Shrugging.
The bastard.
“What’s the store?” I asked, trying to keep my tone casual.
“Reena’s,” Junior said.
“I’m out,” I said, already walking toward the door.
“No, you’re not,” Fallon snapped, tone brooking no argument.
Unfortunately for him, I’d become immune to that tone from men.
“Yes, I am,” I said, shrugging.
“Im telling you no, Louana.”
I reached to the table in front of him where he’d put down his gun, picking it up, and turning to face him once again.
“And I’m telling you to kiss my ass, Fallon.”
With that, and nothing more, I ran out of there, thanking Jase seven ways to Sunday when I found my Mustang sitting just outside the gates on the street.
I was in it and peeling off before any of the others could catch up with me.
Did I just likely lose my place in the club?
I was pretty sure it was safe to assume that.
But I’d only wanted in the club if it got me close to Valen. If Valen wasn’t around, if we didn’t save him in time because Fallon was dragging his feet, there was no reason to be anywhere near the club.
I mean, not that anything was going to happen to Fallon. That wasn’t even an option.
I plugged in the address to my GPS and made my way in that direction, giving the finger to speed limits.
I couldn’t claim to be more capable than the club at extracting someone from a bad situation. They’d done it a ton. This would be a first for me. But they were dragging their feet, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I knew that I waited with them while something horrible happened to Valen.
I was maybe half an hour into the drive when I remembered it wasn’t just Voss and I who would miss him horribly.
“Vi,” I said, tone firm when she started to answer with something about calling too early in the morning.
“What? What is it?” she asked, instantly awake.
“We’re pretty sure Valen is in trouble. Like big trouble. If you are still in the area, get your ass to the clubhouse to get filled in. I have to call your parents.”
Not even waiting for her response, I found Valen’s dad’s number still in my contacts.
“Adler,” I started.
“Lu, I just heard,” he said, tone tight. “Ya got a head start?”
“Yeah. Fallon is still in the planning stage. I just… I couldn’t risk it. If I get there and decide he’s safe enough for the time being, I will wait for backup. But—“
“No. You’re right,” he agreed, and I could hear him checking his gun for ammunition. “His mother just got into his maps footprint,” he added, and I didn’t need to know how Lou could do that. She had been a skip chaser for ages. She knew all the ins and outs, all the ways to track someone down.
“He doesn’t have his phone,” I told him.
“Not this time, no. But it seems like he was up by the city almost daily for the past week or so, though,” Adler said.
“Hey, hey,” Lou said, grabbing the phone. “He’s been to this same hotel several times,” she said, rattling off the name and address.
“I got it. I will go look into it,” I said, wondering if he’d left any clues there. Or if the guys were staying there.
“If it’s safe, you bring my boy home,” Lou said. “I know he was a complete asshole to you, but—“
“I’m going to do everything I can,” I assured her. “I will keep you up-to-date,” I added, then hung up to plug in the address to the hotel.
It didn’t take me too much longer to get into the area, to pull into the kind of rundown, oddly located hotel just in front of a strip of mostly-abandoned-looking buildings.
Except for one of them.
Because outside of that one, there were five cars and a black van with blacked out windows.
Which seemed like pretty criminal type shit to me.
Had he been at the hotel because he’d been keeping an eye on the crew who had been stalking him?
If so, why?
And how the hell was I going to get information out of the hotel staff, who were always notoriously tight-lipped?
Flipping down my visor, I scrubbed my eyes, making my mascara and what was left of my eye liner smudge more around my eyes, giving me a raccoon look. Or, and this was what I was going for, like a woman who’d spent her whole night crying.
A crying woman could get a lot of assistance from halfway decent people.
Taking a deep breath, I made sure my gun was concealed, then made my way into the lobby of the hotel, feeling a twinge of disappointment to find a woman behind the desk instead of a man.
Men were easier to play.
Women were inherently suspicious.
As we should be.
But it made it harder to get one over on us.