After radio shack, she went to a convenience store to purchase a few food items. She was hungry, but didn’t want to risk a restaurant or grocery store where people tended to be more watchful and observant. In and out was her plan. These stores, like the Seven-Eleven she chose, saw numerous tourists all day long, as people came in to purchase their gas and head back on the road. The attendants and cashiers wouldn’t be looking as closely, she hoped. She had to be careful. She couldn’t afford a misstep now. She was so close.
She was back in her hotel by four PM. She made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, watched the local news, and drank the milk she purchased. She was relieved to see no news reporting anything about her charges and or disappearance. She took that as a good sign.
Her motel room was pretty nice, but it wasn’t equipped with a refrigerator. She finished her sandwich and tidied up. She was glad she hadn’t purchased much, just some bags of nuts, granola bars packed with protein, and more water, all light and easy to carry. The loaf of bread, and small jars would stay here in the room. A local paper and a charger for her phone rounded out her shopping.
Exhausted, Ronnie decided to sleep until eight or nine that evening, and then make her first call to Gary. She hoped she could pull this off, and was counting on his overzealous ego to believe she was still in love with him, and needed him to keep her out of jail, and hidden. That was her plan. Throw up the offer of sex slave, in return for hiding her, and she would never tell anyone it was him who planted the drugs. But, and this was part of her plan, she needed to get him to confess his part in the drug smuggling, explaining why he had done it and how, get it on tape, and then present it to the authorities. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but she had to try. She just hoped she didn’t have to sleep with him before he spilled his guts because she really didn’t think she could do it. Not now. After Nikko. The thought of how he used her stung anew. And as she tried to settle into her bed and get some rest, it didn’t come easy. Nikko was on her mind, and how he would react to what she had done kept torturing her. And even though she knew she shouldn’t care if he was all right, she did.
Nikko’s head was pounding. He couldn’t even open his eyes. His temples felt like someone was trying to drill holes in his head with the cruelest of all power tools. He commanded his hand to massage them, ease the tension and had to concentrate on that action just to raise his hands. But instead of his temple, and hairline as he expected, he felt something sticky instead. His eyes flew open thinking the worst. He had been shot. But try as he might, he couldn’t get off the ground. His head pounded and he briefly wondered where he was and what happened. He forced himself to breathe and think despite the pressure in his head. He focused. He was looking at a ceiling, and felt his temple again, and then put his hand in his line of vision, squinting to see what it was. When he saw the thick red paste, he nearly panicked again until the smell hit him. Barbecue. It was barbecue sauce. What the hell?
He then focused on pushing his upper body off the carpet with his hands still trying to recall the night’s events. He had been having a drink with Ronnie. Sweet Ronnie. He had felt dizzy, and then that was it. He looked down at his body to see if he’d hurt anything in the fall, and his eyes flew open even wider. He was covered from head to toe in barbecue sauce. It just didn’t make sense. And then another thought hit him. Where was Ronnie?
“What the fuck,” he growled, as he pushed past the pain in his head to force himself into a standing position. He took two steps back gazing down at the mess on the carpet. It did look like a murder scene. He wobbled a bit until he regained his balance, and turned to go into the bathroom. Flicking on the light, he was met in the mirror by a horrible sticky mess. He was covered in the stuff. Not only did his appearance shock him, but there was a message scrawled on the mirror. His heart began to hammer in his chest. Ronnie. Where was she?
Because his head was still pounding he had to squint to read it. The letters squirmed like snakes. Soon his fear turned to shock, and then dismay, and then great disappointment. The message was from Ronnie. He had to read it twice. He couldn’t believe this was her work.
N –
Thanks for your support and friendship. But you have enough friends at Jimbo’s to keep you more than satisfied. Enjoy the barbecue.
Out, R
What the fuck? His head continued to pound as he tried to make sense of it all. Ronnie had done this to him. Why? His mind screamed. Then it came to him slowly as he read the message a third time. The waitress from Big Jimbo’s. He had run into her in the lobby yesterday. Ronnie must have seen them both leaving at the same time. It had been a coincidence. But obviously to Ronnie too many coincidences proved too much for her to believe.