Intense

I laughed and nodded. “Yeah,” I said.

“Hookers,” he said again.

“Don’t ruin the girl,” Emory said, grinning. “She’s not ready for the seedy underside of the world.”

I shook my head, and we all went back to watching. I shouldn’t have been surprised that they were prostitutes, but I was. The motel did look like the place you’d bring a hooker, though. Cheap rooms, crumbling architecture, the kind of place that hasn’t been updated in twenty years. It was probably pretty nice back in the day, and now it likely only existed because of hookers and their clientele.

Soon it was night. Hours passed and absolutely nothing happened. Travis passed out the snacks, and our dinner was basically just junk food and more junk food. I was getting restless and antsy, but I wasn’t going anywhere. I needed to stay. I couldn’t let myself give in to my own weaknesses.

Finally, at around nine at night, Emory’s phone started ringing.

“Yeah?” he answered. He nodded along. “We saw that charge too. Sixty percent sure? Say that room number one more time. Okay, Lucy. Thanks. You were a huge help.” He hung up the phone.

“What did the brains say, cap?” Travis asked.

“We’re in the right place,” he said. “Now we have a decision to make.”

“Spit it out,” I said to him.

He grinned at me. “Well, seems a security camera caught some footage of a few men walking into room fifteen of this motel. One of them tripped the facial recognition software.”

“Omar,” Travis said.

“Sixty percent certainty,” Emory said, frowning. “Not a great match.”

“But it’s a lead,” I said. “We’ve been staring at this motel for hours. What else can we do?”

Emory looked back at Travis, who shrugged. “She’s right. And if they’re planning something, we don’t have time to waste.”

“Shit,” Emory said. “Fuck. Okay.”

“Okay what?”

“Travis, we’re getting inside that room.”

“Hell yeah we are, cap.”

“I’m coming too,” I said.

“No,” Emory said seriously. “You can’t come. You have to stay in the car and leave the engine running. If something happens, you have to be ready to drive.”

I sighed. “Okay. Fine.” I figured there was no point in fighting it. Emory wasn’t going to let me come with them, and besides, if something did happen, I wouldn’t be much help. I’d just get in the way, force Emory to have to watch out for me while fighting the bad guys.

No, I knew I needed to sit this one out as much as I didn’t want to. At least he was giving me a real job to do.

I watched as Travis and Emory got out of the car and popped the trunk. They began strapping on vests and tossing jackets on over top of them. I rolled down the window. “You know people can see you, right?”

Emory smirked. “Nobody knows what we’re doing.”

“You two look crazy.”

“We are crazy.”

“Yeah, but the scary, bad crazy.”

Travis laughed, zipping up his black jacket. “If we didn’t have the SEALs, we probably would be.”

Emory zipped up his jacket. “Come on. Let’s fuck shit up.”

They got back into the car and Emory pulled out into traffic. He did a quick U-turn and then made a right into the motel’s lot. He backed into a spot and then looked at me.

“Stay here no matter what. If you see us running toward you, do whatever I’m saying. If I’m yelling at you to leave, leave. If I say wait, wait for us and then drive. Got it?”

“I got it.”

He got out and I climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Be careful,” I called after him.

“I always am.”

Travis gave me a thumbs up, and then the two men quickly walked across the parking lot.

They melted into the shadows. I could see the room from where I was sitting but not much else. I looked around the parking lot nervously, but it was empty. Cars drove past on the road, but nobody pulled into the lot, and nobody was moving around the other rooms.

The shadows loomed deep over the motel. I watched as the door suddenly jolted inward. I couldn’t see them, but I knew they both were inside the room. The door shut behind them.

I realized that I was gripping the steering wheel nervously. I took a deep breath, trying to relax, but I couldn’t. Emory was in danger. He was putting his life on the line barely a hundred feet away from me. I could practically see in my mind Emory getting his body riddled with bullets, falling to the ground covered in blood, and it made me want to throw up with worry.