Page 24 of Ride Forever
Chapter 9
Chaser
Our hotel room was a nest of silence in the midst of the bustle that was Las Vegas.
The room was spacious with a view overlooking the Halcyon across the street, the sheer curtains softening the hard edges of the ominous building. It looked like a spire of hard metal shooting toward the sky, jagged and almost like crystal shards inside a geode of shit.Hollow.
While Sloane was in the shower, washing off the grit and grime of the heat outside, I emptied both our bags and spread out the contents on the bed.
I folded our clothes into neat piles, then separated all the other bits and pieces. Picking up Sloane’s aviator sunglasses, I was hit with the memory of her demanding five dollars from me at that gas station. She’d said, ‘Five bucks won’t emasculate you.’ It wasn’t that long ago, but it felt like years.
The bathroom door opened, and Sloane padded out, bringing the damp scent of soap with her.
“What are you doing?” she asked, watching me paw through her belongings.
“Making us go-bags.”
“What’s a go-bag?”
She sat on the bed next to me, her gaze raking over the neat piles of clothes. She didn’t say anything about me breaching her privacy, so I figured we were even for the time she went through my stuff on the train.
“We’re going to need to leave quickly,” I explained. “These will have everything we need to disappear.”
“Oh,” she declared. “Ago-bag.”
“Here.” I pointed to each item and explained what I was tossing and what I was putting in. “We want to keep things light, so anything heavy is out. The hotel toiletries are small, though they’re a luxury, but will tide us over if we need to be on the road longer than a couple of days. Cash is a given. Spare ammo and a gun each. Burner phones.” I pointed to the cell phone I’d assembled for her. “A change of clothes. A basic first aid kit.”
“You stole the amenities box from the bathroom,” she declared.
“I didn’t steal anything. It’s complimentary.”
“What about ID? We won’t be able to use our own.”
“I have contacts,” I said. “But it takes time, which we don’t have.”
“Will we need them?” She frowned. “New identities?”
“Maybe. It depends.”
“On?” She stared at me expectantly.
The plan was simple yet full of uncertainty. Things could go wrong—that was how life rolled—but there was no other way. I’d thought about it over and over, but the conversation I’d had with Monroe and his dead-end leads had solidified it in concrete. It wasn’t even worth chasing them, to begin with. I’d been trained in negotiation and intelligence, and I knew better than anyone what Monroe offered was less than actionable. All he’d done was confirm what I already suspected. There was no other way in. The Halcyon and the Hollow Men, who ruled it, were watertight. Nothing was getting in or out without them knowing about it.
So, we just had to knock on the front door. I just didn’t know how to tell Sloane yet.
“I need to go out,” I said. “Stay here.”
I stood and picked up the ‘do not disturb’ hanger for the door.
Sloane rose to her feet, too. “Where are you going?”
“Just to the lobby. I won’t be long.”
“Why?”
I ignored her, knowing I was going to pay for it later, and left.
I had a dress to buy.
