Wolf's Hunger (Mafia Monsters #5) - Atlas Rose Page 0,65

Music drifted from the bar across the parking lot. I glanced down to my black shirt, then my hands, and winced. A slimy green pool was behind us, illuminated by a single floodlight that highlighted the UNDER CONSTRUCTION - KEEP OUT sign tied to the front of the gate with black cable ties. But beside the closed gate was a faucet, one I prayed still worked. I strode toward the damn thing, listening to the hollering inside the bar, out of tune with the blaring country music.

I twisted the water on and washed my hands before smacking my wet palms on my jeans and headed for the motel office. Thirty minutes tops…that’s all we needed and we were out of there.

Leave now…my beast growled, pissed off. Keep on driving.

I yanked the door open and winced at the loud ding above my head.

“Be right there,” called a woman from behind the doorway marked Private. I glanced around the dusty room at a cork-board covered with faded pamphlets of white water rafting and warm mud springs before the sound of footsteps drew my gaze.

She stepped through the doorway, wiping her hands on a hand towel, and lifted her gaze to me. One careful scan, and she flinched when she met my gaze. Her voice lowered just a bit. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m after a room for the night,” I answered, and reached for my wallet. “Paying cash.”

One nervous glance out the window as she stared at the Explorer. “For three of you?”

“Just one.” I pulled out a hundred dollars. “All we want is a shower, and we’ll be out of here.”

She licked her lips, her gaze moving somewhere else before coming back to the bills in my hand. But her gaze went straight back to the window behind me. I waited for the snarl as she told me to piss off. Instead, she took a slow step forward and dropped the towel on the edge of the counter, motioning her head toward an open register book. “Name and address…for the damn accountant. It’ll be two hundred.”

I flinched at the amount, glanced at the Guaranteed 80 Dollars a Night sign over the counter, then met the steel in her eyes. Like the fucking bitch was goading me. But I lifted my wallet once more and pulled out two more bills, stepping forward and tossing them on the counter.

She reached behind her, grabbed a key from a board, and placed it in front of me.

Fuck her register book.

And fuck her.

I grabbed the key and turned, striding from the office, and headed to the four-wheel drive. The sooner we were showered and out of there, the better. Church was out of the car when I neared, massaging aching muscles in his back. One glance at the brightly lit office and he muttered, “All good.”

I gave a nod before I yanked open the door and tossed the key to the room to him. “We’re out of here as soon as we can.”

She’d given us room eight and by the look of the paint-peeling 1 on the closest door, I was betting we were all the way at the back in the shadows. “Meet you at the end,” I muttered to Church, then climbed in and started the Explorer once more.

I backed the four-wheel drive into the parking space outside the room and glanced at the low needle on the gas gauge. First chance we got, we’d get out of this shithole, gas up, and get back to the city.

Church was already inside, the hiss of the shower echoing as Arran hauled a bag out of the car and into the room. But as I closed the door behind me, I couldn’t help but peer through the curtains.

There she was, the goddamn clerk tottering herself across the parking lot…and heading toward the redneck bar. “You’ll need to make it fast,” I barked.

Arran stepped up behind me and looked over my shoulder. “Trouble?”

“More than likely.”

“Damn,” he hissed, and strode to the bathroom, giving the door a bash before yelling through it. “Heads up! We might have trouble.”

I turned as choice words were muttered from the other side of the door. The shower ended seconds later and a very wet and pissed off Church strode from the bathroom, dripping all over the floor. “Can’t even have a fucking shower. What is it with these people?”

I didn’t know, but I watched the woman from the office open the door and disappear inside the bar. We’d danced this fucking