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“Their family must really hate them to make them stay here,” I said as he reached for a key.
“I know, right?” Jack asked, not offended in the least. He knew he ran a shithole. “Come on. I’ll walk you to your room,” he said.
Just for me.
I knew enough about how Jack operated his business to know he was pretty dedicated to his whole ‘not leaving the office’ gig.
“Can I make a suggestion?” he asked as he unlocked my room, then moved inside to glance around for me.
“Sure,” I agreed, looking at the horrific shag carpet and the drapes and bedding straight out of the seventies. The TV, at least, was newer, flatscreen, but small and bolted to the dresser.
“Don’t go wandering around the halls at night,” he said. “The vending machine is out of commission half the time anyway. Looks like you picked up some snacks. So just… stay in. Seems like you’ve had it rough enough already.”
“Yeah, I don’t plan on going anywhere. What are you doing?” I asked, voice hitching a little when he reached down to remove his belt.
“Come on, Nyx,” he said, looking and sounding hurt. “You don’t have to worry about that with me,” he said. “See this?” he went on, pointing to the hardware on the back of the door, the big triangle-shaped metal thing that made the door automatically close.
“Yeah.”
“When I leave, wrap this belt around that and pull it tight. No one could get in unless they break the door. And I’m relatively sure that might get my attention,” he said with a boyish smile.
“Jack, thank you. Really. I appreciate it.”
“And don’t worry about the windows,” he said, ignoring my gratitude. “They don’t open.”
“Not at all a fire hazard,” I said, shaking my head.
“Well, I’m pretty sure if you hauled that chair through it, that it will break. Get some rest, okay?” he asked, going toward the door and moving out into the hall. “I’m right over there,” he added, pointing toward the office.
He was gone before I could thank him again.
Alone, I inspected the room to make sure he was right about the bugs. And, as it turned out, the bedding almost reeked of bleach. So I took some of the nighttime migraine medicine, fell into the bed, and fell asleep trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do about the whole situation.
I had come to no conclusions by the time I finally passed out.
CHAPTER NINE
Nyx
I woke up in pain and fucking… furious.
Which, in my humble opinion, was far superior to confused and scared.
Anger, that I could work with.
It was motivating.
It got me off my ass, out of the lumpy motel bed, and into the bathroom.
Where I saw how much the bruises had settled in throughout the night.
They’d become dark blue and purple smatterings over my temple, my jaw, and under my eye.
The stitches looked red and angry with crusted black blood around them.
It was… ugly.
And that, well, it only pissed me off more.
