He pointed without ceremony.
“That is their car,” he said, finger aimed at the blue four-door.“Receptionist said they checked in and paid for one night.”
My jaw tightened.
“One night,” Junior echoed, like he couldn’t decide if that was funny or infuriating.
“It’s a good fucking thing we came tonight,” Cole added.
I looked at Wrecker.
He met my eyes and nodded once.
If we’d waited, we would’ve missed them.If we’d listened to cautious planning one more day, those three would’ve been gone by sunrise.Another town.Another motel.Another set of lies.Another chance for them to disappear into that nomad mess they called a club.
We didn’t get a lot of shots in life.
But when we did, we didn’t waste them.
“They’re in room two-fourteen,” Cole continued.
Junior leaned forward a little, cracking his neck like he was about to go do something physical.“You get a key?”
Cole shook his head.“She said she could give me info, but she’d get fired for giving me the key.”
Junior’s mouth curved.“I got a fucking boot that’s gonna be the key once I kick the door in.”
Wrecker let out a short chuckle that didn’t carry any humor.“Then let’s fucking go.Maybe we can be home before the sun comes up.”
“That would be fucking nice,” Cole muttered.
I couldn’t stop staring at the blue car.
A stupid car.
A stupid choice.
Like they thought they could just roll into town and be normal for a night.Like they thought they could hide behind a motel door and the world would forget what they’d done.
I leaned slightly toward Wrecker, my voice low.“You sure you’re good with this?”
He didn’t even hesitate.“Yeah.I was thinking about it on the way up here.With them being nomads, no one’s gonna fucking notice if they go missing.Yogi’s acting like his guys didn’t attack Star and Clove,” he continued.“So if he hits us up asking questions, I can do the same thing.No clue, man.”
Cole snorted.Junior huffed a laugh.
Even Pipe’s mouth twitched.
It should’ve felt good, the kind of dark satisfaction the club ran on when justice was deserved.
But it didn’t.
Not fully.
Because this wasn’t just club business anymore.Not for me.
I could still hear Clove’s voice in my head.
Come home to me, Ender.