“They’re b-cups, Rhash. They look good but they only go so far covered up,” I replied.
He twisted his torso and the light went out.
Then I heard him say, “Let’s move.”
* * * * *
We turned from the night clerk who was two hundred dollars richer and told us what we already knew from the empty, wrecked hotel room.
Serena’s client had paid in cash. The credit card he put on file for incidentals cleared at the time of check in which was eight o’clock. When the clerk ran it again, it had been reported stolen. Plus he had checked in under a different name and address than he’d given us.
The false name and paying in cash was not surprising. Clients did their best not to leave trails.
The address and stolen credit card, not good.
This meant he felt safe to leave the room in that state, knowing they couldn’t find him to charge him.
Knight had a stable of fifty-seven girls and shit happened. It was rare because Knight also had a reputation. Nevertheless, it happened sometimes. But no girl took a client without him being checked out. This was part of the work I did for Knight. He didn’t dig deep but he did dig. He never sent a girl out if the client was shady, had a record, cash flow problems or anything of concern turned up. We ran credit history, work history, financials, criminal records and we checked homes and places of work, all on the down low so as not to scare away clients.
In other words, this particular kind of shit did not happen.
Ever.
“His house,” Rhash growled. “Meet you there. I’ll text you details.”
“Right,” I muttered, walking beside him to the door. My head was tilted back, eyes up and aimed at his profile. I was assessing the level of his anger. I sensed it was not only increasing, but expanding to take in the guy who took his fist to Serena and whoever did the legwork on the client.
We were pushing out of the doors when I felt it.
Eyes on me.
I twisted my neck and shoved the door open with my gaze trained over my shoulder. I swept the reception area with not mild attention.
It was early morning, no one was there that I could see but the clerk.
Fuck.
I turned my attention to where I was going, heading for my girl in the lot.
This had been happening lately, too much. I long since learned how to sense it and read it. I might not be girlie but I’d have to be blind not to see that I wasn’t hard on the eyes. This meant I got a lot of looks.
This wasn’t that, some guy who liked what he saw and wanted in there.
This was a different kind of watching.
It had been going on now for about a month but every time I felt it, when I scanned or circled back to take a better look, I could find nothing.
I didn’t like it but there was nothing I could do if I couldn’t discover the source.
Now I had a job to do and I didn’t have the time to swing back into reception on the guise of asking the clerk more questions to see if someone was checking me out.
So I followed behind Rhash in his car with my eyes peeled, looking for a tail.
And finding nothing.
* * * * *
I stood in the empty living room trying to hold my shit.