Chapter Five #2
“You know, if you keep giving me good ideas, one day I’m going to act on one of them.” As if she’d get in some random trucker’s vehicle. While she was occasionally reckless, she didn’t have a death wish.
“There’s a hotel around the corner. We’ll go there.”
“A hotel” was a generous description. “Motel” was probably also too generous. The building was run-down, with peeling paint
and a damaged sign. There was a bar across the street that bathed the parking lot in neon red, highlighting the weeds growing
between the cracks in the asphalt. “We’re staying here?”
“Is it not to your taste?” Krish parked the car.
“I’ve stayed in way worse. But I’m guessing you haven’t, Harvard.”
He paused in taking off his seat belt. “Why would you say that?”
She cast her gaze over him. His haircut wasn’t wildly expensive, but his clothes and shoes weren’t cheap. “You don’t look
like someone who stays in any places that are less than three stars.”
“You’d be surprised.” He got out and shut the door.
A tingle of curiosity ran through her, but she shut it down. The less she knew about the man, the better.
The lobby—if the tiny postage stamp–size space could be called that—wasn’t much better than the exterior. The pale twentysomething
girl behind the counter didn’t glance up when they walked in. In fact, she didn’t pay attention to them even when they stood
right in front of her, not until Krish cleared his throat.
The girl seemed to look through them, a gaze she’d probably had to practice given the clientele that usually came through
the place. “How can I help you,” she said in a very unhelpful voice.
“We need a room,” Krish said.
“Two rooms,” Sejal added.
Krish shook his head. “One room. Two beds.”
“One room?” Sejal crossed her arms over her chest. She also edged back, lest he decide to nudge her with his foot like she
had done to him over the maps. “Nope.”
Krish’s smile to the attendant was no more than a baring of teeth. “Excuse me.”
The girl shrugged and picked up her phone.
Krish turned to Sejal, his eyes like hazel daggers. “Dear, I know you’re mad at me, but we’re only getting one room. We’re short on money at the moment. Remember?”
She studied him. He must be super tired to think that anyone would believe she liked being called dear. “I am mad at you. Darling. And I think the money will be well spent on both of us having a comfortable night in separate
rooms.”
He rolled his shoulders. “Honey. I don’t want you to be too comfortable without me.”
Oh. He was worried she would run away, despite their truce. Well, valid fear, she supposed. Because she was ditching Krish
as soon as she finished her business in Vegas. Ideally, before she even did her business in Vegas.
“Fine, but I’m not having sex with you.” Out of the corner of her eye, Sejal noticed the girl lowering her phone, and the
attention made her drop her voice and inject a note of tearful hurt into it. “I just cannot have marital relations with you,
no matter how much you cry and beg me. You know how you cry before, during, and after sex? It makes everything so moist, and
not in a good way.”
Krish’s eye twitched, and he turned back to the girl. “As I was saying. One room. Two beds.”
The clerk popped her bubble gum. “Actually, we don’t have any two-bed rooms left. Only one-bed rooms.”
Sejal’s silent groan echoed Krish’s loud one. “Is there a couch in the room?” he asked, grimly.
That tickled the girl. She almost smiled. “No. There’s a bed and a chair.”
“Are there any other hotels in town?” Sejal cut in.
“There’s a Holiday Inn about five miles up the road. But they’re usually booked up.”
“It’s fine. I’m too tired to drive another mile anyway,” Krish admitted, which surprised Sejal. She didn’t think he was any
better than her at confessing weakness. “I’ll sleep in the chair.”
“Awesome,” the girl said in her flat voice. She put her hand out, and Krish handed her his credit card and driver’s license.
Sejal sniffed. “Okay, but we’re especially not having sex now. Not after what you did with my sister! And let’s not even start
with my brother.”
Krish ignored her, but the girl did give her a curious glance, which Sejal patted herself on the back for. She imagined it
took a lot to get that one’s attention.
The girl handed them a physical key attached to a triangular key chain. “Room three.”
“What happened to not calling attention to ourselves?” Krish said as they left the lobby and walked down the cracked sidewalk.
