31. Sydney
CHAPTER 31
SYDNEY
“Where are we supposed to sit?” West asks as he stares at the car. It’s a justifiable question when there are four of us.
West has his satchel, and I have the bag of clothes we bought. We’ve moved from the small hotel lobby to stand around the car. Staring. Lucky is holding the keys, so I assume that means he’s driving.
“There are four buckles, no need to worry.” Lucky points to the backseat. It looks like it was made for two four-year-old children.
Crew pins his seat forward and says magnanimously, “I’ll sit in the back with Sydney.”
I grin and climb in the back, the shopping bag still hanging over my arm.
West plants a hand on Crew’s shoulder, stopping him from climbing in after me.
“I’ll sit with Sydney.” He climbs in after me and looks physically pained at scrunching into the backseat.
“Suit yourself,” Crew says as he folds the seat back. “You just passed up an extra inch of legroom.”
“So, how did you two end up out here?” West asks as we pull out of the parking lot.
“It’s rather simple: I owed my sister a favor, and she called to collect.”
West stares at the back of Crew’s head. “And that’s it? How did you come by him?” He gestures to Lucky.
“I have a thing for strays,” Crew replies. He looks over his shoulder and gives me a wink.
Lucky swerves the car, hitting a pothole and jolting Crew forward to where he hits his head on the windshield.
“Fine. What I meant to say is that Lucky and I met at Bodie and Gracen’s wedding. We had some business go sideways and needed to leave town anyway, so we told Gracen we’d gladly pick you up.”
Somehow, I doubt glad was a word they would have used, but before I can comment on that, Lucky starts talking.
“Listen, if you’re going to tell the story, you have to tell it right,” Lucky says. He adjusts his sunglasses, and I catch a glimpse of his annoyed eyes as he glares over at Crew.
Crew smiles. “Well, it was like this: we had time to kill after the ceremony.”
“Figuratively,” Lucky adds when West grunts. “We were supposed to meet Bodie and Gracen for dinner—sort of like a wedding reception. Although, I’ll have you know that they were a no-show. They decided to take off on their honeymoon without even saying goodbye to us.” His tone is teasing, but I almost wonder if he really was offended.
“What happened next was really just a big misunderstanding,” Lucky explains. Crew nods in agreement.
“One big misunderstanding.” Their nods are now synchronized.
“One of the casino owners assumed we were there to take all of his money. And that just wasn’t true,” Crew says with an authenticity that should have someone believing him. I glance at West. He looks unimpressed, but he also looks unsurprised.
“Who are these people?” I whisper to West. He gives me one of his looks, and I can tell that he means he’ll tell me later.
I freeze, realizing I’m becoming rather proficient in nonverbal communication with West. When did we reach this point?
“Anyway,” Crew continues. “The point is that we had to leave Vegas rather suddenly, and as we were leaving, Gracen called me and said that you could use a pick-me-up.” I snicker at the dad joke. It’s totally something my dad would say.
“Please tell me you don’t have someone tailing you too,” West says.
Lucky laughs. “Please. We know how to lose a tail. All of our problems are back in Las Vegas. Like they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”
“But can you resist going back? Because once you get a taste of Vegas…once is never enough,” I say.
“Ah, you’ve been, I take it?” Crew asks.
“Spent most of my life there,” I reply with a shrug.
“Wait, you’re from Las Vegas?” Lucky asks me.
“Yes! I grew up there.”
“What’s your family’s name?”
“Monroe.”
“Lots of Monroes around these days.”
“Some could even say there’s too many,” I reply with a laugh. He’s prying. And I don’t know what he’s hoping to learn with his prying. Monroe is a very common name, and Las Vegas is a big city.
“I was in a casino the other day. It was owned by a Monroe.”
Apparently, the city is not that big. That would be my parents’ casino. I catch his eye in the rearview mirror and grin.
He pulls his sunglasses off to meet my gaze. “No, really? You’re Sure Bret’s kid?”
I glance at West, who looks adorably confused, but I realize that we’re now getting into dangerous territory, and I don’t need him asking too many questions. Or any at all. No more questions.
“Er, yes.”
“Bad rotten luck what happened at the end of his career. Someone really needs to stick it to the Ricci family for what they did to him.” Lucky continues to ramble on, but I can’t be bothered enough to pay attention.
The blood is rushing in my ears as I turn to look at West. He didn’t miss a single word, and he’s not dumb.
