A Necessary Evil

CHAPTER 82

The Embassy Suites

Omaha, Nebraska

Nick walked past the door to Maggie's suite and found himself hesitating. Ever since last night he wanted to knock. He dared himself to knock, coming close a couple of times. His hands were filled this time with junk food he had loaded up on from the hotel-lobby gift shop. So he had an excuse. "Coward," he muttered to himself then remembered for the third or fourth time how ridiculous he was being. He hated that Maggie O'Dell still managed to push his buttons. After all this time he was so certain he was over her, that the only remaining feeling was anger. And he was still angry. But everything seemed to melt away when he looked into those dark brown eyes, everything including his knees. He was embarrassed to admit it, but no woman had ever knocked him so out of whack as Maggie O'Dell. And he hated that she seemed to be able to do that even without trying.

He knocked, instead, on the door to his own suite with his elbow since he had no free hand to knock, let alone dig out his key card.

Gibson opened the door so quickly it startled Nick, and he juggled the bags of chips and candy bars before everything became an avalanche.

"Here, let me get some of that," Gibson said, reaching out to help.

As soon as he had a free hand, Nick punched the volume down a couple notches as he passed by the TV. The room-service menu was still on the bed. All the pillows had been pulled out from under the covers and were stacked for TV-viewing comfort.

"They've got a couple of cool movies on later," Gibson said, unpacking the stash and lining it up neatly on the desk.

"Where's Timmy?" Nick asked, glancing around and noticing that the bathroom door was open.

"Didn't you meet him in the lobby?"

"No, I was down in the gift shop getting all this stuff."

Gibson looked genuinely confused. "The desk clerk called just a few minutes ago. He said that you wanted Timmy to meet you in the lobby to help carry some stuff up."

"I never asked the desk clerk to _ " Suddenly Nick's stomach took a nosedive. "Did you talk to the guy or did Timmy?"

"Timmy did. He just left. I thought he was with you."

Nick could see Gibson getting worried now and he didn't want him to see the panic that was beginning to crawl up the back of his neck.

"I'm going back down to the lobby to see if I missed him, okay?"

"I'll go with you."

"No," Nick practically shouted and saw Gibson flinch. "You stay here in case he comes back. I don't want us all wandering around the hotel looking for each other."

"Okay."

"I'll be right back." He stopped himself and put a hand on Gibson's shoulder. "Hey, everything's okay. We probably just missed each other. I'll be right back."

But as soon as the door closed behind him, Nick sprinted for the elevators. He hadn't asked any desk clerk to call for him. If Brother Sebastian was into playing games like this then Nick hated to see what else he was capable of doing. What the hell did the guy want?