keep her breasts covered, she rolled onto her back and glanced toward the door. Four men stood just inside it. All resembled the soldiers in black from the previous night. All bore semiautomatic rifles or handguns. All stared at her while a fifth man wearing a worn plaid shirt jumped up and down behind them, trying to get a look.
Her cheeks heated. “We thought it was the TV. When you knocked, we… uh, were distracted and thought it was the TV.”
Taelon wrapped a protective arm around her and glowered.
Agent Walker—a man with short, dark blond hair and bright blue eyes—studied them. “We’re following up on a lead. I’m going to ask you again. What are the two of you doing here?”
“Taking a vacation,” she said before Taelon could snarl at him again.
“The only car in the parking lot is a Humvee. Is that yours?”
“No. It was there when we checked in last night.”
“Where’s your car?”
“At home. A Forward Mover brought us.”
“Forward Mover?”
“Yeah. It’s like Uber.”
“Why didn’t you drive yourselves?”
“None of your fucking business,” Taelon growled.
Lisa patted his chest. “May we see some identification? You guys just burst in here with weapons and started yelling. We don’t know you from Adam, so I really don’t feel comfortable answering your questions.”
The man grabbed the badge hanging on a chain around his neck and held it up.
Lisa met his gaze. “How do we know you didn’t buy that online?”
Sighing, he released his rifle, letting it hang from a shoulder strap, and reached into a back pocket. Drawing out what appeared to be a flat wallet, he opened it and held it up for her. The ID looked official and bore his image, but she still silently called bullshit. Not one of them wore jackets with DEA boldly emblazoned upon them the way she’d seen in the news.
The man returned it to his back pocket. “Why didn’t you drive yourselves here?” he asked, casually reclaiming his weapon without aiming it at them.
“The whole purpose of coming here was to reduce stress. Fighting traffic would’ve been counterproductive,” she improvised.
He surveyed the room. “I don’t see any luggage.”
“Because there isn’t any. We don’t need it. We’re only going to be here a couple of nights.”
He arched a brow. “No cell phone either? No tablet or laptop?”
“No.”
He eyed her balefully. “You don’t find that suspicious?”
“No.” Her mind worked furiously. “Look, we do this several times a year. We get tired of the constant hustle and bustle, the stress of work and deadlines and dealing with everyday hassles. So whenever it starts to feel like we’re ready to explode or like we’re so busy we just pass each other in the hallway, we get out of the city, leave everything behind, and spend two or three days together. No cell phones. No tablets. No laptops. No distractions. No interruptions. Just the two of us reconnecting.”
Taelon glared at the men. “And we were reconnecting very well until you interrupted us.”
One of the men snorted when he tried to hold back a laugh.
Agent Walker cut him a look. “Why here?” He looked around the drab room. “I wouldn’t exactly call this place romantic.”
It was pretty crappy. Lisa feigned a sigh. “How many cars are in the parking lot right now?”
“Aside from ours? One.”
“Exactly. No other patrons means no noise. This place is quiet. We were worried at first when we saw the guy in the Humvee. But he took a room way down on the end. So if he blasted music or his TV, we didn’t hear it.”
His gaze sharpened. “You saw the driver of the Humvee?”
“Yes. He was already here when we arrived and signed in right after we did.”
“What did he look like?”
Taelon spoke. “He looked like you. Same clothes. Short hair. No weapon though, as far as we could see.”
“His uniform was black like ours, not green camo?”
“Correct.”
Lisa frowned. “Is he who you’re looking for? Is he dangerous?”
Taelon nodded, getting into the game. “Should we leave?”
“No.” The man’s brow furrowed as if he still wasn’t sure he trusted them but found their explanation plausible. “No, you should be fine. His bed hasn’t been slept in and there’s no sign of him. He probably bailed during the night.”
One of the other men grimaced. “Henderson is going to be pissed.”
“So is Reordon,” Walker said. “He and the North Carolina crew want every loose end tied up.” He studied Lisa and Taelon a moment more, then sighed. “Fine. We’ll leave now.”
“About fucking time,” Taelon growled.
Lips tightening, Walker followed the others