Chapter 22
Room
She didn’t say anything when he got back into the car and drove them around to the back of the building.
Rounding a high fence and two trash dumpsters, he parked in an empty slot next to a steel staircase.
It was when they exited the car that she realized he’d backed in. Curious, she pointed it out.
“In case we need to make a quick getaway,” he told her.
Grace raised an eyebrow at him. “Have you had to make a quick getaway in the past?”
“A few times.”
“A few? As in more than two and less than a dozen?” She got a snort from him in answer.
“We’re upstairs in two-oh-nine.” He cast her a lopsided grin. “If anyone says anything, it’s because I told them you’re my sister.”
Grace snickered. “What do you want to bet they didn’t believe you?”
“How many guys do you think would specifically ask for two beds if they were shacking up with the woman the clerk could see sitting in the car outside the front window?”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the remark and pointed out the trash bags they carried inside their room. “That’s why you knew about not taking too much stuff so it wouldn’t look like you were skipping town.”
This time his answering chuckle wasn’t humorous. “There have been times I’ve had to leave with just the clothes on my back and not a dollar in my pocket. Trust me, it’s not pleasant.”
Tossing his bag of clothes on the floor next to a chair, he set the bag of food near the small refrigerator as Grace closed the door behind them. Dropping onto the nearest double bed, he pulled his phone from his pants pocket. “Don’t say a word,” he warned her and placed a call.
Grace parked herself on the other double bed and listened with curiosity.
“Yeah, Andy? I’ve had a family emergency and I can’t make it in tonight.
Uh-huh. Yeah, and I’m sorry to have to do this to you.
Yeah. Me, too, man. Okay. Talk to you later.
” Sighing, Rhyne ended the call and set the phone on the bed.
“Sooner or later, Nash is going to find out about what happened. Even though I trust him, I’m not letting him know where we are. ”
“Why not?”
“If Welsh gets wind that Nash knows, he’ll destroy him to get that information.”
Grace felt her fear mounting. “He’d do that? I thought you guys were friends.”
“We’re a nest. We bunk together for survival. Sometimes we end up being friends. More often than not, there’s a clash of personalities.”
“Welsh is sick, isn’t he? He’s psycho.”
Rhyne’s expression hardened. “No. Unfortunately, there are more vamps like Welsh than there are like me and Nash. Oh, I admit, in those early days after I changed, I was…detestable.” He shook his head as he gazed at the floor, temporarily lost in the memories.
“Thank God I regained enough of my humanity so that I’m nothing like that anymore.
But I did enough damage to where I’ve never had a restful night of sleep since then. ”
He suddenly slapped his thighs and stood up. “I had to leave my one and only charger at the house. There’s a Gas-n-Go up the street. I’m going to walk over there to get one. Is there anything you need while I’m there?”
“Not right now. Not that I can think of.”
“Okay. Lock the door behind me. If at any time I leave and come back, ask who it is first. If I say, ‘It’s me,’ that’s your cue to not open the door. In fact, bar yourself in the bathroom if you can.”
“Because someone might be with you?” she whispered, her voice almost trembling.
“Yes. Are you going to be okay while I’m gone?”
“Yeah.” She pointed to her face. “You might want to wash the rest of the blood off your face before you go.”
“Not to mention what’s on my hands,” he noted and went to clean up.
Grace looked around the room, and her eyes fell onto the bag containing the items from her fridge. “While you’re gone, I’ll put the cold stuff in the fridge and then lie down for a bit.”
“Good idea,” he said, emerging from the bathroom. He rubbed his damp hair with a hand towel, then tossed it back into the bathroom. “Don’t forget to lock up behind me,” he reminded her and left. As he’d requested, she turned the deadbolt and slid the security chain in place.
Going over to the bag, she opened it to discover that he’d taken much of what she’d had in her fridge back in her apartment.
She wondered why as she stuffed the cold stuff inside the small appliance, when it hit her.
“No one knows what I have or had in there. A woman living alone.” Her clothes she could understand.
Same for her makeup and toiletries and suitcase.
She stared at her empty hands. Her purse with her ID, car fob, apartment key, wallet, and most importantly, her cell phone, were back at the hospital. So was her car.
“What’s going to happen now? Will I be able to go back to the hospital and retrieve them? How long am I going to have to stay here?”
She lifted her face to find herself reflected in the TV screen in front of her. Getting up, she grabbed the remote and turned it on.
The station was in the middle of a newscast. Harbor County Hospital loomed behind the reporter. The chyron scrolling across the bottom read 1 DEAD, 2 INJURED, 1 MISSING – ATTACKER STILL AT LARGE.
She upped the volume.
