Page 93 of Spring L.A.W.
Rick stood to the side of a door and pushed it open. With his big-ass gun rounding the corner of the doorjamb before he did, he’d be in a good position to stop anyone from trying to get to a weapon, if there was anyone there to stop. “Nope. Nuthin’ in there.” As he shoved open the last door, his shoulders slumped.
Uh oh. Wrong suite?
He returned to the living room and spoke to Joell. “They’re not here.”
“What? I sensed them! Their energy was here. Maybe they were moved to another room.”
Or maybe, as she suspected before, black magic is involved.
One of the guys lowered his hands. “Maybe you should get out.” He glared at Rick.
Rick shrugged and strolled over to Joell. “Might as well, hon.”
Hon? When did that start?
He had to take her arm and pull her out of the room.
“We’re not finished with you,” she yelled. Then Crowe caught her casting a quick containment spell on the room. Chances are, if they tried to leave, they’d find the door impossibly stuck.
“I didn’t havethe wrong guy!” Joell looked around the hotel coffee shop, then lowered her voice. “I eavesdropped long enough to hear him ask for a prescription for a Gabriel Moore. We were the only two people near the counter. There was no mistake. That guy knows something.”
“What did your psychic sixth sense tell you about the guy, and what did you get from the other one in the room upstairs?”
“They were both hiding something, but there’s more to it. The models were there at some point. There was a lot offearful energy lingering—more than those two were capable of generating. I’ll bet they know where they are now. So, why did you drag me out?”
A waitress strolled over to the couple. “What’ll it be?”
“Could we have two coffees, and have you seen any of these guys?” Joell pulled out the pages from the models’ websites.
“Wow! If I had, I’d remember it, but unfortunately, no.”
“Well, thanks for taking a look. Oh, and could I have a washcloth?” she asked.
Oh, thank Goddess. Crowe might finally get cleaned up. His fur was almost dry enough to itch, but he couldn’t handle the humiliation another second. What a terrible day this had been for Crowe.
The waitress looked like she was going to protest, then she saw his vomit-encrusted head popping out of the bag. She rolled her eyes and said, “Sure. Comin’ right up.”
Joell leaned toward Rick. “So, what do we do now that you’ve blown our best lead? Go around knocking on hotel room doors?”
He glared at her but didn’t rise to the bait. “Probably call Stan. See if they’ve had any ransom demands. That’s the only reason I can think of for their being moved.”
“Well, I’d like to poke around here a little more.”
“You can’t. You blew your cover when you rushed into their room, quickie-pants.”
Her back stiffened. “I can still cast a disguise over myself.”
Rick pushed a couple of buttons on his cell phone. He must have put Stan on speed dial. While he waited, he said, “And the gun? I thought you locked up your weapons.”
“Just the bullets for this one.”
Rick closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s me. Any word?”
He looked at Joell and shook his head. Then his eyebrows rose. “You’re kidding. I’m in the middle of an investigation, andyou want me to come back for some kind of meet and greet with the public?”
He listened a little longer, chuckled and shook his head, but it wasn’t out of amusement. It was disbelief. “And leave her to her own devices? I don’t think so. Another reason I was hired was to keep these women safe from themselves. Without me to watch her back, she’d be dead by now.”
“I would not!”
