that Rose might have been as well.
I lowered the window, breathing deeply as I inhaled the warm air. Now Amanda was leaning back against her seat, eyes closed. I wondered if she was sleeping, dreaming peacefully.
Fifteen minutes later the cab pulled up in front of the
W Hotel. I ran my credit card through the cab's machine, gave him a twenty percent tip and helped Amanda out.
We walked into the lobby quite a sight, Amanda wearing a slinky dress and clinging to my arm, me looking like
I'd just rolled out of a bed in a sewer and carrying a single suitcase. The building itself was beautiful and massive. I'd read somewhere that it housed a stagger ing fifty-seven floors, but in the dark of night it looked like even more, a mammoth structure in the heart of
Times Square. The lobby was awash in subtle blue and gray tones, and a waterfall ran down one of the walls.
There were two receptionists on duty, two young women who looked remarkably similar. They both had dark hair and skin, red fingernails and bright smiles that seemed almost attuned to one another. As we walked up they both said, 'Good evening, sir.'
Their name tags read Rae and Gabrielle. You could have switched the tags and I wouldn't have known the difference.
'I'd like a room, please,' I said.
The one with the Rae tag began to punch some keys on her computer while Gabrielle stared at me with that same, unwavering smile. Suddenly I felt Amanda's breath on my cheek, and then a big kiss followed suit.
A split second later I felt her tongue on my jawbone, winding its way toward my earlobe.
Gabrielle was still grinning, but now it was the kind of grin you gave to your neighbor who got his morning newspaper while wearing nothing but tighty-whities.
Rae looked up and said, 'We have two rooms avail able, one with two twin beds and another with one queen.'
'I'll take the queen,' I said, trying to push Amanda away while I feel my face turn bright red. Rae noticed what was going on, and her bright smile quickly turned like bad milk.
Gabrielle looked at Amanda, then looked at me, then looked at my suitcase. Her eyes went back and forth between the three while I stood there confused. Then I realized what she was thinking. Attractive girl wearing revealing clothes. Dorky guy wearing the same clothes he'd probably worn the last three days. A suitcase.
No doubt Rae and Gabrielle thought Amanda was a hooker, and would end up chopped to bits and stuffed into the suitcase by the end of the night. I noticed neither of them had made any movements to confirm my room or make a key.
'You okay, honey? ' I asked, stressing the last word an attempt to let Rae and Gabrielle know that we did, in fact, know each other.
'I'm just peachy, Henry.' I smiled. See, she knows my name!
'So…about that room…'
'I'll need a credit-card imprint,' Rae said. I slipped her my AMEX, and she ran it through, never taking her eyes off of us.
'Hen- ree, ' Amanda whined. 'I'm ti -red.'
'Just a minute, baby,' I said.
Gabrielle seemed to be softening up, but Rae was eyeing me with squinty eyes, letting me know she could have hotel security at our room if she got the slightest hint that an ax might make an appearance.
'How many nights will you be staying?'
'I'm not sure,' I said. 'Can we just keep it open?'
'Sure,' Rae said, taking two plastic cards and running them through the machine to magnetize them.
She slid them into a paper sheath, wrote a number on it and handed it to us along with my credit card. 'Room
2722 on the twenty-seventh floor. Please call if you
Pinter, Jason – Henry Parker 04
The Fury (2009) require any assistance.'
'Please,' Gabrielle added. 'Any assistance.'
'Anything at all, for you or your friend,' Rae added.
'One thing,' I said. 'I don't want anyone to know
I'm here. So can you put me down under a different name, just in case anyone calls?'
The sisters looked at each other with a worried glare.
'Sure…' Gabrielle said. 'What name would you like to put on the room?'
'Put down…Leonard Denton,' I said.
'All set Mr…Denton.'
'Thanks. Come on,' I said to Amanda. 'Let's get you some sleep.'
I felt their glare in my back as we headed to the ele vators. The ride was silent and smooth, and I barely felt like we were moving, let alone going nearly thirty stories. At some point, right around floor twenty-five,
I felt my eardrums pop. Once the elevator opened, we made our way down the hall to room 2722, where I managed the task of propping both Amanda and the suitcase against the wall as I opened the door. Once open, I threw the bag inside and helped Amanda in.
She collapsed on the bed, and I sat down next to her.
For the first time all night, I realized just how tired I was. My nerves were still on edge, and tomorrow would be a long day. I needed to find out who that man was, who sent him, and just how deep in my brother was.
But in the meantime, Amanda had somehow wriggled out of her dress, and was wearing nothing but a silk bra and underwear, her eyes suggesting that sleepiness had taken a hiatus for the time being.
Tomorrow would be a long day. As I climbed into
Amanda's waiting arms, I hoped the night would be long enough to stay with me.
27
I woke up the next morning with my boxer shorts dangling off my shoulder, the taste of secondhand vodka in my mouth and a strange pain in my right knee.
Then the previous night came back to me, and I smiled.
Turning over, I saw Amanda lying next to me. She was wearing my old Oregon Ducks sweatshirt. It was at least three sizes too big for her, and I'd seen her spend many nights sitting on the couch reading a book, the sweatshirt pulled over her tucked-in knees.
My body ached as I threw my legs over the side of the bed and surveyed the room. It was stunning. Satin sheets, state-of-the-art stereo, a bar countertop on the porcelain bath, a flat-screen television wider than our bed at home.
Then I noticed the sunlight pouring into the room from what seemed like every angle. Standing up, my breath was taken away by the beautiful view outside and the massive wraparound balcony just outside our room.
I opened the door, stepped outside and felt alive. The cool, crisp air washed over me as my eyes adjusted to the light. The sight of New York from twenty-seven stories up. It truly was a magnificent city, and I smiled when I thought of the last time Amanda and I had hidden out in a hotel room under a fake name. It was a sleepn-save somewhere outside of Springfield, Illinois. Even though I hadn't lost my natural ability to get in way over my head, at least we were starting to hide out in classier hotels.
Reentering the room, I found my jeans crumpled into a ball on the floor, found the room-rate card. When
I looked at it, I nearly had a heart attack. There had to be other hotels in this city that wouldn't wipe me out within days.
Amanda stirred. I got up and went into the bathroom, not wanting to wake her just yet. I ran a hot shower,
