any good anyway.

He booked us a room and drove the car the short distance to the motel, which was just as nice as it looked in the pictures. Opening the car door for Silver, he grinned at me.

“I think this’ll do, right?”

“I think so,” I agreed. Maybe I could make this my birthday trip or something—I had hardly had any time to plan what I was actually going to do for it, anyway, so this could be a fun chance to blow off some steam and relax.

Inside, the dour receptionist handed us our key, and we headed to our room at the far end of the large building, Silver trotting behind us happily. She loved exploring new places, and it made me smile to see her having such a good time.

“You go and get settled in,” Warren told me. “I’ll get us some snacks from the vending machine.”

“Sure thing,” I replied, and I pulled off my coat and dumped it on the chair next to a large TV. Grabbing the remote, I flicked it on and started going through the channels to find something fun for us to watch.

I could relax out here. Finally—it felt like a weight off my shoulders to be so far from home, so far from Tony, so far from all the stress he seemed intent on dumping on me at every turn. This place was perfect, somewhere utterly anonymous and totally cut off from the rest of the world. There weren’t any cars in the lot outside, and I guessed we must have been one of the few guests here tonight.

I landed on a silly horror movie, and Silver jumped up on to the bed, padded around for a moment, and then settled down at my feet just as Warren arrived back.

“They had a pretty good selection,” he told me, dumping an armful of candy, chips, and soda at my feet. I laughed.

“What is this, a slumber party?”

“Hey, just because we didn’t expect it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it, right?” he pointed out, sitting down on the bed next to me and glancing over at the screen. “Oh, I love this movie. I haven’t seen it since I was a kid.”

He reached over to scratch Silver’s head, and the dog let out a small, satisfied snort before she closed her eyes again and went to sleep. Warren pulled the pillows up behind us, giving me something to lean against while we watched the movie.

I nestled into his arm, leaning my head against his shoulder. The credits began to roll, and Warren reached for one of the sodas and popped it open, handing it to me.

“Here,” he murmured. “I know you might not be too hungry, but have something.”

“Thanks,” I replied, and I took a sip. He seemed to know how I was feeling better than I did sometimes, so attentive to my needs and to what was going on inside my head.

I still wished I could have brought my mother home from the hospital, but maybe this was just the night off I needed.

CHAPTER 20

WARREN

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AS THE END CREDITS began to roll up the screen, Lily stretched and slipped out from under my arm.

“Wow, that was terrible,” she remarked.

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad,” I protested.

“Oh, come on!” she shot back, getting to her feet and lifting her arms over her head. Her shirt rode up slightly, showing a strip of her stomach.

“It was totally dreadful,” she continued. “The writing was so awful—I mean, have you ever heard a person talk like that in real life before?”

“Well, no,” I conceded. “But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t still good.”

She shook her head at me in amusement, and sat down on the bed beside Silver, who had passed out when we’d arrived.

“She’s out for the count,” she remarked. “We should probably let her sleep for now.”