“—are said to be in stable condition. The third woman who works here, Grace Lockhart, is still missing. Police are saying they have identified the attacker as Welsh Roebuck, who is employed at Cormorand Packaging. As of this broadcast, Mr. Roebuck’s whereabouts are unknown.
Police are urging the public to call 9-1-1 immediately if they see this man. He is armed and dangerous.”
Welsh’s face appeared on the screen. To Grace, it looked like the photo he had taken for his files and security badge when he was employed.
The newsman returned and switched to another topic. Grace turned off the TV and lay back on the bed.
Are in stable condition? The reporter had to have been referring to Marcia and Susan. It was a relief to learn her coworkers had survived the man’s attack. Although she must have missed the part about Norris, she couldn’t erase the horrific vision of watching the young man being killed.
Hot tears unexpectedly rose in her throat, choking her.
They burned her eyes and heated the surface of the skin on her face.
The terror and fear she’d been able to keep tamped down welled up with a force she couldn’t handle.
Breaking into uncontrollable sobbing, she rolled over and buried her face in the bedspread as she clutched it with both hands.
She had no idea how long she cried. It wasn’t until she heard a pounding on the motel room door that she finally lifted her face.
Swiping her eyes with her hands, she went over to peer out through the peephole to find Rhyne standing here.
She was about to unlock the door when she remembered his word of warning.
“Who is it?”
“Rhyne,” he answered.
Relieved, she unlocked the door and turned the knob, then went into the bathroom to blow her nose and throw some water on her face before going back to face him. Despite her actions, she knew he’d be able to tell she’d been crying, but he didn’t comment about it.
He plugged the new charger into the wall socket next to the nightstand sitting between their beds, then plugged in his phone. Watching his actions brought up a question.
“Won’t Welsh be able to track your whereabouts through your phone?”
“Not in the way you think. We all have one of those prepaid phones. A burner phone. Now, if law enforcement wants to, they can track my location through the cell phone towers. But, no, Welsh can’t track this phone, even though he has my number.
He can’t track Nash, either. Same as I can’t track him or Nash. ”
“Speaking of Nash, do you plan to call him and tell him what happened?”
“He probably already knows by now. At least, he’ll have heard Welsh’s version.”
“What would Welsh’s version be like?”
“Somehow he’ll blame me for him going into the hospital.
Maybe say that I told him to go get you, and he was just following orders.
He might even claim that he was trying to save you from me, which was why he followed you out into that field.
He’ll then play the victim if the cops ever catch up with him. ”
“But he k-killed Norris, not you.”
Rhyne’s gaze softened. “Like I said, if the cops manage to get their hands on him somehow, he’ll probably tell them it was all my idea and claim I’d threatened him if he didn’t obey.” Rhyne grimaced. “Damn. Poor Norris.”
Grace pointed to the TV. “I was watching the news. They already know it was Welsh who was in the hospital. The police are looking for him.”
“Which means they’ll go to the house and find out about me and Nash. Damn!” He scratched the back of his head. “Just the other night, Nash mentioned it was time we moved on to another city, but Welsh and I both argued against it.”
“Why?”
The man chuckled. “Strangely enough, now that I reflect on it…” He looked up at her. “It was because of you.”
“Me?”
“Welsh wanted you because… Well, we already know why. But my excuse was that I just wanted to get to know you better.”
Grace sat back. “Because of my blood,” she bitterly accused him.
He slowly shook his head. A flash of sadness crossed his handsome features. Still handsome in spite of the fresh marks he’d suffered during his conflict with Welsh.
“I didn’t know about you being the person with the miraculous AB negative blood, Grace. Swear on my life, I didn’t find out until last night when I went to warn Norris.”
“So, when you came to have coffee with me…”
Rhyne smiled. “I just wanted to spend some time with you. That’s all.”
She sat back to study him. She knew she wasn’t a real good judge of character, but Rhyne gave off vibes that he was being truthful. Grace hoped she was correct.
“Why did you go warn Norris?”
“Because when I realized I’d gotten several swallows, albeit diluted, of that AB negative blood, and all Welsh got was a smear, and my vision reverted within three days, I feared that at any moment Welsh’s eyesight would revert back to black and white sooner than mine did because he’d gotten a smaller sample.
And when it did, he’d go looking for you.
Norris promised to stay at the hospital after his shift so he could catch you first thing this morning and warn you. ”
Her eyes started welling again as she nodded. “He did. He tried to warn me, but…but I didn’t believe him. I…” She drew a shaky breath.
“He called me the instant Welsh showed up at the hospital,” Rhyne continued. “I tried to get there as soon as I could, but I wasn’t quick enough.” His voice broke, and he bowed his head. “I wasn’t…”
Grace moved over to sit next to him. Drawing her arms around his shoulders, she held him tightly as they both grieved for the innocent lab tech.