“She probably does her best to forget everything she sees in this line of work. Anyway, should you be using credit cards if
we’re trying to stay under the radar?” Sejal asked.
They stopped at a door. The “3” on it had come unbolted so it hung upside down. “I’m using a fake ID and a credit card to
match.”
“No.” She drew back. “You? You seem way too straight-edge to have a fake ID.”
“I’m not using it to sneak into bars underage. It’s for emergencies such as this.”
“For the record, I’m also not using mine to sneak into bars.”
“Right, you’re using it to fleece unsuspecting people.”
She looked at him askance as he opened the door. This was more than a little edgy. “Are you hangry or something? ’Cause it
makes you a wee bit bitchy.”
“I am not ‘hangry.’ I am exhausted from not sleeping a wink the entire night, and then having to drive for eleven hours while
you slept.”
“I told you I would drive.”
“And risk you running us off the road or getting into a race for fun? No thanks.”
“For the record, I have too much self-preservation to run us off the road— Oh wow. She wasn’t kidding when she said there
was just a chair, huh?”
The room was as bare-bones as it could get. The bed, not even a queen size, took up most of the space in the room. There was
also a nightstand and a small round table. The armchair looked like it was stuffed with cardboard and was upholstered in a
maroon fabric that had seen better days.
Krish shut the door behind them, then went to the table and emptied out the bag of stuff she’d bought at the convenience store.
His curled lip told her he wasn’t impressed. “You couldn’t get any sandwiches? Or a salad, perhaps?”
“Did you think I was going to find Caesar salads at a convenience store?” She could explain that the sandwiches had looked gross and old, but if he was going to be cranky, she wasn’t going to appease him with excuses.
She snagged the only Snickers and waved it under his nose.
“This is nutritious. Carbs, fat, and protein all in one.”
Krish picked through the haul. He found the deck of cards and turned it around in his hands, but didn’t say anything until
he got to the cheese and crackers. “How fitting that they call this cheez.”
“Do you understand why I think you’re too fancy to stay in a place like this now?”
Grimacing, he peeled off the plastic and took a bite of one. “I suppose it’s not so bad.”
“If you want really good fake cheese, you should eat the Cheetos.”
“No thank you.”
“Have you ever even had Cheetos?”
He looked down his nose at her. “No. I prefer my foods not be orange. Unless it’s an orange.”
Ken would love him.
She banished that thought immediately. Ken was in one part of her life, and this guy was in another, and never the twain would
meet.
Should she feel bad about her plan to ditch Krish in Vegas before he got what he wanted? Maybe. But she was looking out for
herself. Well, herself and Ken, who depended on her. Okay, and her aunt, too, even if the woman would never know.
“What else did you buy?”
Sejal raised an eyebrow. “What?”
He nodded at their spread. “This is at least five bucks short, even accounting for the chips you donated. What else did you
buy?”
Oh. So that was why he’d wanted a receipt, and why he’d pawed through everything. A spurt of irritation made her voice sharpen. “You think I’d embezzle five bucks? If I’m going to steal, buddy, I go big.” The nerve of this guy.
“No, I think you’d buy a weapon and hide it on you.”
Huh. That was a good idea. She should have done that. She yanked the scratcher out of her pocket and waved it under his nose.
“I got us a chance at a million bucks, bud.”
He took the scratcher, studied it like it might contain a knife, then handed it back to her. “Those are a waste of money.”
She tossed it on the table. She’d scratch it tomorrow as they drove, to liven up her ride. “I guess we’ll see about that.
Satisfied, now?”
Krish finished his crackers and didn’t answer her directly. “We should turn in. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”
She stood and dusted chocolate remnants off herself, then grabbed the toothbrush and toothpaste. “I’m going to use the bathroom.”
The bathroom was as sparse as the bedroom, but at least it was clean, which was more than Sejal could say about most motels
she’d been in. Sejal gave her teeth a half-hearted brushing.
