Page 53 of Part & Parcel

Ty chimed in almost gleefully to finish the thought. “Means he’s going to make us sleep somewhere specific.”

“What, like, he wants us to camp or something?” Zane asked.

Nick groaned quietly. “I guess we’ll find out.”

It’s a long drive from Denver to Yellowstone, boys, so unless you’re all still as fucking crazy as we were at twenty-five or someone gives Six some 5-hour Energy, my guess is you’ll be stopping halfway.

If I’m wrong and you made it to Yellowstone, go ahead and open the next letter.

But I ain’t wrong ’cause I’m never wrong, and I’m guessing you’re in Nowhere, Wyoming, right now, looking for a place to sleep. Find a local directory and hunt down the third cheapest, scariest motel in the area. Third from the bottom. You have one pass ’cause I know if Johns or O’Flaherty sees a roach they’ll be out of there, and I don’t want you sleeping in filth. I just want you remembering what it was like before we had a choice.

See, we stopped making our own choices at seventeen. We were told where to sleep, what to eat, when to do a chin-up, when we could go get laid, where to go, how to get there, and who to kill. In the brief moments when we did have a choice, we didn’t really. We were held hostage by our ideals, our loyalty, and our bank accounts. We didn’t have a choice where we slept, so we put all our ability to choose in each other. We chose each other.

So check for bedbugs first. And then fucking remember why we chose each other. Once you get to Old Faithful, open the next letter.

“I’m going to fucking kill him,” Owen muttered as he stared at the ill-lit façade of the Motel 8 in Rock Springs, Wyoming. “It’s not even a fucking Motel 6, dude.”

Nick had to bite his lip hard to keep from agreeing with him. He was also trying not to laugh. “Okay, so . . . bring in only what you need. Just in case we have to burn our clothes later,” he ordered as he grabbed his pack and eased it over his shoulder.

The others grumbled and snickered in equal amounts as they got out of the Suburban. The night was cool, and Nick welcomed the relief from the blazing summer sun as they made their way across the parking lot to the overhang that sheltered the lobby door.

Kelly appeared at his side, sliding his hand into Nick’s back pocket. “Doing okay?”

Nick gave him a smile and a nod, sliding his arm over Kelly’s shoulders. It felt natural to walk that way, wrapped around each other. The drive itself hadn’t been too bad, but it had certainly been a long day. Starting the morning in Boston, flying to DC and gearing up for that emotional meeting, then the flight to Colorado, and finally the five-hour drive, during which Owen had repeatedly threatened to murder everyone in the car. Nick wasn’t just tired, he was fucking exhausted, and all he wanted was to crawl into bed with Kelly and recharge his batteries.

He wouldn’t have minded crawling into Kelly tonight either, but it was against the rules, and he was determined to follow those.

No matter how frustrating they might be.

They were lagging behind the others by the time they entered the lobby. It was vacant, which wasn’t surprising this time of night. Owen leaned over the counter to see into the back office. They left him to handle it so he could take his murderous tendencies out on something besides them, and Ty came up to Nick and Kelly, one eyebrow raised.

“Sleeping arrangements?”

“Three rooms?” Kelly suggested. “At fifty bucks a pop, I think we can afford to splurge.”

“Not really what Eli was going for,” Nick said as he watched Owen speak to a bleary-eyed night clerk.

“Are we seriously following his instructions to the letter?” Kelly asked with a laugh. His grin fell when Nick met his eyes, though.

“What are we doing out here if we’re not going to follow them?” Nick snapped.

“You’re right,” Kelly said immediately, holding up a hand to appease him. “You’re right.”

They were all silent, and Nick could feel their eyes on him as he studiously tried to ignore the attention. He finally cleared his throat and gave Kelly an apologetic sideways glance. “Three rooms,” he said with a shrug. “Makes sense.”

“You sure?”

Nick nodded. “First floor so I can avoid the steps.”

Kelly stared at him for a few uncomfortable seconds, then moved away to join Owen at the counter.

“Hey,” Ty said as he stepped closer to Nick.

Zane wandered away, hands stuffed in his pockets, whistling like he was trying to show he wasn’t interested in overhearing.

“You two fighting?” Ty asked Nick.

“What?”

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