It died as she made it to the parking lot of the hideously titled No Tell Motel. She tried to turn the engine over but got nothing. Frustration welled as she put it in park and set the brake. At least she’d made it there.
But she didn’t see his truck. It wasn’t sitting outside the room he’d told her he was in.
Had he gone out to grab some food? Or maybe gone to her house? She wouldn’t put it past him to sneak in and do some work even though she wasn’t talking to him. She knocked on the door in case he’d parked somewhere else, but no one answered.
“You looking for the big guy?” The man who owned the motel had a bag of trash in his hand as he walked out of the room next door. “He checked out. Said he was leaving town. Sad because that dog of his might be my best guest.”
Harry was gone? “When did he leave?”
“Not more than ten minutes ago.” The man nodded toward the road. “Looked like he was taking the highway toward New Orleans.”
“Thanks.” She raced back to her car. It was possible she could still catch him if she got him on the phone and asked him to come back.
And that was the minute she realized this time she was the one who’d forgotten her phone. She’d rushed out, eager to see Harry and put things right between them, not bothering to remember that her phone was on the charger and not in her purse.
How had she let that happen? She needed to get to him. If she let him leave, he might not come back, might not let her say all the things she needed to say to him.
She heard the crunch of gravel as a car pulled up beside her. She glanced over and saw a black SUV with white lettering that proclaimed it represented the Papillon Parish Sheriff’s Office. The tinted window lowered and Deputy Roxie King sat in the front seat in her crisply pressed uniform, her eyes behind a pair of mirrored aviators.
“Hey, Sera, you all right?” Roxie asked in her no-nonsense manner. She gestured to the back of her vehicle. “He saw you and made me pull over to check on you. I told him you’re a grown-ass woman who doesn’t need her baby brother making sure she doesn’t hang out at hooker motels, but he can be annoying.”
She looked in the back, and sure enough, Zep was there, his hands in cuffs.
He grinned her way, holding them up. “Don’t worry about this. It’s a thing between us. I think it’s her way of flirting.”
Roxie’s expression didn’t change but Sera could practically feel the woman’s eyes rolling. “He’s got a warrant for unpaid parking tickets.”
“I told you why I can’t pay them,” Zep insisted. “Sera needs a lawyer.”
“No, I don’t. Celeste came by and she’s dropping all legal action,” Sera explained. They still might be the solution to her problem. “I came to find Harry, but he just left. He was on his way out of town. If he leaves, I won’t know where he is, but I can’t go after him because my car broke down. I think I still might be able to catch him. He was on the road toward New Orleans.”
“Come on, Roxie. This is true love on the line,” Zep argued. “You know you can catch him. You can turn the lights on and make this happen. They’ll have to name their first child after you and everything. And I’ll have money to pay those parking tickets.”
The gorgeous deputy’s lips curled up slightly. “Well, I wasn’t doing anything important anyway.”
“Hey, I’m a dangerous criminal.” Her brother was frowning.
“Only to beer bottles and hot wings.” Roxie opened the door and got out, moving to let Sera in the back. “Let’s go find your guy. Hey, you want me to arrest him? I bet he would look good in cuffs.”
Zep’s eyes flared. “I knew that was why you did it. I make these things look good.”
“No,” Sera said, sliding in beside him. Unlike her brother, it was her first time in the back of a parish vehicle. Roxie apparently liked to keep it clean and cozy. “I want to hug him. I want to tell him I love him.”
Roxie got into the driver’s seat and flipped on her siren and lights.