Chapter 6 Damon #2
It takes us almost thirty minutes to get to the downtown core, and another thirty minutes of circling around before we find the right area. Then it’s a matter of following the roads as they lead us to the massive country-style castle that is our hotel.
Xave drives right up to the front entrance and puts the car in park.
Two men, a bellhop and a valet, immediately hurry to the car.
“Do you have any bags?” the bellhop asks.
“In the trunk.” Xave hands the keys to the valet as he slings the strap of the backpack we stole over his shoulder. “Can you keep her accessible? I’ve got to head back out soon.”
“Of course,” the valet says, eyeing the car as he waits for his tip.
“I had a bit of a mishap and lost my wallet,” Xave tells them regretfully. “But I’ll catch you when I come back down and make up for the inconvenience.”
The valet and the bellhop seem content with his explanation, and we stand off to the side as they carefully pile the canvas bags with my equipment onto a cart. Once it’s all loaded up, the valet drives off, and we fall into step behind the bellhop as he wheels my bags into the lobby.
“We can take it from here,” Xave says as we get in line at the main desk. “No need for you to wait while we get replacement keys.”
The bellhop looks between us, doubt flickering in his gaze, then nods and heads back toward the entrance doors.
“It might be less sus if we go up to the desk together,” he says in a low voice as the guest speaking to the clerk leaves and the person in front of us takes their place. “Blame it on a wild night and all that instead of us both coming up with different stories.”
“Yeah, that’s a good call,” I whisper back.
There’s a loud crash behind us, and I jump a mile as I whirl around, my heart pounding like I just sprinted up a dozen flights of stairs.
I breathe out a sigh of relief when I see that the commotion was just someone knocking over a hard-shelled suitcase, but I get lightheaded as my panic recedes and have to close my eyes so I don’t start swaying on my feet while I wait for it to pass.
My vision clears, and the world stops fading in and out after a few seconds, so I turn back toward the desk, glancing at Xave to see if he saw what happened.
“You good?” Xave asks quietly.
“Yeah, just dehydrated,” I say quickly, my neck heating with embarrassment.
He nods and looks back at the clerk.
I toy with my lip piercing, trying not to think too hard about my reaction to him seeing me get dizzy.
I’ve spent my entire life not fitting in, and I’m used to being labeled as a freak or a weirdo or whatever else people want to call me for being different. And instead of hurting my feelings or making me self-conscious, I wear those labels like a badge of honor.
I am weird and different, and I’ve never given a fuck what anyone thinks of me. Why do I care that Xave saw me have a perfectly normal reaction to being dehydrated? It’s not like needing water makes me weak or pathetic.
Before I can spiral too deep down that train of thought, the person in front of the clerk leaves, and it’s our turn.
Xave pushes the cart up to the desk and gives the clerk a radiant smile.
“Welcome to Chateau de Ville,” the clerk says, smiling back at him, and I don’t miss the quick side-eye she gives me.
I have no idea what kind of shape I’m in or how I look after our ordeal, but with his messy hair and slightly disheveled clothes, Xave just looks like he had a really good night and rolled right out of bed to get here.
“Hi,” he says warmly. “How are you this lovely evening?”
The clerk’s smile shifts from a customer service smile to a real one as her posture relaxes. “I’m doing well, how are you?”
“Doing great. Or at least we would be if we weren’t idiots,” he says, looking embarrassed as he huffs out a laugh. “And we’re hoping that you’ll be able to help us.”
“Of course, what’s the problem?”
“So, my buddy and I are both staying here, and we went to a little soiree last night.” He grins wryly. “But being the idiots that we are, we both lost our phones, so we don’t have our confirmation codes to get into our rooms.”
“Were your keys lost too?” she asks.
Xave glances at me, and I shake my head.
“Thankfully, we had the foresight to leave them in our rooms to keep them safe,” he says. “But that also means that we can’t get to them because they’re in our rooms.” He gives her an “aw shucks” type of expression, like he’s just an innocent kid who made a dumb mistake.
“Do you have your IDs on you?” She looks between us.
“They’re in our rooms with our keys,” he says regretfully.
“What rooms are you in?” she asks. “I can check the IDs we have on file, and if they match, I can code new keys for you. You’ll just have to bring your original keys back down after you get to your rooms so I can make sure everything checks out.” She gives us an apologetic look. “It’s policy.”
“Totally understand,” Xave assures her. “Is it cool if I bring down both keys to save my buddy the trip?”
