13. 13
Deacon wished that every creepy thing Lisa had told him about Randy didn’t keep circling through his mind as he made the trip to Bismarck, but it did. He wanted nothing more than to make sure she was safe. To hold her and reassure them both of that and that nothing would happen to her again. But he had to get there first. Then he’d have to deal with Randy.
There was the possibility that this wasn’t Randy’s doing but he didn’t think so. His gut told him it was the man who’d been stalking her, who drove her to move back to Dickenson. Just as his gut had told him something was wrong when she wasn’t answering.
As he rode, he tried to figure out how the man had managed to show up when he hadn’t been there. Was there anyway he could have timed it so perfectly if he hadn’t been watching her house? After that, he tried to remember any vehicle that had seemed out of place or that he’d seen over and over. The hard part of that line of thinking was that he’d only started spending time in the neighborhood after she’d moved in, and earlier this week. It was entirely possible that Randy had been watching since before he’d started going over there.
On top of that, Deacon either parked his bike beside her car in the driveway or on the street, it was in plain sight. It would be easy to tell when he was there, and easy to spot the routine they were quickly settling into. He mentally kicked himself over and over for not being more careful. He’d known about Randy. He should have been more watchful. More aware that the jerkoff could be an issue.
He pulled into the motel at the address Cowboy had given him and stared at the building. There were at least fifty rooms. How was he supposed to know which one the man was in? He didn’t even know Randy’s last name.
What Deacon really wanted to do was start kicking in doors until he found her, but that would only cause more trouble than it was worth. Instead, he headed for the office. Maybe he could get something out of the clerk while he waited for Cowboy to catch up.
Ten minutes later he stepped out of the office and looked around to find Cowboy had backed his bike in next to Deacon’s and was looking for him.
“How do we figure out where she is?” Cowboy asked as Deacon got close enough that he didn’t have to raise his voice. “My GPS got me the motel, but it’s not exact enough to give me the room.”
“I got it. I sweet talked the woman behind the counter, told her that I wanted to surprise my friend, but we’d only met online, and I didn’t have his last name. Luckly there’s only one Randall registered tonight.”
“She just gave you the room number?”
“I can be charming when I want to be.” He gave Cowboy a grin that he knew was more feral than friendly. “I thought we’d try to do this the easy way first and knock on the door. But I’ve been thinking about it on the drive. I think he’s been watching Lisa’s place. He’d recognize me, so you’ll have to knock. I’ll stand out of sight beside the door. When he opens the door, we rush him and push it open.”
“What if she’s not in there?”
“We know she’s here.” Deacon shot his best friend a dark look. “She is still in there, right?”
Cowboy pulled out his phone and did something on the screen. “It says she was still in there three minutes ago, or at least her phone was.”
“We’re not going to think like that. The phone’s there, she’s there.” What he didn’t say was that was how they would think until they knew otherwise. He had gotten Randy’s last name from the clerk. If they weren’t in the room, he would have somewhere to start looking for him.
“All right. You’re right. We act like she’s there until we know different. What room are they in?”