Indecent Danger (Danger Incorporated #3)(59)
The two of them had decided to spend the rest of the day in Caroline’s suite watching pay-per-view movies and ordering room service. Caroline deserved it after the crappy morning she’d had and Aubrey had promised to indulge her brand new friend with anything that would get her mind off of all that had happened in the last week.
“We can order pizza and chocolate cake and eat it while we watch chick flicks,” Aubrey declared as Caroline slid the key card into the suite door lock. “I think the guys are a little jealous. Not of the movies but of the junk food. Travis has quite the sweet tooth.”
“You’re so lucky to have someone like him. I’d love to be adored like that.”
The lock clicked and they crossed into the living room, the blast of cold from the air conditioning chilling their skin. This suite looked very much like their own although the furnishings were a different style, more traditional with darker wood and fabrics.
Caroline headed straight for the phone on the coffee table. “I’ll order the food and you can pick out a movie.”
Aubrey had already taken a few steps toward the oversized flatscreen on the wall when she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. Caroline had received a text from Alana saying she was having drinks with a few friends but apparently she was still in the suite. Although Aubrey was admittedly uncomfortable around the older woman she was still Martin’s wife and it would be rude to exclude her from the planned festivities.
“Alana,” she called, walking over to the door to the bedroom but hesitating just outside. The door was half open and she could hear movement within the room. “Caroline and I are going to order some food and watch a movie. Do you want to join us?”
No answer.
Caroline was holding the phone in her hand, a confused expression on her face. “Alana is downstairs in the bar having drinks.”
“No, she’s here.”
Caroline laughed and hung up the phone, breezing past Aubrey and pushing open the bedroom door. “Alana, did you change your mind? We’re having a girl’s afternoon and you can join us.”
Aubrey’s heart stuttered and her stomach clenched. Standing before them was Tom Lovell with a knife in one hand and a prescription pill bottle in the other.
His mouth was hanging open and his skin had gone pale.
Then just as quickly he recovered his charm, smiling casually as if there was nothing strange about him standing in Martin and Alana’s bedroom holding cutlery with a handkerchief.
“Caroline, I thought you were still at the station.”
The young women blinked once, and then twice. “They let me come home. Shane called a halt to the questioning and they didn’t charge me with anything.” She moved farther into the room. “What are you doing in here, Tom?”
He shoved his hands, and everything in them, in his blazer pockets and chuckled. “Alana asked me to get her a few things, that’s all.”
Aubrey’s gaze darted back and forth between Caroline and Tom as the tension in the room ratcheted up uncomfortably. Despite the cool temperature, sweat had popped out on Tom’s forehead and was trickling down his temple and into his dark hair.
“I don’t think Alana would do that.” Caroline was shaking her head slowly, her shoulders tense. “I think you need to leave.”
“Sure she did. She wanted me to grab a sweater for her. The dining room is cold.”
Still the charming smile but Tom’s lower lip trembled slightly at the corner. Aubrey remembered that same “tell” on Alan Morton but at the time she hadn’t known what it meant. Then he’d kidnapped her and Gigi and tried to kill them.
How did she manage to get herself into these situations?
Swallowing down a lump of fear that had risen in her throat, Aubrey grabbed Caroline’s arm and cautiously took a step back. “You know, we should take that sweater down to Alana and join her for that drink. It’ll be fun.”
Luckily Caroline seemed as creeped out as Aubrey. She too moved back toward the door but kept her gaze on the man standing next to the dresser. “I could really use a drink. Yes, let’s go join Alana and the boys. Why don’t you send them a text and tell them to meet us downstairs instead of coming up here?”
“Good idea.” Aubrey cautiously reached for the zipper on her purse, nerves making the skin on her back damp, her t-shirt sticking to the flesh. “We can always sit out by the pool or something.”
Caroline turned around to make a hasty exit, Aubrey right on her heels, still fumbling with her handbag. Aubrey was breathing easier when they made it all the way out of the bedroom and were only a few feet from the door but then she heard Tom’s voice.
“You need to stop. Drop your purses on the floor and kick them back here.” Aubrey’s breath hissed out and she closed her eyes for a moment as her heart pounded against her ribcage. She was f*cked. Again. “Turn around. Slowly.”
Handbags thudded to the floor while the two women reluctantly, glacially, turned back.
It was then that Aubrey saw what deep shit she and Caroline were in. The dangerous and deadly kind.
Tom had a gun pointed at them, his face gray and his eyes glassy and dead.
They’d be lucky to get out of this alive.
* * *
Shane and Travis sat at the dining table in the suite, papers spread all over the surface. Shane had once again contacted the reporter and after promising unprecedented access to the Anderson family personally in addition to Anderson Industries, they now had copies of every piece of paper that the reporter had including coroner reports, forensics, and statements made to the police.