When she emerged, she was surprised to find Krish already on the bed, on the side closest to the door, lying on top of the
covers. He’d taken off his jacket and shoes. His socks were bright green, the color an odd pop against the otherwise neutral
palette of his clothes. His shirt had ridden up, barely half an inch, but the warm brown strip of skin distracted her so much
she almost missed the pair of handcuffs on his stomach.
Her voice was harsher than normal when she spoke. “I thought you were taking the chair?”
He glanced at said chair. Sejal might have felt bad about anybody other than a liar sleeping in it for a night. “It’s barely a chair,” Krish said. “We can both sleep in the bed. It’s plenty big enough.”
It was not nearly big enough. A California King wouldn’t be big enough. “Excuse me, no it is not. Also, those handcuffs better not be out for
me.”
He sat up. “I have to ensure you won’t run away while I sleep.”
She glared at him. “You and I both know that handcuffs won’t slow me down one bit. Put that shit away. Weren’t you the one
talking about a truce? That works both ways.”
That made him pause. He took a long moment to decide, then sat up and put the handcuffs on the nightstand. “You’re right.
You can sleep under the covers, and I’ll sleep on top, if that makes you feel better.” He lay back down and closed his eyes.
Sejal gritted her teeth. How could she explain her issues? She hadn’t slept with anyone in two years, since the whole kidnapping
thing. Had sex with people, sure. Scammed them, no problem. Sleeping with someone, though, was as intimate as kissing, and
the last thing she was ready for was intimacy. Hey, bud, remember how I went into a flailing ball of fury when you tried to grab me? Weird things can trigger my whole Mom
kidnapping me PTSD. I could wake up, feel you next to me, and spiral into a rage. Or worse, curl up and cry. I don’t want
anyone seeing me that vulnerable ever again. Especially you.
He opened his eyes and sighed. Then he sat up, grabbed a pillow, and placed it between them. He leaned over the bed and rummaged
around in his bag. He pulled something out and held it out to her.
She knew pepper spray when she saw it. Her eyes shot to his.
“I am exhausted,” he said softly. “And I know you are, too. I’m going on twenty-four hours of no sleep. I understand being scared to sleep in the same bed with someone you don’t know. If I try anything, you can spray me.”
Wow. That was . . . more trust than she’d expected.
He didn’t sound like he would budge, and Sejal was her own brand of tired, too.
She crossed the space between them to gingerly pull back the covers, and get under them. She took the pepper spray from him.
Their fingers brushed, and that odd little tingle ran down her arm.
He didn’t seem to notice, and leaned over to snap the light off, plunging the room into darkness. The neon of the light from
the bar crept in under the curtains, splashing orange and red across the ceiling.
Krish promptly rolled over to sleep on his side, back to her. She shifted, trying to get comfortable in her jeans, but she’d
been in the stiff denim for the entire very long day, and the waistband was digging into her tummy. What she wouldn’t give
for sweatpants. Or nothing.
“Go to sleep,” came her bedmate’s muffled voice next to her.
“I’m trying,” she muttered back. The room was quiet. Way too quiet. She always fell asleep to the sound of a podcast, or car
alarms, or a television. She hadn’t slept in silence in more years than she could count. Silence let the memories and thoughts
in her head get far too loud.
Plus, there was the man next to her.
As if summoned, he turned to face her. His arm flopped over the bumper he’d erected between them.
She turned her head to look at his profile. A gentle snore left his lips, and she raised an eyebrow. How had he fallen asleep so fast, like he didn’t have a thought in his brain? The dream.
In sleep, his face had softened, his full lips going lax. They were slightly parted. His hand was inches away from her belly.
She snapped her head back to stare at the ceiling. Nope. She definitely didn’t want to think about his lips or his hands.
It was one thing to be attracted to a stranger, and a whole other thing to be attracted to the enemy.
Or enemy of your enemy.
Krish made a small noise and shifted. His finger brushed against her side. Though there was a good foot between them, his
breath skated across her shoulder. Her shiver was an involuntary reflex.
Yeah, sure. A reflex.
Sejal closed her eyes. Breathed in, then out. Meditated. Tried visualizing the word relax in her head, letter by letter.
But when she realized she was timing her breaths with his, she gave up. This was never going to work.