Page 41 of All In

I watch as he gathers clothing from his bag and steps into the bathroom. The door swings toward the frame, but it doesn’t click closed.

I wait for the water to turn on and scramble over to the telephone.

There’s a little card on the front with instructions on how to dial out of the hotel system, and it even has the address and phone number of the hotel.

Yanking up the receiver, I try Lyra first.

It doesn’t even ring, and my panic rises. That’s not a good sign.

I leave her a frantic message, telling her I’m okay but that I don’t have the first clue what’s going on.

I hang up and try again, but it immediately goes to voicemail.

My thoughts race through who else I can call. I could reach out to my dads, but I’m also a little worried they’d be way out of their depth with this situation.

Locke.

I have no idea why he feels like my best choice, except that he asked me out and he’s in charge of Will’s security.

I’m pretty sure I know the area code and first three digits of Locke’s phone number because they are the same as Will’s.

The last four are kind of a jumbled mess in my mind.

Pulling the receiver back to my ear, my hand shakes as I try the number I think it might be.

I’m wrong four times in a row.

I try a fifth and get another voicemail that doesn’t belong to Locke.

The water in the shower cuts off, and I carefully place the phone back in the receiver.

Oh, shit.

What if one of those phone numbers sees a missed call and calls back? What if I actually got Locke’s number right, but he missed the call?

I gently tug the cord out of the back of the phone and scramble over to the bed I was on when Tanner went into the bathroom.

I stretch out on my side with my back to the hotel door and wait.

Tanner comes out a few minutes later, drying his blondish-brown hair with a towel. He’s in a white T-shirt and dark gray sweats.

Okay, so it wasn’t the tactical gear that made him seem so buff. He’s extremely muscular, with big bubbly tattoos covering the parts of his arms and chest that I can see. They’re made up of bright colors, like orange, blue, green, and purple. The style seems to match his outgoing personality, but he could be good at putting on an act.

He tosses the towel over the chair at the small table and strides over. His head twists between the exit and the bed I’m on.

“I’m going to feel more comfortable if I’m between you and the door.” He climbs onto the bed behind me, and I roll to face him. “You can move over to the empty bed if you want.”

I shake my head as he stretches back against the headboard.

“Are you cold? You can get under the covers.”

“Yeah.” I wiggle backwards on my elbows until they’re no longer on the blanket and pull the comforter down while holding my weight off of it.

“You make me feel downright chatty.” He laughs, tugging the blanket up to my shoulders. Because of the way he’s sitting, it only covers his waist and legs. “My mom always says I’ve never met a stranger.”

“I’ve heard that before, but I really don’t understand the phrase.”

“It means I treat everyone like a long-lost friend and talk their ear off.”

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