He leans closer and whispers threateningly in my ear. “You and I are going to talk when we get out of this car.”
I turn my head to whisper back. “Stop making it sound like I’m in trouble.”
“You are in trouble,” his low voice rumbles in my ear.
Lucky settled on a nice hotel in San Francisco. He’d wanted to go to The Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, but Crew talked him out of it—maybe since Crew is the wallet behind this operation. He’s got a stack of cash on him that he’s not fessing up to where he got it, but he’ll make it possible to stay somewhere without using a credit card.
When we pulled up to the nicest hotel Lucky could talk Crew into, he promptly grabbed the cash and marched into the lobby to make arrangements. We all followed behind just in time to hear the clerk tell him, “There’s only one suite available for the next four nights. There was a cancellation an hour ago. You’re very lucky. There’s a music and art festival the next seven days.”
“This is San Francisco. Surely there are enough hotels to hold all the people for an art and music festival. We could find enough rooms somewhere else,” Crew says plainly.
The clerk grins. “Not a hotel you’d want to stay at. Bed bugs can be a real problem somewhere else.”
Lucky shakes his head. “I, for one, am not a fan of bed bugs. We’ll take the suite. Unless you’d like to go to The Ritz?” He looks at Crew hopefully.
Crew shakes his head.
West is painfully quiet behind me. I can feel him standing there still, but I’m a little too scared to turn and look.
I’m scared I’ll see something worse than his cute, grumpy face.
What if there’s disappointment there?
Crew takes care of paying for the room. At least it’ll be a large suite. Hopefully, we’ll have enough space for the four of us. I could definitely handle some space from West. I’m getting dangerously attached to that grumper.
“Okay, so there’s just one little problem,” Lucky says as he hands each of us a hotel key. I knew I shouldn’t have let him book us in.
Somehow, I know I will end up on the wrong side of it. I know this is not going to work out in my favor.
There’s only one suite left,” Lucky says as he adjusts the collar of his shirt. I look at him.
“Do you mean, like, a multi-room suite?”
“Let’s sure hope so.” Lucky shakes his head and starts for the bank of elevators. I feel West’s hand on my lower back and do my best not to lean into it more.
Crew takes one look at the elevator and shakes his head.
By the time we reach our floor, West is practically breathing down my neck. I guess the time for secrets is past.
Crew is waiting for us at the hotel room, and I rush forward with the key card in my hand. Anything to avoid a showdown for a few more minutes.
I unlock the door with my key card and swing it open. The door bangs against the wall. And I stare in at a not-large room with two queen beds, separated only by a small nightstand.
The nightstand holds a phone and an alarm clock, while nightstands on the outside edges of the queen beds each have lamps on them. There’s a small table close to the window with two chairs at it. The bathroom is immediately to the right.
When you walk into the bathroom, the sink is separate from the shower and toilet. A small coffee pot sits on the counter, with those individual packets of coffee that I know are beyond stale. We turn back to Lucky. “How on earth are we going to fit?” West asks.
“I thought this was a couple of rooms together,” I chime in.
Lucky turns sideways and steps past me. “Well, that’s easy. There are two queen beds and four of us, so we’ll just double up.”
Crew chooses that moment to open his big mouth. “I call dibs on sharing with Sydney.”
“Actually, I was thinking maybe she’d prefer to share with me,” Lucky says.
I throw back my head and laugh. “You guys are not thinking clearly. I kick. And I’m pretty sure I talk in my sleep.”
Crew waves a hand through the air. “A little kicking never bothered me.” He leans toward me with a grin, but West looks like he’d rather slam his fist into Crew’s face.
I turn to look at him, but before I can say anything he says, “Given that I don’t trust either of these guys, you’re sleeping with me.”
“What about who I want to sleep with?” I shoot back.
He narrows his eyes at me. He’s mad. I should probably pick Crew and avoid him.
“Who’s it going to be?” All three of them stare at me.
I chew on my bottom lip. “Do you think all three of you could fit in that bed over there?” We all turn to look—and they simultaneously say no.
“Well, I figured it was worth a try,” I say with a laugh. “In that case, it makes the most sense for me to sleep with West. He’s the biggest. I am the smallest. Maybe we would fit better that way.”
“Good, now that that’s settled, you and I need to talk,” West says firmly as he tosses his satchel on the bed.