Chapter Ethan
ETHAN
He awoke on the floor of his room.
For a moment, mercy: Ethan had no idea why his head hurt, why he was on the carpet, why Hunter was heaving the mattress off their bed.
For a moment, Ethan wasn’t afraid of Hunter.
No: on the contrary, he was afraid for Hunter.
Hunter’s chest was heaving, the air thick and heavy on its way out of his lungs.
The man was sweaty, pale, clearly exhausted.
Hunter had overexerted himself somehow, and his illness was punishing him for it.
Ethan realized, all over again, just how sick Hunter was.
And then Ethan remembered what happened in the office.
He went scrambling backward across the floor, away from Hunter, tried to stand.
“Ethan!”
Hunter dropped the mattress and leapt across the room, wrapping a hand around Ethan’s ankle. Ethan kicked him with the other foot. Hunter grabbed it too.
“Let go of me!” Ethan shouted. “Get away!”
“Ethan, please, listen—”
Ethan fought to pull himself free. “Who are you?”
“Listen. Please.” Hunter didn’t let go. “There isn’t much time. That man, the man in the suit—he’s dangerous. He’s the most dangerous man you will ever meet.”
That made Ethan pause. “How do you know that?”
“Because I’ve met him before.” Hunter swallowed. “I’d tell you the full story if we had time, I would, but we don’t. Between Jack Allen and those things in the desert, we’re dead if you don’t do exactly what I say.”
Ethan’s head was still swimming from the blow Hunter had struck in the office. There was only one thing he knew for sure. Something he’d long suspected. Maybe even known and refused to see.
Now, finally, he could admit it.
“You’re a monster.”
“I was a monster, Ethan. I was the worst man a man could be.” Hunter still didn’t let go of Ethan’s ankles, but his grip was weakening. Those same two tears Ethan had seen earlier stood, again, in the corners of Hunter’s eyes. “I was a monster. And then I met you.”
“You met me six weeks ago. People don’t change in six weeks.”
Hunter smiled. Ethan realized it might have been only the second time he’d ever seen him truly smile. “You’d be surprised how much a guy can change, knowing a guy like you.”
A sudden bout of coughing made Hunter choke. He released Ethan’s ankles, thumped his chest, covered his mouth. He gasped for air.
Freed, Ethan pushed himself a few feet away, only to freeze when the room’s lights flickered. A wave of SHRIEKS washed over the hotel, sounding closer than ever. Hunter caught his breath. He wiped his palm on the carpet. Ethan saw blood on the man’s lips.
“Please, Ethan,” Hunter said. “Help me get the bed over the window. We can barricade the doors with the nightstands and the dresser.”
When Ethan still didn’t move, Hunter pointed to something on the floor nearby. Carefully, Ethan followed his finger and saw their guns resting not a foot away.
“You can have whichever one you want. Take both, I don’t care. We just need to get busy. If he’s smart, Jack Allen’s going to take out the generator, and then where will we be?”
Ethan hesitated a moment longer. He looked from the guns to the tears in Hunter’s eyes to the mattress half slewed to the floor. He wondered if he could ever trust Hunter. He wondered if he could ever trust himself after being such a fool.
This man is going to get you into the sort of trouble you cain’t never get out of.
Hunter never looked away from Ethan’s face, even as he spat a wad of blood and phlegm toward the trash can. “Maybe I am a monster, Ethan. But have you considered that could be exactly what you need right now?”
Ethan dragged himself to his feet. He didn’t like their odds, he didn’t like Hunter, but his mother hadn’t raised a quitter. “Where do we start?”