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“Better than you should have expected,” I corrected. “I won’t come between a father and his daughter unless he’s hurting her.”
She nodded and looked back down at her food. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to be sorry. Why don’t you lie down and rest when you’re done eating? I’m going to bully someone into giving me another set of heavy drapes to go over the windows in your room. These buildings are built to withstand hurricanes, but I don’t want to take a chance something breaks the window and hurts you.”
Dawn nodded but didn’t look back up at me. I shook my head, needing to comfort her, but it wasn’t my place. Stepping out into the hall, I took out my cell and called El Diablo. Not surprisingly, the man answered on the first wring.
“Where’s my daughter?” Yeah. That was the voice of the world’s deadliest assassin.
“We’re at a hotel. Ripper has the details because he secured the rooms.”
“Rooms?”
“Well, yeah. It’s an adjoining suite. Not that I plan on shutting the door. But she’ll have her privacy. You wanted me in the same room with her?”
“Fuck no! Just didn’t want her alone during the storm in case of problems.”
“Understood. We’re safe for now. She’s dry, clean, and fed. I’m going to get extra protection for the windows now, then I’ll be with her for the duration. I’ll bring her home safe.”
“Good.” The other man took a deep breath. “That’s good. I owe you a debt, Ice. I won’t forget.”
“Consider this a gesture of good faith. I can’t promise we’ll be more friendly than when Cain was president, but I can promise we’ll still be allies.”
El Diablo hesitated for a moment before responding, “Good.” The man must be more rattled than he wanted to let on if he kept repeating the same word. “We’ll talk more when this is over.”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied before hanging up the phone.
I walked down the hallway until I reached the front desk, where I found an older gentleman sitting behind it, watching the local news, which was full of weather updates. It wasn’t too late, but I imagined most everyone had either left or gone somewhere else to weather out the storm.
“I need another set of heavy drapes.”
The man looked up at me, shaking his head. “We’ve taken all the extras we had to cover windows on the main floor.”
“You got anyone staying on the upper floors?”
“Moved ‘em all down to the ballroom. You should go there too.”
“Give me a key to one of the upper rooms no one is in. I’ll get the Goddamned curtains myself.”
He blinked several times before shaking his head. “I can’t do that, sir. I’m sorry. You should go to the ballroom with everyone else to wait out the storm.”
With a growl, I turned and stomped away. I pulled out my phone and called Thorn.
“You guys OK?”
“Yeah. Tell Ripper I need an empty upper room opened. I need to get heavy drapes to protect us in case the windows break. Give us enough time to leave the room.”
“Hang on.”
There was some mumbling in the background, then Thorn called to Ripper.
“Phone. It’s Ice. He needs your expertise.”
“Hey, man. What do you need?”
“An empty room. Need to steal the drapes.”
“Kind of an awkward and unusual theft, but I can dig it. You on the ground floor?”
“Yeah. Give me something above us. They’ve evacuated guests from the upper floors.”
There were a couple beats of silence before Ripper answered me. “Second floor. Room two-two-seven. Should be close to the stairs. I’ve set an electronic key on the hotel’s app. It’ll be on your account.”
“Thanks. What’s the latest weather?” I talked to Ripper on the move. I didn’t want to leave Dawn any longer than necessary. The storm wasn’t bad yet, but it was picking up.
“The outer rain bands are overland now. Storm surge is flooding lowlands next to the coast and expected to get worse as the storm progresses. It’s expected to make landfall as a category three. Bad, but not as bad as it could be. You should be safe where you are.”
As we talked, I took the stairs two at a time before jogging down the hall to the room Ripper had indicated. And thought, This is pretty Goddamned bad.
“Good. Let me know if they upgrade the storm or if we need to move.”
“You just take care of El Diablo’s daughter. Get through this storm, then take her home. That girl is his pride and joy. He and Jezebel have two other kids, but Dawn and that crazy fucker have a special relationship. Probably because she’s his only daughter.”
“Great,” I muttered. “Sharing a room with the daughter of the world’s deadliest assassin. Just fuckin’ great.”
“Yeah. Sucks to be you, Ice.”
“Right. Sucks to be me.”
Chapter Five
Dawn
I hated storms. Always did. Though, this was different. There was no thunder and lightning. Just howling wind and beating rain. Lots and lots of rain. I was bone-tired. Besides, having been driving for the better part of thirteen hours, the adrenaline had left me feeling nauseated and exhausted.