“That’s fine.” She gives Xave a flirty smile. “And it would probably be best if you did it before my shift ends in an hour. That way you don’t have to explain everything again.”
“It’ll be long before that,” he assures her, a slight drawl creeping into his voice.
Her cheeks flush pink, and her eyes flick from her screen to Xave appreciatively every few seconds as she types something into her keyboard.
A strange sour feeling fills my stomach, chasing away the ache of hunger.
What the fuck? Is that jealousy? Why the hell am I jealous that Xave is picking up the hotel clerk?
It’s not like I’m into her. She’s cute, and I’d definitely notice her at a club, but the last thing I’m thinking about right now is getting my dick wet.
I just want to get something to drink, cram as much food into my face as I can, take a long, hot shower, and crash. What Xave does or doesn’t do is none of my business.
“Room numbers?” she asks.
“Twenty-one-nineteen,” Xave says, then glances at me.
“Seventeen-twenty-two,” I say automatically.
The clerk’s fingers fly over the keys, her long, shiny red nails glinting in the low light as she presumably checks our guest files.
“Well, you definitely look like your IDs.” She shoots Xave another flirty smile. “I’ll just code a couple of keys and get you on your way.”
“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver,” Xave says with an equally flirty smile.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes and lean against the desk as she runs a couple of key cards through the coding machine.
“Here you go, Mr. Greely,” she says, handing Xave one of the cards.
“Please, call me Jon.” He takes it from her with a heated smile.
She stares at him for a few beats, her cheeks flushing an even darker shade of pink, then she shakes her head and shifts her attention to me. “And for you, Mr. Cosgrove.”
I don’t get a flirty smile, but that’s fine. I’m not in the mood for any of this crap right now.
“Thanks.” I take the card, and she immediately swings her gaze back to Xave.
“Remember, I’m off in an hour,” she says to him, her voice laced with innuendo.
“An hour,” he repeats and spins the card over his fingers in a smooth motion like it’s a coin or a pen. “I’ll see you as soon as I can make myself presentable.”
She giggles, then seems to remember that she’s at work and there are people behind us waiting as she schools her features into a neutral smile. “Thank you for choosing Chateau de Ville, and enjoy your stay.”
“That was easier than I thought it would be,” Xave says as I push the cart toward the elevators.
“Yeah,” I say absently, still trying to shake off the last of whatever the fuck was going on with me at the desk just now. “That could have been a way bigger complication.”
“Thank goodness for small favors,” he agrees.
Luckily there isn’t anyone waiting at the elevators, and one of them opens as soon as Xave pushes the button.
We get on the elevator, and I stare at the mirrored wall as I take in my appearance.
Unlike Xave, I look like I’ve been through the wringer.
My curls are a tangled mess, and I look pale and drawn.
My clothes are mostly fine, other than the patches of dirt dotting them, and of course the most prominent of them are the ones on my knees.
I’m lucky security didn’t kick my ass out onto the street the moment I walked through the doors, and I never would have been able to sweet-talk my way into getting a replacement key so easily if Xave wasn’t here to charm everyone and take the attention off me.
“I’ll take care of the key issue and get in touch with my contact to have the car and the cabin dealt with,” he says in a low voice as soon as the elevator doors close, leaving us alone in the small space. “Then we can hopefully forget this ever happened.”
“Sounds good,” I tell him. “I seriously just want this all to be over.”
“It is,” he assures me. “Well, it will be.”
“What do you mean?”
“At least one of those fuckers is still out there,” he says, his voice and expression going dark. “They’ll get what’s coming to them. Then it’ll be over.”
The elevator slows down and pings to tell us it’s coming up on my floor, and a few seconds later, we come to a stop and the doors open.
He follows me down the hall to my room, and I slip the new key card into the reader. The little light on it changes from red to green, and there’s a soft click as the door unlocks.
“Come in,” I tell him when he doesn’t immediately follow me inside.
The room is exactly how I left it, and more of the tension I’ve been carrying around dissipates as I push the cart over to the spare bed and start unloading the bags.
Xave helps me, and I notice how carefully he handles them. Hopefully our captors were that gentle with my equipment, but something tells me they probably weren’t.
Once the cart is unloaded, Xave pulls it away from the bed. “I’ll put it in the hall on my way out.”
“I’ll grab my key,” I tell him, already heading over to the small safe on the desk.