Page 17 of Pretty Monsters

I nod. "You don't have to worry. There's nothing to go back to, there never was."

Rather than dwell on the total absence of a life I've had to this point, I start pulling all the linens off the beds. Once I get them off I head for the door. Sin runs across me and blocks the door. "Where in the hell do you think you're going?"

"You guys are wiping down everything we've touched. There's skin and hair on these blankets."

"What are you going to do with them?"

I tip my head toward the door. "Come with me."

Sin steps aside and throws open the door. "After you, princess."

There's a maid's cart a few doors down, but I walk past that one for one that is around the corner. The vacuum is whirring in one of the rooms with the door propped open, leaving the cart unattended. There's a load of blankets already inside. I drop the blankets from our room and swap them with the ones from the cart. Then I take the others with me, trying not to think about what nastiness might be teeming all over them.

"What are you going to do with those?" he asks.

"The maid might get suspicious if there aren't any blankets in our room. If these guys you were talking about show up, they are going to try and direct their search to rooms where people matching our description checked in, correct?"

He nods.

"Okay, well there won't be a single finger print or hair to link us to this room."

He fights a smile. I've managed to impress him. The idea makes me feel ridiculously proud of myself considering he generally fills me with either lust or fury depending on what comes out of his mouth.

"I'm impressed. Not how I expected the princess of Blackthorne to react."

I roll my eyes. "I'm not a princess. I'm merchandise. Easily stored away and exchanged for something of more value to father dearest."

"He's good at seeing people as things to be traded."

I don't ask, because I know he won't answer, but I don't sense Sin has had any power over his life. It's a feeling I'm all too familiar with.

Sensing he's about to shut down on me, I change the subject back to why I thought to replace the blankets. "I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't have a life. When all of my classmates were going to dances and things I never had permission to go. I didn't have any friends, so I became the weird loner girl who spent Friday nights watching true crime shows."

"I think we might teach you to be one of the boys just yet," he mumbles.

"Just what every girl wants to hear."

In an instant he spins me around and has my back pressed up against the rough wall of the hotel. The blankets drop to the ground, tangling around my feet. I'm trapped, but I wouldn't move even if I could. Not while I can feel the heat of his body seep into mine.

"You can't be a girl to me. You really need to get that through that stubborn head of yours."

"You say that, but I keep finding myself plastered against you," I say and tip my chin up in defiance.

"I'm working on it," he grumbles and pushes away from me.

* * *

The moment passes,and we hurry back to the room. I drop the new blankets in a pile at the foot of the beds. Lucien gives me a puzzled look, but otherwise says nothing. He silently hands Sin one of the bags and takes the other two himself.

I move to the bathroom, but Sin grabs my elbow. "I already grabbed the towels. We'll drop them in one of the carts on the way to the truck. I don't think they'll think about how many there were to begin with."

Lucien grabs the keys off the table, and we file out of the room. "We need to find somewhere to bunker down for a while. What are the odds either of us know of somewhere like that the rest of the guys don't know about too?" he asks Sin.

"Slim, I'd say."

Lucien tosses Sin the keys to the truck. "I drove the last leg, it's your turn."

"I do know how to drive," I protest.

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