Page 11 of Romeo

I have absolutely zero confidence that he’ll do as I asked and go back to wherever he came from.In fact, I’m honestly betting he’s not too far behind me even now.I barely managed to shake him in the crowd as I left the motel.

My guess is he’ll find me again.I just hope it’s after I’ve gotten my answers.Then he can haul me back to Odie and get another stellar mark on his apparently impeccable record.Fresh anger saturates my mind at the thought of Riley “Arrogant Jerk” Hunt, but I shove it back down.

“Here you go.”The pawn shop manager counts out the money then sticks it in a yellow manila envelope and hands it to me.“Don’t spend it all in one place.”

“Hardly,” I reply with a forced smile.Without thanking him for ripping me off, I turn and leave the shop.The street is stifling today, Arizona heat pouring down on me.I’m still not entirely sure why I came here of all places, but I knew if I wanted to avoid all of the investigators Odie would likely be sending my way, I needed distance.

Time to gather my thoughts and put together a plan for tracking my grandfather’s killer.I’d needed to lay out all the pieces my grandfather told me over the days leading up to his death.I’d honestly thought they were just ramblings.An outline for the book he’d been writing now that he’d been coming up on a decade since leaving Hollywood.

Now, though, I’m wondering if they were clues.His way of warning me that things weren’t quite what they were supposed to be.He’d wanted so badly for me to get out of town for a while.Is it possible he was just trying to get me to safety because he knew someone was after him?

And if that’s the case, then why wouldn’t he get help?

“You need to leave this town, girl,”he’d told me.“Put distance between you and it, and start over.You deserve to start over.Don’t you want to have grand adventures?”

A lump forms in my throat at the memory.I’ve had enough ‘adventures’ to last a lifetime, all of them taking place during the worst years of my life.

I take a deep breath and hoist my backpack higher on my shoulders.Obsessing over the past will do me no good now.

It is what it is, and I am who I am.Stained.Pieced together like shattered china.

Since I’ve spoken to the manager who is currently working the front desk of the motel, I decide to start there.I leave my hat on, though I remove my sunglasses before stepping inside.

“Hey!”I greet, putting on my best happy mask.

“What can I do for you?”she asks.I’d peg her as being in her mid-forties, though she’s definitely far from settled down.At least, that would be my guess, based on the fading stamp on the top of her hand.

“So, my ex got into my room and took something, and I want to have proof when I threaten to turn him in to the cops.”

She arches a brow, clearly intrigued.“Sounds like a real peach.How can I help you?”

“I was wondering if you might be willing to let me see the security cameras?Just for the last three hours.A very specific window, actually, since I caught him leaving.”

She narrows her dark gaze.“I’m not supposed to let anyone see those without a warrant.You got one of those?”

“No,” I admit.“But—” I reach into my pocket and withdraw a hundred-dollar bill still left over from the first pawn shop visit I made.“I can make it worth your while.Please, he’s real sour, and I don’t want to have to call the cops.”

She eyes me then the money.“Okay.Fine.Only because I have a jerk ex, too, and I hope you can get whatever you need without having to deal with the cops.”

“Thanks.You are an absolute doll.”I flash a smile and move around the counter as she ushers me into a back room that smells of pungent cigarette smoke and stale coffee.I have to practically hold my nose.

Please do not trigger a migraine.Literally, the last thing I need.

“What time was it?”she asks, taking a seat at the computer and unlocking the screen.

“About four in the afternoon,” I tell her.“He jumped out my window.”

“Okay.Let’s see what we can do here.”She opens up a screen showing a recording of the sidewalk just outside the hotel.It’s aiming back toward the front but catches enough traffic that I can make out grainy versions of the men and women traveling by.

After hitting a few buttons, she rewinds it and pulls up footage timestamped 3:57 p.m.I lean in a bit closer, narrowing my gaze as I study everyone moving past.Men, women—they all look the same.Focused on where they’re going and uninterested in the hotel.Until— “Right there.That’s him,” I say as I note a bulky man with a hood pulled low over his head.

He keeps his face turned from the camera as he makes his way up toward the motel.

Since the rooms all have exterior entrances and exits, I doubt he went to the lobby first.

Minutes tick by, and she fast-forwards it until she sees me walking across the street.I keep my face tilted down just the same as he did, though I do glance back once before disappearing from view.

“It was right after this that he left.”

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