that spoke volumes for the sort of place he was staying in.
The man had a cart covered with dishes.
Close enough, he thought, and opened the door.
“Hey. Um, come on in.”
The man wheeled his cart into the room. Hunter caught the odor of the food under the sterling covers and his stomach made a rude noise. He was ravenous. He was almost always hungry these days.
A five-dollar bill in his pants pocket went to the guy who brought the food. He couldn’t remember if he’d ever had room service before, but the odds were he was supposed to tip and so he did. He signed for the meal, wondering who would be paying the bill.
There was a steak, medium rare and nearly perfect. There was a salad that he thought about ignoring and then ate anyway. There were vegetables and there was a thick soup in a bowl made of bread. He looked under the last lid and found a slice of chocolate cake that looked like it had been carved from heaven itself. He took his time and savored every last bite and patted his belly when he was done. After what seemed like months of little more than canned food and water, the food was amazing.
When he was done eating, he reached under the bed and pulled out the laptop. It was in the same spot as always. The difference was, this time when he opened the case and pulled out the computer itself, there was an envelope. Inside the envelope was a CD-ROM disc. Written on the disc was PLAY ME.
Despite the temptation to break the disc in half, he slipped it into the player and watched as it activated. The media player opened and showed him the darkly shadowed shape of a teenage boy. The form was bulky, with longish hair and a dress shirt with rolled-up sleeves.
The voice that came from the silhouette was as hated as it was familiar.
“Well, thought you might like a decent meal for a change of pace, Hunter. Thought you could enjoy some real food. You’ve earned it.” He sounded amused, condescending and self-satisfied. The tone of his voice was almost enough to ruin the meal.
The shape leaned back in a chair that was also lost in shadows.
“Here’s the thing. It’s time for me to keep my part of the bargain. I have information for you. Not just for you, but for a few others who have the same sort of questions. They’ll be meeting you at this room very soon. When all of you are together, there’ll be a limousine waiting to take the lot of you to one final destination. The answers to most of your questions are there.”
The shadow shape leaned forward again, close enough that Hunter could see the strong jawline and the sneer on the expressive mouth.
“See? This is what happens when you play by my rules, Hunter. Dinner and answers. We’ll talk again soon.”
The screen went dead.
He played the message a dozen more times, looking for any hint of the face that was hidden in the shadows. Whoever he was, the man made sure he couldn’t be seen clearly. Hunter hated him a little more for that.
He was thinking about watching the disc again when someone knocked on the door. This time it wasn’t room service. It was a thin, dark-haired girl dressed in tight jeans and a baby tee that said she was spoiled in glittering letters. She would have been cute if it wasn’t for the sour expression on her face.
She jabbed a finger in his direction like a dagger. “You got answers about my money and everything else, you better start talking. I’m tired and I’m having a really bad day, so you don’t want to make it any worse.”
That was how Hunter Harrison met Tina Carlotti. He did a great deal of fast talking to convince her to calm down.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cody Laurel
Cody stared at the wall of the bus station and then fished in his jeans until he could pull out his cash. Almost two hundred dollars leftover from cleaning out his birthday money. He’d been planning on spending that on the new game system, but this was important. He couldn’t take the looks from his parents anymore. He’d thought being a possible drug user was bad, but being an attention-seeking whiner was worse in their eyes, even if they never said it.
“If this is someone’s idea of a joke, I’m gonna take lessons on blowing shit up.” He was careful to mumble the words under his breath. With the way his luck had been going, some loser would decide he’d been serious and call the Department of Homeland Security on his sorry butt.
The trip to Boston had been long and boring, but on the bright side of things, at least he got stuck sitting next to a fat man who didn’t believe in bathing and liked to talk about every bad relationship he’d ever been in. If he’d had just a little more courage, he’d have given the guy Dr. Keene’s number and sent him off to tell someone who cared in any way. Instead he nodded politely and tried to ignore both the stench and the words. He failed in both attempts. So now he was in a crappy mood and getting ready to take a cab across a city he’d never been to so he could get answers to questions he never even wanted to think about.
Good times, good times.
He waited for a few minutes before he finally got a cab. Once he’d sat down, he gave the man directions-the driver was pudgy, had tattoos up both arms like the sleeves of a colorful jacket and smelled of dubious smoke, but he was also quiet, which was a plus.
Cody didn’t want to think about how badly his folks were going to freak when they realized he was gone. A look at his watch confirmed they’d probably be finding out soon because they would both be on their way home from work.
They’d regret never giving him a cell phone like he’d asked.
He looked out the window as the taxi moved through the heavy traffic. It wasn’t quite time for the worst of rush hour, but it was close enough. Not that he had a set time for getting here. It didn’t matter all that much. He got to the hotel twenty minutes later and Hunter Harrison would still be waiting for him or he wouldn’t. If he was there, awesome- Cody could finally get some answers and maybe even a little peace. If not, well, either way his dad was probably going to blow a gasket.
Eventually the cab stopped in front of a hotel that looked like it cost more per day than he had in his pocket, and Cody counted out the amount he had to pay and then added three dollars for a tip. He had no idea if that was enough of a tip, but it would have to do. The cabbie nodded his thanks and a minute later he was pulling away, probably off to fire up another blunt.
Cody had never once taken even a puff of marijuana, but at the thought of what lay ahead of him, he thought maybe he could take up smoking the stuff as a hobby if it would calm his nerves.
“Yeah, that would go over so well with the parental units.” He spoke only to himself as he entered the wide, posh lobby of the hotel. Marble floors. He didn’t even want to know what that would cost. The elevators weren’t hard to find. He snuck through the lobby, feeling like the people at the front desk were going to call him out for being there with every step he took, and slipped into the first open car he could find.
Just as the door was starting to close, a thin, feminine hand slid between the doors and triggered the signal for them to reopen. Long nails, painted a purple color that would look strange on an adult. The hand was attached to a gorgeous teenage girl who looked around his age. Gorgeous. He tried not to stare, but it wasn’t happening. She had dusty blonde hair pulled into a ponytail and exactly the sort of body that tended to distract him from thinking about anything more complex than breathing. She had eyes that were blue and shaped like she was maybe part Asian. Exotic and sexy as hell. The smile she fired at him was enough to make his heart stutter through a few beats.
“Sorry.” She smiled even broader and looked him in the eyes. Cody resisted the urge to see if there was somebody standing directly behind him. The mirrored walls confirmed that he was the only other occupant. As a rule, hot blondes did not look directly at him and smile. Normally they were actively ignoring his existence. He knew by the number of times he’d tried to actually speak to them back at school. That particular exercise always worked about as well as convincing his folks that he was sane.
