Page 58 of Warped

Chapter Twenty-four

V

X drove us back to the motel.

We’d checked in for a week, thinking at the time that I was going to need to stay in New York for a while because of the trial. Of course, that wasn’t going to be an issue now, but it was good to know we had a place to go back to. I wondered if people were searching Harvey’s place yet, if he’d been reported missing or dead. We were still driving his car, which we needed to do something about very soon. It was bound to land us in trouble. Same with his phone.

I said as much to X.

He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. The only reason I haven’t done it already is because Harvey didn’t have any close family. The only people he had around him were work colleagues, and not showing up at work for a day or two probably isn’t going to get anyone too worried yet. Of course, if his body’s found, we’re in a whole other game, but I was hoping we had luck on our side for once. Now we’ve got the stuff from the luggage storage, we’ll go and rent a car legally. No one will know the name of the new ID, where people would have known the name Lee Mason, which is the one the doctors and police called me after I was pulled out of the water. There’s still a chance the wrong person will have seen the newspaper article—the same one Harvey found me by—and use the card and name trail I’ve left across the city to track me down.”

I frowned. “Wrong person, as in Tony or my father?”

He hesitated then said, “I pissed off plenty of people before you and I met, Vee. It’s not as though my life was all sweetness and light before you came along. Don’t forget that.”

Was he implying I was making everything about me? I guessed he was, and he had a right to. I had made everything all about me. I had never felt like I’d had much choice.

He pulled the car into the parking space outside of our room. I climbed out of the car, and he got out from behind the wheel.

“Vee, wait.”

Something about his voice made me stop in my tracks. “What’s wrong?” I looked over at him, my eyes widened. He lifted a hand to stop me, but continued to stare at the door of our room.

“I think someone’s been here.”

“What?”

“The door is open a crack. I can see it from here.”

Unexpected fury rose up inside me. “What the fuck?”

Why couldn’t people just leave us the hell alone for even a minute? All I’d wanted was to be able to collapse on the bed for an hour, and process everything that had happened, and now I couldn’t even do that. I was mad. Fucking furious. With my shoulders squared, nostrils flaring, and jaw tight, I stormed around to the trunk and popped it open. X’s case sat in the back. I tried to open it, but then saw it had a combination lock.

“Open it,” I demanded. “Now.”

“What are you doing, Vee?” he hissed at me.

“I want a gun. If someone is still in there, I’m going to blow his fucking head off.”

“Vee …” He warned.

“Do it, now. Or I’ll go in there empty handed and claw the fucker’s eyes out. You know I will.”

He saw I wasn’t kidding. He popped open the case and put a clip in the handgun before handing it to me. He took the other one for himself. We should have brought the ones we’d taken from Harvey with us. Whoever had broken into the room most likely would have taken them, assuming they weren’t still in there. I hoped they were. After everything that had happened, I had revenge and fury boiling through my veins, and I wanted nothing more than the sweet satisfaction of watching someone’s brains splatter across the white painted wall.

Holding the gun at my side, and not caring if anyone saw and reported me, I stalked past X to make it to the partially open door first. I felt X move up behind me, his body pressed close to my back. He held his own weapon.

“Ready?” I said. “One, two, three …”

I kicked open the door and we both stepped into the room, our weapons aimed. My gaze scoured the small space. It had been ransacked—every drawer yanked out of the chest and thrown to the floor, the bedcovers torn off, the mattress flipped. Even the crappy prints that had been framed and hung on the walls had been pulled down.

X and I shared a glance and he jerked his chin toward the bathroom. That was the only place whoever had done this to the room could be, though I had a feeling the person was long gone. Even so, we couldn’t take any risks, so we approached the bathroom door, each of us taking a side of the door frame. We lifted the guns again, and X mouthed the countdown at me this time. One, two, three.

He kicked open the door and stepped into the small space, ready to fire if necessary.

It was empty.

We both exhaled in relief. Though I couldn’t help but feel a touch of disappointment. I really had been looking forward to being able to take out my anger on someone.

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