Page 44 of Graced
“How many guys do you think would specifically ask for two beds if they were shacking up with the woman the clerk could see sitting in the car outside the front window?”
She couldn’t help but laugh at the remark and pointed out the trash bags they carried inside their room.“That’s why you knew about not taking too much stuff so it wouldn’t look like you were skipping town.”
This time his answering chuckle wasn’t humorous.“There have been times I’ve had to leave with just the clothes on my back and not a dollar in my pocket.Trust me, it’s not pleasant.”
Tossing his bag of clothes on the floor next to a chair, he set the bag of food near the small refrigerator as Grace closed the door behind them.Dropping onto the nearest double bed, he pulled his phone from his pants pocket.“Don’t say a word,” he warned her and placed a call.
Grace parked herself on the other double bed and listened with curiosity.
“Yeah, Andy?I’ve had a family emergency and I can’t make it in tonight.Uh-huh.Yeah, and I’m sorry to have to do this to you.Yeah.Me, too, man.Okay.Talk to you later.”Sighing, Rhyne ended the call and set the phone on the bed.“Sooner or later, Nash is going to find out about what happened.Even though I trust him, I’m not letting him know where we are.”
“Why not?”
“If Welsh gets wind that Nash knows, he’ll destroy him to get that information.”
Grace felt her fear mounting.“He’d do that?I thought you guys were friends.”
“We’re a nest.We bunk together for survival.Sometimes we end up being friends.More often than not, there’s a clash of personalities.”
“Welsh is sick, isn’t he?He’s psycho.”
Rhyne’s expression hardened.“No.Unfortunately, there are more vamps like Welsh than there are like me and Nash.Oh, I admit, in those early days after I changed, I was…detestable.”He shook his head as he gazed at the floor, temporarily lost in the memories.“Thank God I regained enough of my humanity so that I’m nothing like that anymore.But I did enough damage to where I’ve never had a restful night of sleep since then.”
He suddenly slapped his thighs and stood up.“I had to leave my one and only charger at the house.There’s a Gas-n-Go up the street.I’m going to walk over there to get one.Is there anything you need while I’m there?”
“Not right now.Not that I can think of.”
“Okay.Lock the door behind me.If at any time I leave and come back, ask who it is first.If I say, ‘It’s me,’ that’s your cue tonotopen the door.In fact, bar yourself in the bathroom if you can.”
“Because someone might be with you?”she whispered, her voice almost trembling.
“Yes.Are you going to be okay while I’m gone?”
“Yeah.”She pointed to her face.“You might want to wash the rest of the blood off your face before you go.”
“Not to mention what’s on my hands,” he noted and went to clean up.
Grace looked around the room, and her eyes fell onto the bag containing the items from her fridge.“While you’re gone, I’ll put the cold stuff in the fridge and then lie down for a bit.”
“Good idea,” he said, emerging from the bathroom.He rubbed his damp hair with a hand towel, then tossed it back into the bathroom.“Don’t forget to lock up behind me,” he reminded her and left.As he’d requested, she turned the deadbolt and slid the security chain in place.
Going over to the bag, she opened it to discover that he’d taken much of what she’d had in her fridge back in her apartment.She wondered why as she stuffed the cold stuff inside the small appliance, when it hit her.“No one knows what I have or had in there.A woman living alone.”Her clothes she could understand.Same for her makeup and toiletries and suitcase.
She stared at her empty hands.Her purse with her ID, car fob, apartment key, wallet, and most importantly, her cell phone, were back at the hospital.So was her car.
“What’s going to happen now?Will I be able to go back to the hospital and retrieve them?How long am I going to have to stay here?”
She lifted her face to find herself reflected in the TV screen in front of her.Getting up, she grabbed the remote and turned it on.
The station was in the middle of a newscast.Harbor County Hospital loomed behind the reporter.The chyron scrolling across the bottom read1 DEAD, 2 INJURED, 1 MISSING – ATTACKER STILL AT LARGE.
She upped the volume.
“—are said to be in stable condition.The third woman who works here, Grace Lockhart, is still missing.Police are saying they have identified the attacker as Welsh Roebuck, who is employed at Cormorand Packaging.As of this broadcast, Mr.Roebuck’s whereabouts are unknown.Police are urging the public to call 9-1-1 immediately if they see this man.He is armed and dangerous.”
Welsh’s face appeared on the screen.To Grace, it looked like the photo he had taken for his files and security badge when he was employed.
The newsman returned and switched to another topic.Grace turned off the TV and lay back on the bed.
