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I shrugged. “He was nice to everyone from the camp. I think he’s a nice guy.”
Ethan gave me a look like maybe he wanted to say something I wouldn’t want to hear.
“How much is there?” I asked.
“Six hundred.” He glanced at me.
“What did you do today?” I whispered.
“Nothing legal,” he muttered.
With my throat feeling tight, I shrugged. Being really, really good hadn’t helped my life any. And when I was in trouble it wasn’t the church that had helped me. Heck, they’d screwed me over. So, maybe I needed to stop panicking about crime. After all, I’d seen a murder and hadn’t called the cops. I let out a long breath. “Maybe that’s what illegal jobs pay?”
He stared at the money before he dragged his wallet out, and I smiled the way I always did when I saw our initials burned into the leather. He tucked the money away.
“It’s too much,” he said quietly.
“Well, if he’s being nice to you, maybe you should let him,” I said, poking his side.
He frowned at me. “Why?”
Glancing toward the clubhouse, I wondered which window on the second floor was ours, then thought maybe none of them were, but I wasn’t familiar enough with the layout to really know. “There’s only a mattress in that room. We need to buy blankets and pillows and everything.” I bit my lip. “I know we said we were going to go out, but should we spend the money?”
Ethan sighed and stared up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set. Purple and pink stained white clouds toward the west. “Might as well. We’ll at least have dinner and buy crap for the room, right? See a movie.” He shrugged.
My gut churned thinking about the cost of going to a theater right now. “We can’t do the movie.”
He ducked his head. “Fine,” he said with a smirk. “We can get naked and make our own entertainment in bed.”
My stomach heated and I nodded. “I love that plan.”
He laughed and snagged my hand, dragging me toward the sidecar and his bike.
Dinner was quick because we just stopped at a Wendy’s, and we didn’t waste much time at Walmart. I stuffed the bags with the bedding down in the sidecar so they wouldn’t go anywhere. We were sitting in the parking lot outside of the store when I tapped Ethan’s leg.
“So, Josh and I were talking today. There’s a nice path for walks behind one of the historic hotels around here. The Courtesan? Apparently people from the club are allowed to go there when they want, and he said there’s enough light reflecting off the lake that it’s really, um....” My face burned. I didn’t want to say the word romantic for some reason. “Nice.” The heat in my face spread down my neck to my chest.
Ethan stared at me, then a small smile quirked the corner of his lips. “All right. Let’s do it.” He waggled his eyebrows, and I felt like I was going to fall over but nodded.
It only took a minute to find directions to the Courtesan Hotel, and when we got there, the parking lot was half full. We put the bike near the back, out of the way of the cars. Ethan helped me out of the sidecar, something he absolutely didn’t need to do. His attention left me smiling. When we went alongside the hotel looking for the path, a big man with red hair, who’d been standing near the entrance, came over to us.
“What are you up to?” he asked, sounding slightly annoyed. “Are you here for the art auction?” He glanced toward the front as an elderly couple in really nice clothes got out of a BMW, and a valet I hadn’t noticed earlier got in and drove the car off to park it. I gasped and turned my back in that direction because it was Mr. and Mrs. Hollace, and they went to my parents’ church.
“Taking a walk,” Ethan said, and he didn’t sound nice. I squeezed his hand.
“We were told that the Kings are allowed to use the walking path behind the hotel,” I said, surprising myself by speaking up. I clutched Ethan’s fingers tight. With him here, I felt like I could say anything on my mind.
The man cocked his head and glanced at Ethan. “Which one of you is a King?”
“I’m one of their prospects,” Ethan said.
The man frowned. “If you see anything from the back windows, you didn’t see it, okay?” His dire expression melted into a smirk, and I frowned at Ethan, who shrugged.
“Uh, okay,” I said.
“Keep going to the right. You’ll see the path. Have fun.” The guy chuckled as he turned to go back toward the front door.
“What was that all about?” I asked as we walked across the lawn.
