AllFreeNovel
Share Us
With the ding of the elevator timed to perfection, he winks at the elderly gent before strolling out of the car with his head held high.
“Your unmanageable ego didn’t deflate his in the slightest.”
“I told you it wouldn’t,” Knox agrees while gesturing for me to exit first. “That’s why I was the prime pick to look after him while you were away.” His words are like a knife to the chest, but he seems oblivious. He’s too busy barking out orders like he can’t wait to get rid of me. “Your suite is paid for in full. Order anything you want off the room service menu, and this will help with any restlessness you might stumble into later tonight.”
Outside a room, he grabs my hand, flips it over, then slaps several hundred-dollar bills into my palm, along with a string of condoms.
After shoving the condoms into my jeans pocket, which is too tight to fit more than one strip of three, I attempt to tell him I can’t take his money, but he shuts me up with a promise. “This is just the beginning, Laken.” His eyes drop to the bills as River and I enter my room. “There will be plenty more where that came from.”
I’m stopped from replying for a second time by his ringing cell phone.
“When?” Knox asks a second after squashing his phone to his ear, not bothering to issue a greeting. “For fuck’s sake. I knew leaving her with them was a bad idea.”
“Everything okay?” I ask when he scrubs at the back of his neck, a telltale sign he’s stressed.
He jerks up his chin before shifting his focus to River, who’s checking out the minibar in the suite. “Will you be all right here for a couple of hours?”
“Of course he will be. I’m his fucking brother,” I answer on River’s behalf.
This isn’t the first time I’ve taken offense to Knox stepping into the role I was born to fulfill.
I doubt it will be the last.
Mistaking the annoyance in my tone as something more, Knox stuffs another three Benjamin Franklins into my pocket housing the condoms before saying, “He was up at ass-crack o’clock this morning, so I doubt he’ll make it past ten.” An amused twinkle darts through his eyes. “But if you can’t hold out that long, the concierge announced the suites on this floor are always available forprofessionalhouse calls.”
With a roll of my eyes, I barge him out of my suite while striving not to relish in his laugh. I haven’t seen a woman’s naked breast for over nine years, but it’s been just as long since I’ve spent one-on-one time with the brother I raised from infancy, so sex is the last thing on my mind.
* * *
Well, it would have been if River didn’t pike halfway through the second movie on what was meant to be an eight-hour movie marathon. It’s barely eight, and I have far too much sugar running through my veins to contemplate sleeping.
My routine has also been structured over the past nine years. Lights out at half past ten. Not an hour before or an hour later.
I couldn’t crash now even if I wanted to.
As I scrub a hand over my hair, which is more maintained than River’s, I move to the window in the corner of the ample space. My cell was a four-by-four concrete box I shared with an inmate who smelled like stale cigarettes.
This suite is bigger than the rec room at prison. Its window has no bars, so I face no issues peering at the street below.
All walks of life fill the sidewalk at the front of the hotel. They’re the size of ants and have no distinguishable features, but not even the high floor count of my stalk grants me access to the stars. They’re hindered by the skyscrapers bordering the hotel.
My heart rate increases when I spot the shadow of my building in the glass structure across from me. This building is taller than those surrounding it, meaning its rooftop would be the perfect vantage point to see the stars I haven’t stared at in over nine years.
My cell didn’t have a window. I was housed in J block, an octagon-shaped windowless structure. The last time I stargazed was the night my life was upended. It’s been far too long, but I’m not given the chance to rectify the injustice when a phone on the bedside table commences hollering.
It is loud and obnoxious, on par with the man who tosses a pillow at the noisy contraption before rolling onto his opposite hip with a grumble.
River doesn’t budge when the pillow lands on his head for a second before I squash the phone to my ear. He’s out cold again.
“Hello…”
I assume my caller is Knox since he is the only person who knows I’m here, so you can picture my shock when a deep elderly voice asks, “Mr. Howell?”
“That’s the name I was lumped with at birth.”
He waits like he has all day before announcing, “It is James from the concierge. I have a specialpackagehere for you to collect.”
“Oh…” I peer down at my skintight jeans before slinging my eyes to the empty closet at my left. Knox alluded to a new wardrobe, but I only found extra pillows in the closet. “Can someone bring it up?”
