Page 54 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
I feign a laugh, waving a hand, acting like I’ve had a big night. I make sure to sway just a little, but not too much that he thinks he can take advantage of me. “I went to a bachelorette party. Those things are insane!”
The man studies me and glances around. “You here alone?”
“Nope, with my best friends. We came down just for the party. Are you staying here?”
He shakes his head. “No, a friend of mine is. I wonder if you’ve seen him?”
He goes on to explain Tanner to a T. When he’s done, I act like I’m thinking about it, narrowing my eyes and rubbing at my chin. “You know, I have seen that guy around. He’s here with some friends or something, we caught up at the pool last night, super-hot,” I say, “I actually just passed him walking down the street, about two blocks down. He was all messed up. Poor guy. What happened to him?”
It’s a risk, I know it, but I want these men out of here, and away from my friends.
“He got into an argument with our other friend, I was lookin’ for him. Couldn’t remember where he said he was stayin’, but this sounded familiar. Thanks!”
“No problem at all. I hope you all work it out! Goodnight!”
I walk back into my room and lock the door, pressing my back to it and exhaling loudly. That either worked or it didn’t. If it didn’t, he’s going to figure out we’re all in these rooms and we’ll be screwed but I figure my idea was better than Tanner’s. If I can get them out of here, we can drive out before they return.
“Jo,” I say, whispering loudly instead of speaking, just in case he’s still outside. “Jo, wake up!”
I rush over and shake her a few times. She stirs, eyes bleary, and murmurs, “Callie? What’s wrong?”
“We have to go. You need to get up.”
“What?”
“Get up, quickly. Where is your phone? I need to call Tatum.”
She sits up, hair a mess, rubbing her eyes, and croaks, “What’s going on?”
“It’s a long story, but Tanner is all messed up and there are these guys following him. We have to leave this motel, we’re in danger.”
She’s awake now, moving quickly out of the bed. “What do you mean he’s messed up?”
“I mean he’s gotten into a fight with someone, and now they’re chasing after him. I don’t know, he didn’t explain, all I know is we need to get out of here. Where is your phone?”
She’s midway through stuffing her clothes into her bag, but she stops and finds her phone, dialing Tatum and handing it to me.
“Hi, beautiful,” his husky voice answers.
God.
Beautiful.
I’ll deal with that later.
“It’s Callie,” I say, pretending I didn’t just hear how he was speaking to my best friend. “Tanner is in trouble. He’s outside, but there are men out there, looking for him. I think I got rid of them, but we need to leave before they come back.”
“Fuck,” Tatum growls. “Where is he?”
“Behind the office. Someone needs to check if they’re gone.”
“I’ll check. Sit tight.”
I turn to Jo and hand her the phone back. “He’s going to call back. Let’s get ready to go.”
We put all our clothes into a bag, get changed quickly, and then wait by the door for Tatum’s call. It seems like forever passes when finally someone knocks loudly, causing both Jo and I to jerk forward.
“It’s me,” Tanner says through the door. “Let’s go.”
We go outside and see all the men standing, bags in hand, ready to leave. Tatum pulls around the corner in his truck, and Garrett and Jo jump in. Ethan and I get in with Tanner, and then we drive out of the motel. As we’re going down the street, we see a group of men, about six of them, walking up and down the sidewalk, no doubt looking for Tanner. It worked, I didn’t think it would, but it did.
“What did you say to them?” Tanner murmurs as we drive past and disappear into the darkness.
“I said I saw you walking down the street, all busted up. They must have believed me.”
Tanner is silent a moment, then he murmurs, “Thanks.”
“What happened?” Ethan asks, his voice still thick from sleep.
“Found one of the men involved in Celia’s attack. Located him, beat the shit out of him, burned a shit load of his drugs, and took off. Made a few of his friends angry, it would seem. They caught up with me, knocked me around a bit, but I managed to get away. I dropped my wallet, they must have got my name and found out where I was stayin’. I knew they would, which is why I wanted to get out of here quickly.”
“So not only are they pissed and lookin’ for you, they now know your name?” Ethan sighs, frustrated.
