Taking a deep breath, I decided to change my tack.
A crying woman still worked with women, just in a different way.
It was surprisingly easy to summon tears thanks to all the worry, the sleepless night, and the confusion I’d been feeling about Valen for so long.
“Can I help… are you okay?” the kind, middle-aged lady asked when she looked up from her sudoku to see me standing there with tears running down my face.
“No,” I said, voice catching a bit. Because it was true. I wasn’t. I wouldn’t be. Not until I knew he was okay. “I’ve been to every hotel and seedy motel in the county,” I told her. “I’m looking for my husband,” I added, making sure my left hand was out of sight. “He didn’t come home last night. And I think… I think he is out with one of his… whores again,” I said, reaching up to wipe the tears off my face, hoping I was selling it well enough. “I just… I have to catch him this time. My lawyer said I would never get anything unless I prove he cheated. Not even with the kids,” I added.
“Oh, honey. I… it’s company policy that we can’t give out information about clients.”
“I know. I know. They’ve told me that everywhere. But I know that’s his bike out there,” I said, waving toward the lot where his bike wasn’t, but I saw a light in her eyes that said she knew exactly who I was talking about. “He’s here. And I just need… I just need to snap a picture. I swear I won’t tell anyone that you told me where he was.”
To that, the lady sighed, nodding her head.
“My ex-husband fucked everything that moved,” she said. “Gambled away our house too,” she added. Then she stood, grabbing a key card and putting it down on the desk. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about who may or may not be staying in room 7C,” she said, giving me a small smirk. “I have to go check and make sure the snack dispenser is working,” she added. “It’s been on the fritz,” she told me as she moved out from behind the desk. “Get some justice for you and those babies,” she said before she was gone.
Alone, I snatched the key card and made my way to the elevator.
I didn’t feel guilty about lying.
Not if it meant possibly saving Valen.
7C was located at the back of the building on the second floor above the lobby level.
Taking a deep breath, I put in the key and moved into the room.
Nothing seemed off at first. Save for maybe the fact that it didn’t look like anyone had been staying there, of course. Since he hadn’t.
It wasn’t until I checked out the closet and saw the duffle bags there that I felt my hair starting to stand up.
I knew the second I picked it up, from the way the contents clacked together, what was inside.
Guns.
But I took it over to the bed and unzipped it.
There were handguns, sure. But also the kinds of guns that did a fuck of a lot of damage in a short amount of time.
My gaze immediately went to the windows again, this time seeing the small set of binoculars situated on the windowsill.
“I knew it,” I mumbled to myself as I made my way over there, picking them up, and looking down at the building behind the hotel.
Everything was still as far as I could tell.
As it would be if they’d spent the night before breaking into a jewelry store.
Valen’s bike was nowhere to be found, and I couldn’t decide if that was a good, or a really bad, thing.
Would Valen really have walked into a trap? When he had so much prepared to try to take them out? If he went with them willingly, surely he thought he was going to make it through the night. Right?
Right.
He would never leave his parents and sister hanging that way.
He would have at least called them and told them he loved them.
With a sigh, I moved away from the window, finding the hotel notepad on the table. With a list of names and descriptions.
Six guys. Plus Curtis.
I was pretty damn outnumbered.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
And it wouldn’t matter if I had the upper hand. If I could catch them unaware. If I could pick them off before they even knew I was around.
I wasn’t shy about taking lives. Especially the lives of rapists killing dickheads. Some lives simply needed to be snuffed out. The world was better off without them. My father taught me that.
Reaching for my phone, I shot a text to Adler and then Fallon.
I knew what they were likely to do.
Wait until nightfall.
Less witnesses.
I even had to agree that it was the smart plan.