She shrugged. “I didn’t. The first time they were out there, I was all come quick, Gwen. Look.” She shook the once joyful memory from her head. “They’re dead?”
Eliza’s gaze moved from Michael to Karen. “Electrocuted.”
“And it wasn’t an accident?”
“No…or at least, we don’t think so.”
There was a hesitation in Eliza’s voice. “You don’t think so?”
“Neil phoned Blake shortly after it happened. Gwen called me. Neil sounded lethal.”
“Lethal?” Karen interrupted. “Neil is never anything other than painfully silent.”
“In Carter’s words, ‘I’ve never heard a more deadly voice in my life.’ He had Carter call in a favor so he could investigate the neighbors’ backyard after the police arrived. According to Dean, they found a bunch of dead birds in the Jacuzzi and Neil freaked.”
Karen’s body chilled. “Birds?”
“Yeah, ravens. We don’t even have ravens in this part of Southern California.”
Karen ran her hands up her suddenly chilled arms.
“Karen?” Michael asked…looking at her. “You OK?”
No! She was anything but OK. The memory of the dead bird, a bird she assumed was a crow but could have been a raven, on the sill and again at the door of the car at the restaurant. Now two people were dead.
“Karen?”
“Are you sure it was a raven?”
“A couple actually…why?”
“I think they were murdered. Neil needed to get her out of there.” And there was no guarantee she was safe either.
“Chew this.” Neil shoved a stick of gum in her mouth.
They were sitting on a dark road on the outskirts of town. From the looks of the lights in the distance, it was a small town with only a half dozen hotels at best.
“Why?” she asked, accepting the gum and making quick work of bringing the stiff substance into submission.
“Chew with your mouth open?”
She opened her mouth and tried. Then started to laugh.
“Sleeping in the backseat sound good to you, Gwendolyn?”
She tried harder. But chewing with her mouth open went against every grain in her body.
“Better?”
He nodded. “Now slouch.”
She pushed her shoulders forward and thought of a hot shower.
“Good,” Neil praised.
She sat, hunched in the passenger seat chewing her gum like a cow in a field.
“OK…good.” Neil rubbed his hands on his jeans before gripping the wheel. “I’m going to go in and book the room. I’ll use the name of Rex Smith.”
“Sounds generic.”
“It is. All you need to do is step out of the car and lean over the hood. If I look out at you, smile and think of every p**n movie you’ve ever watched.”
She gasped. “I’ve never—”
He stopped her denial with a look. “Do I need to remind you who’s been listening to your conversations over the last year?”
“That is not fair! I simply said, once by the way, that I’ve yet to see an attractive man in any of those films.” And it was a conversation on the eve of Eliza’s wedding during which she was quite intoxicated.
Neil waited for her patient denial to end. “Like I was saying…think of the women in those films and play for the camera.”
“Is there anything you don’t know about me?”
His gaze dropped to her br**sts and back to her face.
Heat rushed through her body.
“Plenty.”
She diverted her gaze and stared out the window. “Well let’s go. Clean sheets and a hot shower await.”
As the last remaining miles passed, Gwen felt more comfortable chewing her gum with it nearly falling out of her mouth.
Neil drove through the town, twice, before settling on a small strip hotel with a vacancy sign.
“The show starts when we pull in the place. You’re my night’s entertainment and anyone watching needs to see it.”
Gwen unhooked her seat belt and scooted closer. She rested her hand on his thigh and curled close. “This good?”
Neil stretched his thick neck. “Fine.”
If she had to act the part, she might as well enjoy it.
A fan blew hot air around the reception desk of the motel lobby. Lobby being a loose term for the small space designed to register overnight guests. Neil rang the bell and kept his face as angled as he could from the camera pointing at him. Even dives like this liked some security. Chances were, the tapes were recorded over in a matter of days to keep from having to store data. Places like this didn’t often feel the need to upgrade their systems so video files could be stored on a computer and nothing would have to be erased. The attitude “It’s worked this well this long, no need to change it” often won at the end of the day.
Neil rang the bell a second time and glanced over his shoulder at Gwen.
She leaned against the car with one leg bent. Her hand waved in the air as she fanned herself and lifted her chin to the sky, pushing her br**sts against the fabric of her shirt.
He had to admit she was sexy as hell.
The sound of the TV in the other room went down and Neil hit the bell a third time.
“Comin’,” someone said.
A middle-aged man lumbered from the back room, his beer gut preceding him by about a foot.
“Sorry ’bout that. Didn’t hear ya over the set.”