Hideaway (Devil's Night 2)

I’d heard about the twelfth floor after I moved in with Damon and my father. Gabriel fiercely protected his privacy and had built four hotels back in the day: one in Meridian City, San Francisco, St. Petersburg, and Bahrain—the places he traveled most. Privacy, security, and a need to be invisible were sometimes a necessity to someone who made at least some of his money outside the law.

But my brother wasn’t here. At least not the last time I checked. Kai was wasting his time.

“We already explored this place once, remember?” I told him.

He flashed his amused eyes to me, sounding cocky. “We didn’t get very far, remember?”

A blush instantly heated my cheeks, and I turned away.

Kai peered over the railing again, and I did the same, taking in the vast drop to the ground below. I looked back at him, studying the curiosity written all over his face. The way his dark eyebrows pinched together as if he were calculating his next move, and the way his neck stretched as far as it would take him for a better look. He seemed so young. Like a kid trying to find the courage to follow his friends off a cliff.

What was he doing?

Straightening, I unwound the scarf around my neck and pulled it off, out of the jacket. Kai watched me as I held it over the bannister.

Gauging the light wind, I lowered it as much as possible, finally letting it drift out of my fingers and float down to the twelfth-floor balcony. The fabric billowed as it sank and finally caught on the bannister spokes, the wind plastering it to the inside of the balcony.

Without looking at him, I headed back into the room. He had no choice but to follow.

Seriously, if he wanted to climb over the railing and kill himself, it was no skin off my nose, but…

He could be right. Damon wasn’t here when I looked for him, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t changing hide-outs, either. He could be here, and I needed to buy some time.

Walking into the corridor, I turned right, heading toward the stairwell exit I came through.

Both of us quickly descended the stairs, but after taking two flights, we came to the next landing where a door should’ve been, marking the twelfth floor. The wall was bare, though. No door. No marking indicating what floor it was, nothing. Just a white wall.

I spared him a glance, an unspoken understanding passing between us. We continued down, both of us reaching for the knob of the eleventh-floor entrance at the same time. His hand brushed mine, and I quickly pulled away, an electric current flowing up my arm. He pulled the door open, and both of us raced through, heading straight for eleven-twenty-two, the room directly below thirteen twenty-two.

I twisted the knob and charged in, making my way for the balcony doors which I swung open, a gust of wind instantly hitting my face. Kai and I stepped over the threshold, looking around for the scarf.

It only took a quick survey, but there was nothing, as I knew there wouldn’t be. Nothing except a dead potted plant, a ruste

d, wrought iron table, and a leaf.

The scarf wasn’t here, of course, but…

I walked over to the right side of the balcony, hung my head over, and peered up.

And there it was. The black scarf whipped happily, a few inches hanging off the side of the balcony right above us.

“There.” I nodded upward.

Kai pinched his eyebrows together and stepped over, leaning over the side and turning his head up. He stared, either confused or annoyed, but I smiled a little all the same.

“What the hell?” he grumbled.

“We need to get up there,” he told me.

And how do you plan on doing that? The elevators weren’t working at the moment, and it’s not like we had rope.

I watched as he started to climb up on the railing, but I immediately reached out and pulled him down.

“It’s fine,” I said curtly. “It’s not valuable. Forget it.”

His eyebrows shot up. “You’re worried about me?”

“Yeah. Like the price of tea in China.”