Evertrue

TWENTY-ONE

NOW

The Surface. Jack’s car.

After we packed a few bags, we drove a half hour west, down Parley’s Canyon, to the larger city of Salt Lake City. Just to make sure everything was as random as possible, we wove through the city center and picked the tenth hotel we saw, a place called Hotel Monaco.

Before we even got to the clerk at the desk, Cole pulled out two of the cards and held them in front of him. It was as if he’d never paid for anything with them before. Like a six-year-old would act if he’d just found them on the floor.

“I’d like to buy a room!” he announced enthusiastically.

“Get a room,” I muttered out of the side of my mouth. “You’d like to get a room.”

“Yes,” Cole said. “A room. Please. I have these.”

Cole shoved both of the cards toward the clerk, surprising him. The clerk looked at the card. “I just need one of those. And a license.”

Cole’s eyes widened slightly, even though his smile remained frozen in place.

I leaned closer to him, keeping my eyes on the clerk, and whispered with my teeth clamped together. “It’s the one with your picture on it.”

“Right,” Cole said, relaxing. He handed the clerk the card.

The clerk started typing on his keyboard.

“Maybe we should get two rooms,” Jack said.

“We can’t leave Cole alone,” I said. “Who knows where he’ll wander in the middle of the night.”

Jack frowned but nodded.

The clerk handed Cole the key. Sixth floor. Two double beds. For now we were safe.

Once inside the room, Jack closed the door behind us, and for the first time in a long time, we all breathed a sigh of relief. Cole flopped down diagonally on the bed farther from the door as if he were at a sleepover and had no cares in the world.

Jack and I both glanced at the other bed, but then Cole scooted over. “Here, Nik. There’s plenty of room.”

Jack’s entire body tensed, so powerfully I expected a resulting energy wave to blast through the room. “No way in hell,” he said, much more calmly than his body language indicated.

Cole didn’t seem to notice Jack’s bulging biceps. He put his hands behind his head and wrinkled his eyebrows. “It’s feeding time. And it’s the most efficient way. That’s obvious, isn’t it?” As if purposely exacerbating the situation, he patted the mattress beside him. “The sooner the better,” he said.

I knew Jack was at his breaking point already with my life on the line and us on the run. I didn’t think he had anything left to hold his jealousy in check. Jack flinched toward Cole, but I put a hand on his arm and squeezed. “Jack, remember this is keeping me alive. And it means nothing.”

He sighed and then did something unexpected. He turned around and stormed out of the doorway.

Ten minutes later he stormed back in, grabbed our bags, and went back to the door, holding it open. “We’re switching rooms,” he said. “To one with a king.”

I closed my eyes. A king-size bed. For the three of us. Maybe some adult romance author somewhere was writing the beginning of a similar scene, and maybe that scene was supposed to be hot, but to me it felt like hell.