Prologue
“I’m pulling up to the last motel on the list. I’ll let you know if she’s here,” I told my brother quickly before I hung up the phone.
I pulled my Audi A7 into the lot and headed to the office. Once I parked, I stopped and took a deep breath. I can’t go down this road again. I know I can’t. I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. I felt my past repeating itself, and I couldn’t let that happen. However, I had to give her the benefit of the doubt. I had to know that this wasn’t what I thought it was – that I had been mistaken.
The moment I looked around this area though, I had a gut feeling I wasn’t wrong… Shit!
I grabbed her picture sitting on the passenger seat along with my phone. I looked around the area and made sure no one was lurking around. Not knowing how much this would cost me, I had an enormous amount of cash on me, which made me a little nervous in this neighborhood. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a punk. If it came down to it, I would defend myself with no problem. I never shy away from confrontation. However, it would be a pain in the ass if someone got hurt or killed by my hands.
My brother would be even more of a pain, especially since he told me to leave my nine millimeter at the hotel. He should’ve known after he warned me that I wouldn’t listen. In fact, I grabbed the nine and my hunting knife, just in case.
I opened the door to the office and walked inside. The smell of sweat, ass, and funk hit my nose hard. I frowned and headed to the desk. There was no one in sight, but I heard a TV going in the background. I hit the bell at the desk and waited.
When no one moved or came to the desk, I hit the bell again and kept hitting it until I saw an overweight man with a receding hairline stumble to the desk. He snatched the bell from under my hand, face beet red. “What the fuck do you want?”
I smiled brilliantly. “Good evening, sir. I was wondering if you could help me out.” I held out the photo to him. “I’m looking for this woman. Have you seen her?”
He didn’t look at the picture at all. Instead, he considered me. “You’re a long way from home, rich boy.”
I sighed. So he’s one of those.
He smirked and folded his meaty, sweaty arms over his large man boobs.
I lost the smile and leaned on the desk. “Look, have you seen her here or not?”
“Uh, you know, I’m not sure. It’s possible she’s here, but then again…” He shrugged.
I had always considered myself a very patient man. However, there was always one thing I had trouble with, and that’s stupidity. There’s no reason why I needed to play this game with him, but he seemed to want to, so I bit my tongue and asked, “What can I do to help you remember?”
He rubbed his sausage-size thumb and finger along his jaw line and pinched his fat chin. “You know, I don’t know… for starters, I’ll take that watch you have. Maybe then, I’ll remember if she’s been here or not. That sweet car out there would be nice too. Maybe I’ll remember if she’s alone or if she has company. Hell, I might even tell you how sweet her p…”
Before he attempted to be clever, I reached out, grabbed the son of a bitch by the back of his neck and slammed his face against the desk. He tried to lift his head, but I gripped his stringy wet hair and slammed his face back down harder, again and again, until I heard the necessary crunch of his nose breaking.
I kept his face down, and as he struggled and cried out in pain, I leaned closer to his smelly ass and urged, “Listen to me, you fat fuck. I don’t have the patience for your dumb degenerate ass. Tell me now if she’s here and what room she’s in before I beat the shit out of you.”
He started mumbling and whimpering, so I let him up. I reached into my pocket for my handkerchief and wiped my hands. Ugh, he fucking stinks.
“Start talking, fat boy.”
His hands covered his nose as he attempted to stop the blood flow. “You broke my nose!” he whined.
“If you don’t want anything else broken, tell me if she’s here.” I held up her picture again, and this time he looked at it. He didn’t respond right away, so I moved closer to him and he backed away, falling back against the computer chair behind him.
“Yeah, I’ve seen her okay? I’ve seen her.”
“You have? When? Is she staying here? What room is she in?” I asked, getting pissed even more at his slow response.
He stood wearily and moved to another desk behind him. He opened a drawer and pulled out a key. When he turned, he moved slowly and placed the key in front of me. I reached for it with the handkerchief, not wanting to get his blood on me, and picked up the key.