Turning to give Holbrook a brief nod to let him know that I was ready, I was struck by his transformation. He looked as though he had aged ten years in the span of just a few minutes, his eyes tired and lacking their usual brightness, while his face appeared haggard and worn. He opened the door and I braced myself for the barrage of cold wind and soulless journalists waiting outside.
I thought being escorted to the SUV by a contingent of stoic agents was a bit much, but I wasn’t going to argue with the look on Holbrook’s face, and I did have to admit that they provided an effective barrier between me and the clamoring paparazzi. Not wanting to add to the strain weighing down Holbrook’s shoulders, I got into the back of the SUV without complaint, though I was surprised when two agents climbed in on either side of me, pinning me in the middle with Loki’s carrier perched on my lap. Neither of them so much as looked at me, leaving tense silence to reign inside the vehicle.
I watched through the windshield as several equally stoic agents piled into an identical SUV with the efficiency of a team of Navy Seals. They may have been lacking anything even closely resembling human emotion, but they sure looked as though they were capable of protecting my ass. My relief was almost palpable when I saw Holbrook stalk towards our car and slide into the passenger seat; at least I wasn’t being left alone with the Sunshine Twins. A second later, my sense of relief crumbled when Johnson slid into the driver’s seat without saying a word.
“All set?” Holbrook asked, twisting in his seat to look at me sandwiched between the agents in the back.
Loki yowled in reply, one fluffy paw extending through the bars of his carrier, reaching towards Holbrook.
“As we’ll ever be.”
The drive from Breckenridge to Dillon shouldn’t have taken more than thirty minutes, but with the roads clogged by the drifting snow and increased traffic from Chrismer’s soul-sucking ilk, it took us well over an hour to make the short trip. By the time we pulled up in front of the Motel 6, I was desperate to get out of the car, a line of sweat running down my sides where the agents were pressed against me. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given enough time to catch my breath, let alone cool off a little, before Holbrook and the other agents were ushering me inside. Their vigilance was reassuring, but grated nonetheless.
A harried looking clerk was already waiting for us in the lobby when we entered, trailing snow and malcontent behind us. The clerk handed over our room keys to Johnson, his hands shaking so much that he almost dropped the little plastic cards. It didn’t take a genius to figure out why he was nervous—the stink of pot hovered around him in a noxious cloud.
The elevator ride up to the third floor was as tense and silent as the drive from Breckenridge had been, and even Loki remained uncharacteristically quiet and still in his carrier. When the doors slid open on the empty hallway Johnson pulled one of the door keys from the stack and thrust the rest at Holbrook before stalking down the hall in search of his room. Apparently, I was still on his shit list.
“You guys are with me,” Holbrook said to the other agents, leading us down the hallway.
My room was a step above the one I’d had at the Knotty Pine, but the garish bedspreads and manufactured feel of the room still left me with a sense of depression.
“Collins and Hill will be stationed outside, and I’ll be next door if you need anything,” Holbrook said as he swept the room, checking the window and peering into the bathroom. “Do you need anything?”
“I don’t think so. It’s just…” I trailed off, fiddling with the zipper on my jacket.
“What?”
“Will you stay with me?” I asked. Sparing a glance for the doorway I saw the two agents standing in the hallway, their gazes locked on the opposite wall, though I had no doubt they’d heard me.
“Ah…sure.”
“I’m just going to change,” I said, grabbing a couple things out of my bag on my way to the bathroom.
I knew it was silly to run off to the bathroom to change into my pajamas, Holbrook had seen me naked more than once after all, but everything that had happened that evening had left me shaken and vulnerable. I needed some space, just a few minutes to myself to gather my strength, if I wanted any hope of making it through the night without losing my mind. It wasn’t until I’d already stripped off my shirt and bra that I remembered Loki was still in his crate.
Dammit!
Poking my head back into the room, I found Holbrook standing at the window with the drapes pulled aside just enough to let him peer out into the night.
“Can you let Loki out?”
Drawing back from the window as if he’d been doing something untoward, he looked back over his shoulder at me, his gaze lingering on my bare arm where it crossed over my chest.
“Sure. Want me to feed him, too?”