Page 48 of More Than a Match

“Holy hell I didn’t even think about that. Sit down, eat. I got us some soda, too, if you’re interested.”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.”

Alex reaches down to the floor next to the bed and hoists a 2-liter bottle of coke. “Tada!”

“Awesome. Do we have cups?”

“Ummm I may have made a slight miscalculation when it comes to the supplies we needed.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “It’s alright. We can just drink it as-is.”

We eat and pass the bottle back and forth, and finally, my stomach is full and content. Now that my other basic needs are met, I feel the waves of exhaustion starting to creep over me. We clear off the bed and I slide under the covers while Alex goes to shower.

I close my eyes and very quickly feel the darkness of sleep enveloping me. I’m roused slightly as Alex slides into bed next to me, curling up behind me and wrapping me in his arms. I snuggle closer and sink back into oblivion.

My eyes flutter open and for the briefest of moments, panic courses through me. Where the fuck am I? I shift slightly and am suddenly aware of arms holding me in an embrace. With a rush, the memory of yesterday and our retreat to the hotel comes flooding back. I relax, snuggling back down under the covers. I’ve got nowhere to be, and we don’t have to check out until this afternoon. I glance at the clock on the bedside table.Shit.It’s 12:30. We have to be out of here in 30 minutes. I bolt upright, waking Alex in the process.

“Good morning, Princess,” he mumbles, stretching and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“We’ve got 30 minutes. Also, good morning,” I reply, swinging my legs off the edge of the bed. “I’ve gotta pee.”

“Shit, is it 12:30 already?” He sits up too and runs his hands through his tousled hair. “I slept like a damn rock.”

“Me too. I didn’t wake up at all, which isn’t normal for me in hotels. Usually any little noise will wake me up. Guess I was just that tired.”

I reach for my phone, and what I see makes my blood run cold. There’s a message there, from a number I don’t know, though it’s obvious who it’s from.

My face must have registered my shock, because Alex noticed.

“What’s wrong, babe?”

Wordlessly I hand him my phone so he can see the message. His brow furrows.

“Shit. That didn’t even buy us 24 hours. It was supposed to shake him for good.”

I can feel panic rising, and I’m trying to focus on my breath. “What do you think he’s going to do?”

“Nothing good,” Alex grimaced.

“How did he find out?”

“No idea. But I’m sure it was through less than savory means. If we can prove it, maybe we’ve got some sort of harassment case. But otherwise, we’ll just have to deal with this ourselves.”

“How?”

“I have no idea.”

The ride back to Alex’s apartment is quiet. Tension hangs thick in the air as we both wonder what the fuck went wrong with our plan. When we get there, we’re half expecting the apartment to be broken into, or vandalized. Much to our surprise, nothing looks out of place. The stench is mostly gone, and a few quick passes with Febreze takes care of the rest of it. We settle onto the couch, and I pull out my phone. No new messages.

“Should I respond?”

“No,” Alex shakes his head emphatically. “You pretend you never got that message. You act unphased. Don’t play into it. Make him come to you in person.”

“Alex, he’s dangerous. What if he—”

“He wouldn’t. He cares too damn much about his job to do anything overtly stupid, at least not while at the hospital.”

“Yeah, but now he knows where you live.”

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