Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
Hunter’s old Ram crew cab roared down the highway. Blaze gripped the steering wheel as logging trucks passed with a low diesel rumble. The windshield was wet at the edges from drizzle. The Cascades rose up around them, the dark forest a silhouette against the hazy white sky.
Stella was in the passenger seat in jeans and a blue flannel shirt with the cuffs rolled up.
Her hair was in a loose braid down her back.
He couldn’t help but glance at her every few minutes.
The cab smelled like old coffee and gun oil.
But underneath that was Stella’s maple syrup and brown sugar scent.
Ryder was in the back with his earbuds in. He’d been quiet most of the drive.
They came off the highway thirty minutes later into the industrial district near the waterfront. A rail yard ran behind the warehouses. A line of trucks waited at a loading dock.
They pulled into the parking lot of the hotel three blocks from the venue.
It was a beige stucco building between a self-storage place and a check-cashing storefront.
Blaze checked the lot before he killed the engine.
There were two exits. A dumpster against one wall.
A row of pines ran along the fence line.
He clocked a tweaker smoking on a balcony.
The lobby had cheap worn carpet and smelled like old cigarettes.
The woman at the front desk was in her fifties with a paperback open beside the register.
Blaze asked for two rooms and paid in cash.
He signed the registration card as Jake Russo.
The ID he slid across the counter had Jake Russo’s face on it and a Nevada address.
The woman looked at it for the length of one breath, slid it back, and didn’t ask for Ryder or Stella’s at all.
They carried their bags upstairs. Ryder took 218 and Blaze and Stella took 219.
Both rooms were about twenty feet from the stairwell.
Their room had two queen beds with brown comforters.
A nightstand between them had a lamp screwed on top of it.
A small desk stood under a flat-screen that was bolted to the wall.
The bathroom was on the left with the door open and the fluorescent light buzzing.
There was a small round table with three chairs under the window opposite the door. It looked down on the rear parking lot.
Stella put her suitcase on the bed near the table.
Blaze dropped his duffel on the floor at the foot of the bed closer to the door.
After they spent a few minutes unpacking, there was a knock at the door.
Blaze checked the peephole, saw Ryder, and opened it.
Ryder walked in with a stack of takeout menus.
“Thought we might want to order some food before we run through Siren’s cover stories.”
They picked through the menus, and Stella found a pho place that delivered.
Blaze put in three orders. Twenty minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
Blaze answered, took the bag from the delivery driver, tipped in cash, and closed the door.
He brought the bag back to the table and pulled out three containers.
“Let’s start going over our cover stories while we eat,” Blaze said, opening his order.
Stella started first. “I’m Mia Carver. I’m from outside Sacramento.
I was waiting tables at the Peppermill in Reno when Jake came through for a fight.
We’ve been together two years. I came on the road with him a year ago.
I spend most of my time at the bar, nursing a single drink and looking bored. ”
Blaze went next. “I’m Jake Russo. I’m from Idaho originally. I came up through the U.S. underground. Last few years I’ve been off the circuit. Took some time. I’m looking to climb back in.”
Stella was watching him as she took another bite of her pho.
“If somebody recognizes me from before, I tell them they’re thinking of somebody else. I fought under my real name twice in Seattle eight years ago. Both promoters who ran those fights are out of the business. The corners I worked with then are in different gyms or gone. I checked.”
Ryder started his cover story. “I’m Jesse Walker. I work as Jake’s corner man. I’ve been with Jake for eight months. I came up out of an amateur circuit in Reno that didn’t go anywhere. You picked me up because I was hungry. I’ve known Mia as long as I’ve known Jake.”
Stella took a breath, uncrossed her legs, and recrossed them the other way.
“Okay,” she said. “Those are our cover stories. Walk me through what happens inside.”
Blaze finished a bite of pho and nodded.
“We walk in together. I’m working the room as Jake. Getting introduced to the promoter’s people. Letting the matchmaker get a look at me. You’re on my arm or you’re at the bar where I can see you. Ryder’s with the bags. I’m always going to have eyes on you unless I’m in the locker room.”
She nodded.
“I’ll be out of sight for maybe twenty minutes. Ryder will be with me, so he’ll be out of sight too. That’s when you’ll have to be on guard the most. But if you stick to the bar, sip your drink slow, and look bored and annoyed, you should be fine.”
“While I’m waiting, I’m listening for conversations and watching for any sign of the missing women.”
“Yes. Look for faces, hallways, whether a room is empty, or it isn’t. File all of it and don’t react to any of it.”
“What if I see Nell?” she asked in a low voice.
“If we’re right about this operation, you will eventually see her.
Your face is going to want to react. But you need to practice not letting your feelings show.
Drop your eyes one beat before the recognition lands.
You don’t fight the recognition. You let it move through you while you’re looking at something else. ”
She nodded slowly.
“If you spot Nell, don’t let anyone catch you looking.”
“What if she recognizes me first?”
“You can’t acknowledge her until we decide its time to make contact. You’ll be in a disguise so more than likely she’ll just assume you’re someone else.”