talking to someone else in my ear.” He pulled his earpiece out and showed her.
Her eyebrows wrinkled together and she cocked her head, then she sat in uneasy silence.
“Peter, this is Colin. I have a plan, but I need you to distract the hulk so I can sneak out of this room.”
“What do you want me to do?” Peter asked, distancing himself from the girl.
“Take the ice bucket to the door and ask the guy to get you some ice. Of course, he won’t, but it will sway his attention for a few seconds.”
“I can do that,” Peter replied.
The girl watched as he grabbed the ice bucket off the dresser and went to the door. As Peter opened it, the large man spun around and glared at him. Holding up the bucket, he asked, “If it’s not too much trouble, big guy, would you mind getting us some ice? I think the machine might be by the stairs, but I’m not sure. Here’s the bucket.” Peter held it out to him.
“Me get ice? No. You want ice, you get it.” He shook his head as he turned back around and retook his post.
“Never mind.” Peter slowly shut the door.
“Give us a few minutes, Peter. Emily and I have a plan. You might hear a ruckus outside your door for a second. Don’t panic.”
“You have things under control over there, Andrews?” Ellis asked.
“Yes, sir. We’ll give you an update as soon as we get this goon out of the way.”
~*~
The elevator tone dinged as the doors slid open. Out stepped Emily clinging to Colin, pretending they’d had too much to drink and were on the way to their room. Laughing and staggering down the hallway, they kept an eye on the Asian hulk. They stopped at the room directly across from Peter’s.
“Where’s your key card?” Colin asked with a drunken slur.
“Shoot!” Emily screeched, stamping one foot for emphasis. “I forgot my purse in the bar.” She giggled then hiccupped like a woman who had had too much bubbly.
“All right, sweetie,” Colin said. “You wait right here and I’ll go down and get it for you.” He stumbled away.
Emily wandered over to the man standing guard and attempted to start up a conversation to distract his attention. “Why are you standing out here? You locked out of your room?” she asked, swaying and slurring her words only inches from his face.
“Go away, lady.”
“Okay,” she sang, before unleashing her fury. In a matter of seconds, Emily stomped hard on his foot with the sharp heel of her boot, then she jerked her knee up into the man’s groin. As he bent over in mind-numbing pain, she jabbed her elbow in his face.
Without giving him a moment to recover from the surprise attack, Colin had the muzzle of his Glock pressed against the man’s neck. “Get your hands up!”
The man did as he was ordered, seething with anger, blood dripping from his nose.
Emily gingerly reached inside the man’s jacket and pulled out the handgun he had in a holster under his arm. “What about his phone?” she asked, pulling it out of his breast pocket.
“Pesani, Cleaver, I need you out in the hallway to take the trash out,” Colin ordered as he grabbed the man’s hands, one at a time, and brought them down and cuffed him. He took the man’s gun from Emily and stuffed it in the back of his belt.
One officer stepped out of Peter’s room and the other came sprinting down the hall from the stairway toward them.
“Take him into room three eighteen and gag him. We can’t have him warning the woman,” Collin called after the cops as they took the man down the hall.
“We make a pretty good team,” Emily said, grinning up at Colin.
“We certainly do, but we ought to get inside, don’t you think?” He tapped on the door.
“Good work Colin and Emily,” Ellis praised through their earpieces.
“Thanks, boss, but it’s not nearly over. We’ve got to find Molly.” Emily entered Peter’s room and Colin followed.
“SWAT has an unmarked surveillance van already in position near the house. I’ve been given word they’re picking up four bodies on the heat sensor, two moving around on the main floor and two stationary upstairs.”
“My man, Mason, is down in the lobby keeping watch over the woman,” Colin reported. “She went in the bar. He’ll let us know when she’s on her way back up.”
“She’s probably in there sipping a mai tai, waiting while her girl does her dirty work.”