Page 37 of Blood Revealed

We park in front of the lobby. It’s transition time from the night auditor to the daytime clerk. I block the night auditor’s path and her eyes grow wide. “Not here to hurt you,” I say. “Need information. There was a man…” Hero hands her his phone with the pics that Caity had taken. “Did you see this car?”

“Yes. He checked out probably an hour ago. I remember because it was an odd time to check out. He had a woman with him in the car. I saw her sleeping in the front seat when he took off. I didn’t know he had a woman with him when he checked in.”

“She was sleeping?” I ask.

“She appeared to be. Head hanging back against the headrest with her neck bent in sort of an uncomfortable angle. She’ll feel that one when she wakes up.”

“Do you know which way they went?”

“Sorry, no,” she answers. “I can’t see from inside.”

“Right. Thanks very much,” I say.

She smiles at me but looks to Hero. “If you ever want to grab a drink, I know a few spots.”

“That’s kind of you, but my wife doesn’t like me to date other women and besides, I’m just passing through.”

“That’s cool. Should’ve figured a guy who looks like you would be taken. What about you?” she asks me.

Clearly, the woman has no problem with bikers. That, or she wants to take a walk on the wild side. “Thanks for the offer, but ditto what he said. Wife and passing through.”

She shrugs. “It was worth a shot. Have a good rest of your day.”

We turn back to the van. She was pretty enough; long, brown hair with big curls it looked like she put a lot of time into, stunning blue eyes, but she’s not Hannah. No woman on this Earth does for me what Hannah does.

We keep heading north, and while I continue to drive, Hero checks back in with Tommy, putting him on speaker.

“We got him heading for the canyon,” he says. Fucking great. The Grand Canyon.

“Okay, thanks, Tommy, man. We have a destination at least.” Hero hangs up the phone and brings up a map. We decide on the quickest route to take from our current location and I merge onto another interstate.

We eat up the miles, but they take longer to digest than either of us would like. The van is old and so long as we don’t overdo it, it should last a good while longer. Not overdoing it, however, means keeping to the speed limit. The last thing we need is a breakdown. It’s hard though when everything in me wants to floor this sucker and see what she’s made of.

Eventually, we start seeing signs for the canyon. Now, where in the canyon? No clue. Here’s hoping we get another ping off his credit card. When a text comes in from Tommy, I’m ecstatic. The fucker stopped at a small store outside Eagle’s Nest. Hero looks it up to get us a direction and it’s not too much longer before we hit the dusty road where the store sits at the end of the lane. It’s for people heading down into the canyon.End of the Road Stop.

I pull the van in front and both of us climb out to stretch our legs before heading inside. The old man behind the counter looks like he’s been living here since the canyon was a small hole. I’m not sure how he’s even standing. He’s wearing oxygen and wheezes when he talks and even with all that, I know if I stepped out of line, this guy could end me. He has that look about him.

Hero hands him his phone. “We’re looking for this guy, this car. The woman with him was kidnapped and we’re trying to get her back.”

“Man came through all right, but ain’t no woman with him. Not unless he locked her in the back of the van.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. Didn’t see no woman.”

This is getting us nowhere. I got a bad feeling we really were made over a couple states ago. “He’s sending us on a fucking goose chase, man.”

“What do we do now?”

I pull out a pack of smokes from my pocket and light one. This shit just keeps getting worse.

“If it helps,” the old man says, “he took the road down into the canyon and that’s the only one for miles. He ain’t getting off it anytime soon.”

“Thank you, sir.” Hero flicks the man a two-fingered salute and we turn to get back in the white beast of a van. The road is bumpy, full of rocks and potholes in the dirt. Then we finally get the call we’ve been waiting for.

Tommy again. “Get out of the canyon. He was throwing you off. He gave his card to someone because we just picked up his car in the desert. Right outside Lupton, Arizona. It was empty.”

“Godmotherfuckingdammit,” I shout, hitting the steering wheel.

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