Page 73 of Rough Stock
“Out here near the arena? Only three.”
Shyanna’s brain was running a mile a minute. “He’s up to something. We don’t know what, but we know it has something to do with a pharmaceuticals company. And if he’s doing what we think he’s doing, he’d have a lot of product to handle. He wouldn’t want to move that through a building and up an elevator, or try to carry it up one or more flights of stairs.”
Amos threw in, “He’d want something with a door that opens on the parking lot. Straight from the car to the room.”
“Exactly. How many of those?” Shyanna asked Amber.
“Two of the three.”
A slow grin spread across Shyanna’s face. “And which one would be the cheapest?”
Amber chuckled. “That would be the CreeksideInn.”
“That’s where we start.” Shyanna tried to sit back and relax just a little. They were on the right track.
They stopped at a gas station on the edge of town and Amber filled up her tank. As they sat there, they saw SammyJo’s car go past. In seconds, she’d turned around and come back to pull up near them. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to check at the CreeksideInn first. Did you see any restaurants around there or anything?” Shyanna asked.
“Yeah. There’s a little diner right across the street.”
“Good. Go sit outside the diner. I’ll see if I can spot Max’s truck in the parking lot of the motel.”
“Will do.” SammyJo waved as she drove away.
Shyanna caught Amos’s eye. “Thank you.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” the tall young man said. “Jensen’s a good guy. He didn’t deserve whatever’s happened to him.”
She could feel her resolution faltering. “I have something I have to say to him, something he’s said to me over and over and I couldn’t work up the courage to say to him.”
Amos wrapped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “I know what it is. And you’ll get a chance to tell him if we have anything to do with it.”
“Thanks.” She slid back into the center of the front seat and braced the shotgun between her knees again. Amber pulled out and drove three blocks, then wheeled her little car into the motel parking lot. They drove slowly through it, Shyanna’s eyes scanning the vehicles. They were about to come around the far back corner to head back to the front when she yelled, “Stop!”
There it sat, Max’s big dualie truck, dark blue with red and white swish stripes up its sides. “I can’t tell which room he’s renting from where it’s parked,” Amber said.
Shyanna chuckled. “No, but I’ve got an idea. Pull up out in front of the office and let me out.”
“You sure about this?” Amos asked.
“Oh, yeah.” They rolled to a stop in front of the doors and Shyanna slid out.
Striding through the door, she worked to feign a lost look and walked slowly up to the desk. The clerk looked up. “Can I help you?”
“Um, I’m not sure. I’m lookin’ for somebody. A cowboy? Sumbitch is my baby-daddy and he’s like six months behind in his child support. I’ve been lookin’ for him for weeks. Is he stayin’ here?”
The clerk shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “Um, I’m not supposed to give out infor?”
“You got kids, Miss… Rachel?” Shyanna asked, looking at the young woman’s name tag.
“Yeah. A boy and a girl.”
“Got an ex?” Shyanna asked.
She girl snorted. “Oh, yeah. Dumb sumbitch. He don’t pay his child support neither. Owes me ’bout two thousand, give or take a hunnert.”
“Girl, you know what I’m goin’ through then. Tryin’ to feed a young’un, no money, and that jackass lookin’ for buckle bunnies in ever’ town he goes to,” Shyanna drawled.
