Chapter 9 Rogue Wave #2
“I don’t want my aunt and uncle knowing I spent the night in Metro. Me and London and Nel aren’t really speaking right now, and Paris lives too far out.” I paused, the weight of the night pressing into my chest. “I’m just ready to shower and lay down.”
“I’ll take you to the Battle House,” he said.
“I can’t afford that, Dex.”
“I’ll pay for it.”
“But—”
“Nique, can you not fight me on this?” He rubbed a hand over his face, his movements sluggish. “I took some sleeping pills before you called. I’m tired as fuck and the Battle House is the only place I feel comfortable leaving you tonight.”
I opened my mouth to respond and that’s when I saw it. The light ahead had been red for a solid three seconds and Dex wasn’t even tapping the brake.
“Dex! The light! Stop!”
He snapped to and his foot hit the brake hard. The tires screamed against the asphalt and the car lurched violently, throwing me into the seatbelt before skidding to a halt in the middle of the intersection. By the grace of God, the street was empty.
The engine idled. My heart was hammering.
“I just got out of jail and now you trying to kill me?” I yelled.
He didn’t say anything right away. He steered slowly through the rest of the intersection and pulled over to the curb, dropping his forehead against the steering wheel. His shoulders rose and fell heavy as he tried to shake off the haze.
“My fault,” he muttered. “I’m trippin. I thought I had more time before they kicked in.”
“Move,” I said, already unbuckling. “Let me drive.”
He didn’t argue. We swapped sides in the humid night air, the traffic light washing us both in red. By the time I climbed into the driver’s seat and adjusted the mirrors he had already gone slack against the headrest, eyes closed before he was even buckled.
I pulled off and made the short drive to the Battle House. The hotel was all old money elegance; the kind of place that made you feel underdressed just walking past it. Tonight I felt like a stain on the marble.
“Dex. We’re here. Wake up.”
He groaned, fumbled through his wallet, and pressed a heavy metal card into my hand. “Go get the room. As long as you need.”
He was already gone again before his hand hit the armrest.
I headed inside alone. The lobby was all gold and high ceilings, every footstep echoing off the marble.
I caught my reflection in one of the massive mirrors and winced.
Wrinkled clothes, wrecked hair, dried blood crusted on my neck.
I looked exactly like what I had been doing for the last several hours.
The clerk at the front desk was a middle aged woman with a tight bun and a blazer that probably cost more than my car note. She glanced up and her eyes did a quick sweep of my face, one eyebrow twitching just enough to tell me everything I needed to know about what she was thinking.
“Checking in?”
“Three nights,” I said, keeping my voice even.
I figured seventy-two hours was enough time to figure out my next move.
Long enough to sleep, think straight, and decide what I was going to do about Kel, about the wedding, about all of it.
Three nights sounded logical when I said it to myself.
Truth was I just needed something that felt like a plan even when I didn’t have one.
She tapped through her screen and quoted me the rate.
Two hundred and eighty-nine a night. The price wounded my pride.
There was something humbling about standing in a place you couldn’t afford on your own and handing over somebody else’s card to do it.
The total came to just under a thousand once she added the fees and deposits.
I slid Dex’s card across the counter. She picked it up and looked at the name. Then she looked at me.
“Is Mr. Nash with you ma’am?”
“He’s in the car. He’s not feeling well.”
She slid the card back with two fingers, a polite but firm smile fixed on her face. “I’m sorry ma’am, I can’t process this without the cardholder present with a matching ID. Policy.”
“He gave it to me. He’s right outside. Can’t you just run it? He’s too tired to come in right now.”
“Policy is policy ma’am,” she said, her tone getting just a little crisper. “I cannot check you in without the cardholder standing right here.”
I grabbed the card and the bag and went back outside and damn near had to shake Dex out of his skin.
“Dex. You have to come in. They won’t run your card without you standing there.”
He groaned. “Nique just tell ’em—”
“I did. The uppity bitch got sassy with me about their policy. Come on, I’m tired too and my head is killing me.”
He hauled himself out of the truck moving like a man walking through deep water. I guided him through the lobby doors and back to the desk. He didn’t even look at the clerk. He just leaned his elbow on the marble counter to keep himself upright and dropped his ID next to the card.
“She’s with me,” he said, his voice thick with exhaustion.
The clerk processed everything without another word and slid two key cards across the counter.
There was no way I was letting him drive back to Point Clear like this. He’d never make it across the Causeway.
“Give me your keys,” I said.
He dropped the fob into my palm without question. I stepped outside, handed them to the valet under the Nash reservation, and went back in to collect him. I got his arm over my shoulder and walked him to the elevator.
“You’re spending the night,” I said as the gold doors slid closed. “You are too far gone to be on that road and I’m not having your death on my conscience too. I already carry enough of that.”
He didn’t argue. He just leaned into me, his heat radiating through my clothes, and followed me down the hall like he had nowhere else to be and no energy left to pretend otherwise.
When the room door swung open the first thing I saw was the king bed, white linens crisp and untouched under the soft lamps. My pulse spiked.
“Maybe I should go back down and ask if they have two queens,” I said mostly to myself.
Dex didn’t hear me. He kicked off his shoes, groaned, and dropped face first onto the mattress. His breathing went deep and steady within seconds.
My head was throbbing too hard to think about moving two hundred pounds of sleeping man. I went into the bathroom and scrubbed the night off my skin, wincing at the hotel soap. I was used to my own products but I thanked God for the complimentary toothbrush.
I slid into the thick robe, climbed into the far edge of the bed, and lay there staring at the ceiling. My mind was loud with Stella and Nel and Kel and the ghost of Prez cycling through on a loop. I wished I had whatever Dex took just to shut it all down.
A few minutes later he shifted in his sleep and threw a heavy warm arm over my waist, pulling me back against his chest without knowing he was doing it.
The noise stopped. Just like that.
The smell of him and the slow steady rhythm of his heartbeat did what nothing else had been able to do all night. My eyes got heavy and my body finally gave up the fight it had been losing since this whole disaster of a day started.