AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m sorry, what is the problem?” the clerk asked the person on the other end of the line. He rolled his eyes and picked up a pair of wicked-looking scissors the size of hedge clippers. “All right, I’ll do that.”
The clerk hung up the phone and sighed.
“Mr. Reynolds, I have bad news for you. The card company has requested that I destroy your card.” The clerk picked up the card nearest to his hand and snipped it with a decisive snick! He ruthlessly sliced through the card, raining shards of plastic on the desk like red metallic snowflakes.
“Hey!” the drunk shouted. “What’d you do that for?”
I tried to look away, eager just to finish my transaction and get out of the office. Because as amusing as it was to see Drunky Drunkerson’s credit card snipped, I just wanted to get some sleep.
“Oh, wait,” the drunk mumbled. “Never mind.”
I glanced over and saw an unfamiliar Visa card on the counter. The bits of plastic on the counter, however, were a familiar color.
“Can I have my card back now?” the drunk asked, just as I demanded, “Where’s my card?”
“Oh, shit,” the clerk said, looking stricken.
“You destroyed my card!” I cried.
“I-I must have switched them.”
“No!” I yelled as the drunk with the useless, but intact, card ambled away. “No, no, no, no!”
“Now, look, I’m sorry, but don’t overreact.”
“Overreact?” I yelled, grabbing the stapler from the ledge of his desk. “This isn’t overreacting! Stapling your collar to the desk, that would be overreacting.”
“Put down my stapler. I don’t want to have to call the cops.”
“Call them. It will be justifiable homicide!” I snapped.
“OK, let’s just calm down. What has you so upset?”
I took a deep, shuddering breath through my nose and focused on not murdering someone who was probably a very nice person when he wasn’t destroying my only financial lifeline. “I’m upset because you just murdered my only credit card, my only form of legal tender. It will take me at least a week to get a replacement card. I am on the road for work, stuck five hundred miles from home, without a credit card. And I still need a place to sleep for the night.”
“Well, I can give you one room,” he said. “It’s the least I can do.”
“One?” I growled.
He winced, stepping back away from the desk. “Look, honey, I’ve got a boss, just like you. I can hide one room on the night audit, but two? That’s pushing it.”
I glared at him, but no amount of stink-eye would persuade him. “Fine, fine, just let me have whatever you’ve got.”
I snatched the flimsy plastic key card from his hand and swept out of the office. The clerk called after me to remember that I had to be out of the room by eleven, as if I was going to linger in the morning.
I gritted my teeth, clutching the key card until the edges bit into my palm. What the hell was I going to do? I had the fleet card for gas and maybe enough cash to keep me in food until we pulled into the Half-Moon Hollow town limits. We had enough blood to keep Collin fed for three nights. But that was it—that was the full extent of our resources, which scared the hell out of me. We wouldn’t be able to withstand any more “incidents” without help from Iris.
And if I called Iris for help, she’d probably hop on a plane to complete the drive with Collin herself. I’d be fired. I’d be lucky if I got a ride home. Actually, I’d be lucky if she didn’t tie me to the hood of the Batmobile like a deer for the drive home.
I needed more time. I hadn’t thought about Jason or the wedding or my future in Half-Moon Hollow all damn day. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. My brain had needed the time off from the constant whir of Jason-related worries over the past few months. But I was no closer to making a decision than when I’d departed the Hollow. I wasn’t ready to go back home yet. I needed to complete this job on time, not just because I needed the time away but also to prove to myself that I wasn’t a complete idiot.
“Is everything all right?” Collin asked as I approached the Batmobile. “You look rather distressed.”
“Sure,” I said, smiling thinly as I popped open the rear hatch. “It’s just … the hotel only had one room available.”
“Really?” he asked, scanning the parking lot, which was mostly empty.
“A lot of the rooms are being fumigated,” I told him, knowing that mentioning potential infestations was a calculated risk, given his penchant for cleanliness.
