Page 30 of Kiss Across the Universe
There was still the possibility that Alannah wasn’t anywhere near Canmore. Only, Aran had said she was here. Kit didn’t believe in voodoo shit, not even his tribe’s brand of magic and mysticism, but there was something about the way Aran had spoken…
If this hotel didn’t pan out, Kit would phone Aran and ask him where to look next. He didn’t know why he should do that, but this whole day was on the outer edge of the weird spectrum. Asking Aran to point him in the right direction seemed like a smart thing to do, under the circumstances.
Aran’s flat, sincere claim that his sister was in Canmore was just one more odd note among a lot of odd notes about Veris’ family. Kit hadn’t properly noticed them before, but Alannah’s complaint about everyone not being free to talk while Kit had been in the house had made him tote up the…well, the odd things that had only registered subconsciously, until he’d deliberately dredged them up.
The way Veris’ extended family seemed happy to drop hundreds, no,thousandsof dollars on international travel to come visit for a few days. All of them, and often.
The way Alannah just showed up at the house. Or just showed up in Canmore, to pick up groceries or visit the pharmacy, or just shop. He couldn’t remember seeing her ever driving a car. She just strolled across the parking lots, her long legs swinging.
The way Veris avoided drinking anything at all. He pretended to sip, but Kit had never smelled alcohol on the man’s breath, even though the level in his glass dropped steadily. Kit had presumed Veris was either a recovering alcoholic and didn’t feel comfortable sharing that with Kit, yet, or he was avoiding alcohol for other reasons.
But now Kit added that to the odd notes list.
Phoning Aran and asking him where to look for his sister didn’t seem strange, on that list.
And there was still the smallest possibility, one Kit didn’t believe, that Alannah had been so excited to rush to this hotel with a lover, she’d skipped out of the house and left her cellphone and handbag behind. Oh, and left the window open and busted the front door lock on her way out the door.
Yeah, right. And it wasn’t simply that he didn’twantthe possibility to be true, either. It was just ridiculous. Alannah was sophisticated. The prospect of sex wouldn’t cause her to lose all good sense.
Kit turned his mind away from that and weighed up his options, instead. He could step into the hotel. Move up and down the corridors, listening. See if he could spot or hear something that told him the asshole had Alannah in one of the rooms.
How long would it take the hotel security to spot him wandering the corridors of every floor? He couldn’t give a good explanation for doing that, either. He had no proof that anything was wrong, except for a cellphone left behind and a busted lock.
And he wasn’t a cop. He’d be tossed out on his ear because the staff at this hotel didn’t know him. The senior management was new to Canmore. Anderson, the manager, was new. Kit could maybe talk fast if it had been any of the other hotels and motels in town, because there was a good chance he’d know at least one of the staff or they’d know him by sight.
A car jerked over the speed bumps at the edge of the guest lot, almost scraping its differential on the top, for it was a low slung Mustang.
Kit shifted a few inches to his left, so the truck hid him from the car, and watched the Mustang through the windows, his heart thudding. There was no reason why the Mustang wasthecar, but the gut instinct that had been pushing him along was screaming at him again.
The Mustang parked in a bay between two other cars. A man got out and locked the car with an electronic beep, then moved confidently toward the hotel. He carried a green recycled shopping bag with no store name on it, and he wasn’t angling toward the front entrance.
Kit had spotted the side entrance already. Even from where his truck sat, he could see the electronic lock on the wall beside it. Only guests could get in through that door, by waving their room key over the lock plate. Kit had assumed he would have to go through the front door and march through the foyer with his nose in the air.
Instead, he straightened and moved up along the side of his truck, angling toward the guest door, timing his pace so that he would arrive at the door just behind the Mustang driver.
Kit took only one flashing look at the man, then pulled out his cellphone and pretended to be reading texts and swiping as he walked. The man was tall, maybe just over six feet, with iron grey hair that floated around his shoulders in straight, thick locks. His full beard was neatly trimmed and pure white, but the face—from this distance—seemed to be unlined and youthful, in contrast to the grey hair and white beard.
The man moved like a young man, too. He had long legs and used them to elongate his stride. He covered ground quickly, forcing Kit to pick up his own speed so he could tailgate the man into the building.
The man reached the door and pulled a room key out of his back pocket, beneath the jeans jacket. Kit reached into his inner pocket and pulled a random credit card from his wallet clip and cupped it in his hand so the front of the card couldn’t be seen.
Iron Grey pulled the door open, then held it open for Kit.
Kit looked up, made himself look surprised, and nodded. “Thanks.” He pushed the credit card back into his jacket.
Iron Grey nodded back without a word. Kit slipped through the door and moved along it confidently, as if he knew exactly where he was going. His heart hammered. Where was the goddamn elevator?
The elevators were in a recess along the corridor, two shining steel doors. Twenty yards farther down the corridor were more glass doors and beyond them, the hotel foyer. The corridor smelled of new paint and carpet glue, sharply astringent.
Kit pressed the up button. Iron Grey stopped to his left and just behind him, making the flesh on Kit’s back crawl.
Was this the asshole? Until Kit could examine the Mustang’s tires, there was no way to be sure.
But heknew.
The left elevator door slid open with a soft chime. More steel, more new carpet, and smoked mirrors on the back wall. Kit stepped in, and pushed the fifth floor button, the highest floor available by elevator.
Iron Grey stepped in and turned to face the doors. Kit looked at him and raised a brow.
