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“Because that’s evil and Alexander isn’t.” The bullfrog croaked, forcing Gretchen to pause until he finished, then she went on. “The participant needs to welcome him into their body.”
I grunted, realizing this wasn’t going to be a quick decision. To Alexander, I said, “Since you burn out quick, if you leave now will you have enough strength to come back later and do whatever it is you need to do?” At his nod, I added, “Go then and we’ll figure this out.”
In a blink, he shifted back into the freakish white orb and only a moment later, it vanished. The dark sky once again looked a whole lot darker without the orb. Spinning on my butt to face Gretchen, I asked, “Do you have any ideas on who to ask?”
She glanced down, shined the flashlight at her jean-covered legs, and picked off a piece of lint. “I’m sure if we asked Amelia, she’d agree without hesitation.” She lifted her head, the beam of light making her look a little spooky. “But since we don’t know who is involved in this, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Amelia will tell both Wayde and Dane.”
“Ah, smart thinking, because what if one of them is the killer,” even though, I really doubted that was the case, “and realizes what we’re doing and to stop us, thinks we need to join Alexander?”
“Exactly,” she agreed with a firm nod, standing up and angling her flashlight away from my face. “We need to find someone who we won’t need any time soon and who won’t raise any warning signals to whoever is behind this.”
My choices sucked, at best.
Those choices: go to a group of people who might include the killer or to a group of people I did not want to ask. Even I wouldn’t dare allow Alexander into my body—or maybe I would, if I had another choice—but I was more than glad it wasn’t me.
With little options and the solid help Alexander could give to fix Kipp, I suspected by nightfall, I would have a willingly participant. “All right, I have an idea.” I shuddered in horror. “Damn, this going to be so, so, so bad.”
Chapter Sixteen
Gretchen paid the cab driver and I slammed the car door behind me. The Best Western wasn’t nearly as pretty as Wayde’s house, but heck, I’d give anything to be staying here rather than the latter. Not to say the hotel wasn’t charming, with its yellow paint on the top half and red brick covering the lower part of the building. It even had a fake clock tower.
Once Gretchen joined me, we hurried through the front door and entered the typical hotel lobby with dark wood concierge desk straight ahead. Two brown couches rested in the middle of the room and a pretty chandelier hung over the glass coffee table. We ignored the man with the friendly smile at the desk and entered the elevators to the right, making it quickly to the second floor.
The hallway resembled the rest of the hotel—sophisticated with its burnt orange paint and fancy patterned rug. At room, 212—the number Zach had texted me—I knocked, and a moment later, the door whisked open to Eddie.
I smiled at his cute face, spotting the usual twinkle in his blue eyes that remained most times, but noticed his brown hair was longer around the ears, meaning I wasn’t the only one who desperately needed a haircut. “Hi—” I barely got the word out before I was wrapped into a body of strong muscles. I gasped in surprise since Eddie hadn’t been the hands on type.
“You all right?” he asked.
I returned his hug, leaning my head against his chest. Maybe being surrounded by people who hadn’t been overly welcoming made the people who truly accepted me a little more special now. “Just dandy.”
His chuckle sounded gentle in my ear before he stepped back, nodding at Gretchen and opening the door wider.
The moment I stepped over the threshold, I spotted the cream-colored paint on the far wall where the window was surrounded by deep brown curtains. To my left, two double beds with white linens rested against the coffee-colored wall. The bathroom looked to be at the very back, a large wooden desk sat in next to the television stand and abstract art decorated the walls.
On the far bed, Caley, with the remote control in her hand, was watching a romantic comedy, a favorite thing of hers to do. I snickered, completely understanding why when I looked at Max. He had a deep crease in his brow over his warm chocolate eyes.
Poor men probably didn’t have a chance to refuse her. Of course, Caley would watch what she wanted to and I could only imagine the exasperated sighs filling this room as she tormented them with her chick flicks.
As Eddie shut the door behind me, Max immediately stood, striding forward to take me into another tight hug. Funny thing, I never used to be close to men, only Caley. Now every single person in this room was family to me. With my true family long deceased in the car accident that gave me my gifts, maybe I appreciated their friendships more than others would.
These men I never wanted to live without.
I settled into Max’s loving embrace. There, I felt nice and safe. “So, do tell, how’d you pull off coming here anyway?”
Max gave me another firm squeeze, indicating he didn’t want to let go, and in truth, I didn’t want him to either. He eventually released me, staring down at me with his dark hair, silvered at the temple, hanging over his forehead. “I told the higher-ups we needed to come to Louisiana to investigate a witness who lived here.”
I gasped with fake horror. “You lied?”
“Now and again, it does come to that.” He winked, not an ounce of guilt showing in his gentle eyes. “Any new developments?”
“Well…” I glanced at Gretchen, watching her settle into the seat by the front door when I heard running water in the bathroom.
Only a second later, Zach strode out, drying his hands on his jeans. His blue eyes were focused and intent. “Found the hotel okay?”
I nodded, striding forward to take a seat by Caley on the bed, and sighed as the bed bounced beneath me. I liked squishy mattresses and the one at Wayde’s was rock hard; this one felt like a huge pillow. “Can you turn that off?” Caley looked at the television with sadness, but the movie flicked off. To Max, I asked, “Okay, first, do you have anything for us?”
He returned to his seat by the desk, currently full of papers on top. “Sadly, no.” His voice deepened with frustration. “None of the names we ran came up with any hits. I called a detective here in White Castle, but he hadn’t heard of any of the people and there have been no issues at the house.”
