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Chapter 8
“I need my own room,” Alex said, clenching her teeth when she heard the tiny quaver in her voice. “I’m not sharing one with you.”
“Let’s put everything in the room that’s already open, and I’ll see what I can do.” She felt him glance at her. “I chose the room that had the oldest lock. I figured it would be the easiest to pick. I can try another one, but it’s smarter to stay in the same room. Minimize our exposure. Two people to listen for intruders. Fight them off if necessary.”
There was no inflection in his voice. No accusation that she was being foolish. Although she was pretty sure he was thinking if I wanted to, I could have killed you so many times already.
He was right. It would be smarter to stay in the same room. And since he hadn’t killed her when she stopped to help him, he probably wouldn’t kill her in this motel room. Especially since Jerry needed her body discovered right away to collect his insurance money. “Fine,” she conceded. “But I’m telling you right now that I’m a very light sleeper.”
He looked as if he wanted to roll his eyes. Instead, he simply said, “Good to know. That means we’ll both hear any intruders. Any cars in front of the motel.”
By the time they’d arranged their food and water on the tiny desk in the room, the heater had raised the temperature to chilly instead of freezing. Warm enough to take off hats and gloves. Alex set her running shoes in front of the heater, and Gideon did the same with his shoes. Then she plopped onto the bed, wondering what they’d do in this room until the roads had been cleared.
Her mind went in a completely forbidden direction. Yeah, Gideon Wolf was an attractive guy. And it had been a long time since she’d been with a man. But there had to be a lot more than physical attraction before she’d jump into bed with a guy.
For starters, she had to trust him. And she had to know who he was. Not just the story he told her about who he was.
As if he’d read her thoughts, Gideon said, “You want to watch television?”
She glanced at him, frowning. “Can we do that? Even though no one could see the flicker, since the TV faces the room, the sound would give us away.”
“Which is why I’ll put the captions on and turn off the sound.”
“Isn’t that awkward?” she asked, frowning. “I’ve never watched television with the captions on.”
“You’ll get used to them pretty quickly.”
She swiveled to watch him. “Do you use the captions frequently? Are you hearing impaired?” She hoped he was. Hearing loss would be a definite handicap for a hitman.”
“Nope. I can hear a bird flutter its wings from fifty feet away.”
Okay. So much for that theory. He was still in the running for hitman.
“But my mom uses hearing aids,” he continued. “The captions are always on when I visit her. I got used to them scrolling beneath the picture.”
He had a mother he visited. Would a hitman visit his parents? Somehow, she didn’t think so.
“Yeah, go ahead and turn it on,” she finally said. “If I don’t like what you’re watching, I’ll read.”
* * *
Gideon turned on the television to the Weather Channel. Their coverage of the storm was ongoing, with dire warnings about the severity of the weather and the closure of I-94. He hoped that would stop Alex, in case she was thinking about running.
He was pretty sure she was. He’d seen her eyeing the door, as if gauging whether she could make it outside before he stopped her. She’d been adamant about staying in a different room, too. And if she’d insisted, he’d have tried to unlock another one.
But Alex was a smart woman. She had to know that, if someone else came after her, her odds of surviving were better if they stayed together. It was one thing to point a gun at a man’s chest. It was another thing altogether to pull the trigger.
Unless she was still convinced he was going to kill her.
But he hoped she was smart enough to realize he’d been telling the truth about his intentions. If he had been planning on killing her, he’d had the perfect opportunity when she stopped to rescue him from the ditch. No witnesses. A convenient hiding place. And he would have been long gone before the snow melted and her body was found.
Alex propped up the hard pillows against the headboard of the bed she’d selected and watched the reports of the storm and its effects. Satisfied that she was distracted, Gideon pulled out his phone and scrolled for a service station near whatever town they were in.
The nearest place with a tow truck was less than a mile from the motel. At the truck stop? He hit the ‘call’ button and waited while it connected. “Boughton Truck Stop,” a weary voice said.
“My car ended up in a ditch on the road leading from I-94 into town. Any chance of getting a tow to pull it out of the ditch?” Gideon asked.
“Give me a description and a license plate number,” the man answered. “We’ll get to it as soon as we can. But you’re gonna need to pay me upfront. And tell me where to take it.”
