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He growls. “It was more than being fucking nice. Forget it. I don’t want to talk about it. You sure we’ve got everything we’ll need?”
“Yeah. If not, one of us can take the truck and pick shit up. We’ll have to get food anyway.”
“Fine.”
We bribed one of the staff members at the hospital for the address on file for Avery and found out she’s been staying at one of the budget hotels on the outskirts of town. That alone pisses me off. The place is a dive and rife with trouble—mainly prostitution and the occasional drug bust. I want to shake the hell out of Avery and ask her what the fuck she was thinking, putting herself in danger like that. Does the woman not have an ounce of sense in her brain?
“Are you sure she’s getting out today?”
“Yeah. My guy said she told the doctor she had someone coming to stay with her to help her out. They just won’t be getting in until this evening, so she’s getting a cab.”
“Who the fuck is she expecting?”
“My guess? No one. She just doesn’t want to stay in the hospital any longer than necessary.”
He grunts but doesn’t say anything else until we pull up at the motel. “This place have cameras?”
“Only in reception. And as luck would have it, Avery’s room is at the end, so we can park and be in and out, and nobody will be any the wiser.”
And that’s what we do. Each room has two parking spaces out front, but almost all of them are empty. They might fill up later as guys arrive for their evening of pay-per-fucking, but we’ll be long gone by then.
We climb out and lock the car, not trusting any fucker here. As I watch Hawk jimmy the flimsy lock on Avery’s door, I’m not sure we have any room to judge right now.
The door clicks open with sickening ease, allowing me and Hawk to walk right on in. I look around the room and grimace. The seventies called and wants their decor back.
Floral wallpaper, with tangerine orange being the dominant color, adorns the walls. The carpet is a brown shag that I pray has always been brown. The bed is covered with a faded gray bedspread and a single pillow that doesn’t look any thicker than the blanket itself. The attached bathroom is avocado green, but at least it seems clean despite how dated it is. Spotting the cleaning products on the floor near the sink, I can only guess that it’s this clean thanks to Avery and not housekeeping.
“This place looks like the set of a bad porno.” Hawk grimaces as he looks around.
“It probably has been.”
“Maybe that’s why she’s back. Maybe she needs money.”
“And you think she’s doing porn?” I scoff, and he shoves me out of his way with a huff.
“Porn aside, maybe you’re right. Maybe it is about money. But somehow, I doubt it’s as simple as that. Check the fridge. See what’s in there.”
As Hawk does that, I check out the few items Avery has scattered around. A hairbrush on the bedside table, a toothbrush, and a bottle of mouthwash on the bathroom counter with a couple of hair ties. A pair of flip-flops next to the bathroom door.
I spot the strap of a bag sticking out from under the bed and reach down to yank it out. It’s a large gym bag filled with clothes and books and other girly shit. I search through it for weapons or anything else of interest but come up empty-handed.
“A bottle of water, half a bag of Twizzlers, and a yogurt that’s outdated as of yesterday,” Hawk calls out before looking at me.
I take the little zip-lock bag from my pocket and slip out two pills before handing them to him. “You sure this won’t mess with what the doctor prescribed her?”
“No, I double-checked. These are the same ones she takes when she flies. They knock her out in minutes.” Of course, he knows that already. Avery has always been terrified of planes—she hates being trapped inside, unable to choose when to get off—so she always took something to knock her out for the entire flight. I’m sure she never considered this when she showed us what medication she took.
I watch as he slips the pills into the water bottle and swirls it around until they dissolve. “And if she doesn’t drink it?”
“Then we move on to plan B.”
It’s an unfortunate truth that in our line of work, it’s too damn easy to get our hands on pretty much anything. The chloroform in my bag is proof of that. But I’d rather Avery didn’t wake up in a panic to find a cloth pressed over her nose and mouth. I might be an asshole, but I don’t want to be the reason to see terror in her eyes.
My cell chimes, so I pull it out and read the text that’s just come through. “She just left.”
“So, now what?”
“Now, we wait. Hide around the back until I give the signal.”
