Page 8 of Shattered World

Thankfully, Aiden stepped in, a friendly smile spreading his lips. “Hi,” his eyes drifted toward the man’s nametag, “Braden. My family and I are visiting from out of town. It’s been quite the long journey. Our car broke down and we seem to have misplaced our wallets.”

The lie flowed easily from Aiden’s mouth, but Braden didn’t seem to believe a word. Not that I blamed him. The lie itself was inane, not to mention that we clearly had been through much more than a simple car issue.

Tangling my fingers together, I began fidgeting, trying to wrack my brain for another plan. My mind slipped to Warner and Rainer, wondering what they would do in this situation. Unfortunately, that didn’t help much. Knowing those two, they’d use fear tactics until the poor boy handed us the keys to the hotel.

Braden opened his mouth to respond, probably to kick us off the premises, but before he could speak, a woman stepped out from a door behind the counter. She was older, closer to Elizabeth’s age than any of ours.

Her sharp pant suit matched the severe lines of her face. She didn’t wear a practiced smile as Braden did, nor a nametag to clue us in as to who she was. But she seemed determined as she walked to the counter, placing a manicured hand on Braden’s shoulder.

“I’ll help this family out, Braden. You can go ahead and take a break,” the woman said, her voice as confident as the rest of her.

Braden nodded quickly, his eyes sparing us one last glance before he grabbed a backpack and hurried out of the room to take his break.

Once he was gone, our small group and the woman behind the counter the only ones left in the expansive room, she turned toward us with a calculating smile.

Her gaze scanned over each of us, her eyes narrowing every few seconds, searching for something. I waited with bated breath as her dark brown gaze landed on me. Her eyes stripped me bare as she scanned me from head to toe. I patiently waited for her perusal to end, but her eyes never strayed from me.

“My name is Caroline. And yours is?” She asked, tilting her head to the side, her neatly slicked back bun not moving an inch.

Clearly, she was only speaking to me. Swallowing roughly, my voice was scratchy as I answered, “Alessia.”

She nodded once. “And this is your family?”

“Yes.” I didn’t hesitate.

Caroline hummed softly. She reached beneath the counter, retrieving two sets of room keys. “I only have two rooms available and I’m afraid they’re all the way on the top floor. Will that be enough?”

I knew she was waiting for a response, but I was too stunned to form one. What in the world was happening? Thankfully, Murphy slid a hand forward, making up for my silence.

“Two rooms are plenty. Thank you.”

Caroline handed over the room keys, nodding as she shifted back toward the room she had exited. “If you need anything, you may come to me. But I think you will find your stay here to be very accommodating.”

With those cryptic words, she shut the door behind her, leaving the eight of us in disbelieving silence.

“Should we be concerned?” Mina asked quietly, glancing toward the door Caroline had disappeared behind.

“We’d be stupid not to be,” Murphy told her gently, Aiden and I nodding in agreement.

Sasha grabbed one of the keys from Murphy’s hand, glancing at the room number and then heading toward the elevator across the room. “And we’d be even more stupid to not take the free room for the night.”

As much as my body urged me to run, to get out of this place and not accept help from a stranger, I knew Sasha was right. For at least one night, this would have to do. And tomorrow, I’d figure out what the hell Caroline was up to.

Chapter Five

Ididn’t have to wait until tomorrow. The second we stepped off the elevator and onto the twelfth floor, Caroline’s cryptic words took on a whole new meaning.

Instead of a long, narrow hallway with doors littered on each wall, I stepped into an open space. Whether this floor had ever been like a regular hotel, it wasn’t now.

Walking further into the area, everyone else following behind me, I took in the dozen or so people milling about the area. To the right, there was a small kitchen area decorated with three tables, a fridge, and a stove.

Across the space, matching couches and chairs, presumably from the rooms, formed a seating area where several adults chatted quietly while children played at their feet.

Toward the back of the room, a singular door sat at a wall. The door opened at that moment, giving me a glimpse of the narrow hallway I had expected.

Murphy pressed a hand against my back, urging me further into the room, a few heads popping up as we walked. They each gave us small smiles, although no one approached.

Maybe I was being presumptuous, maybe I was an idiot for thinking that Caroline had been helping us, but something in my gut told me that these people were like us.

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