“That’s not true. He’s your dad.”
“Yeah,” I reluctantly agree. “But we aren’t looking for my dad right now. We’re looking for your business partner, and I don’t even know that man.”
We drive in silence for a while, Yuri zigzagging through the city with no obvious destination in mind, when a thought begins to form in my head. If I was looking for my dad, I’d just call him. He always answers my calls. For a while when I was a teenager, he had a work phone and a personal phone, but he found carrying two phones too much to keep track of. He was always leaving one at home or in his car, and he missed more of my calls during that time than ever. So, he went back to only having one phone. One phone that I had the number for.
“Where is my phone?” I ask, holding my hand out.
Yuri is surprised and then shakes his head. “I don’t have it on me. It’s in the duffel. Why do you need it?”
I twist in the seat and grab his bag, unzipping it hastily.
“Careful,” he warns, looking over his shoulder for a second, watching my movements. “There’s more than just gym clothes in there.”
I wade through bullets, pocket knives, and black boxer briefs before I find my cell phone buried in the bottom of the bag. I grab it and hit the home button, but nothing happens.
“Shit.” I open up the glove compartment and the console, rifling through the owner’s car title and packs of gum. “My phone is dead.”
“I have mine if you need a phone.” Yuri points to his front pocket, but stops when I shake my head.
“I need my phone. I’m looking for a charger.” Just then, I find a long cable with a cigarette lighter attachment on the end. I check the plug with my phone and do an actual fist pump when I realize it fits. “Thank God for standardized plugs.”
“What is going on?” Yuri asks.
I wait for the red bar to flash green and for my screen to flash to life before I answer, enjoying the brief moment where Yuri is in the dark instead of me. “I have a family locator app on my phone. My dad’s secret service forced me to install it forever ago. I never use it, but the app linked our phones together, so if his phone is on, I can log in and see where it’s at.”
“It’s that easy?” Yuri asks, sounding unconvinced.
To answer him, I simply open the app, click on my father’s avatar, and wait for the app to home in on his location. Within ten seconds, a tiny green circle appears on the man. I hold it out for him to see.
“Where is that?” he asks, squinting at the screen.
I look back at the map, nerves replacing the fleeting rush of accomplishment. “He’s at home. Or, at least, his phone is.”
Chapter Fifteen
Yuri
Bella wants to go to the house right away, and I can understand why. She has a lot of questions for her dad, and finally, we have a clue where he might be. But showing up in the middle of the day seems stupid, and it doesn’t take much for Bella to agree with me. So, I find us a cheap hotel.
“I’ve never stayed in a hotel with no lobby,” Bella says, chewing on her lip while she looks at the long line of hotel doors that open directly to the parking lot.
“There’s technically a lobby,” I say, pointing to the small, glass-enclosed building at the far end of the hotel rooms. There’s a glowing neon sign above the door that says “vacancy.”
Bella looks less than convinced, but when I park in the lot—license plate facing away from the road in case any cops drive by and decide to run plates and catch themselves a car thief—she climbs out and walks inside with me, head held high.
The man behind the counter is overweight and sweaty, the exact kind of man I’d expect to run an establishment like this one. He barely looks at me, his eyes glued to Bella. She’s in jeans and a T-shirt, but she still looks incredible. I want to bloody his nose and teach him manners, but he’s also the only witness to our staying at the motel, and I don’t want to give him any more reason to remember us. So, I smile.
“Got a room?”
He points up at the vacancy sign. “Can you read?”
My smile falls, and I arch an eyebrow. “Better than you’ll be able to when I’m—”
“What my husband meant to say,” Bella said, twining her arm through mine, “was ‘do you have a special room?’ We’re newlyweds.”
The man looks Bella up and down and snorts back a nose full of snot. “And you’re here?”
“We got married up the road,” Bella said, smiling wider than I’ve ever seen her. She tucks herself against my side and lays her head on my shoulder. “We had plans to make it to the city, but we were ... impatient.”
She rolls her hips against my body, making me shift uncomfortably in my jeans, and the clerk’s gaze turns hungry. “Actually, we do have a nice suite available.”
“Sweet,” Bella purrs, batting her lashes at the man. “We’ll take it.”
The man seems stunned by her attention for a moment, but he eventually manages to stand up and grab the key for the room. When he returns to the desk, he withholds the key, turning his scowl to me.
I slide a neat pile of cash across the table. “I’m paying extra so we won’t be bothered.”
Suddenly, Bella might as well be a plate of rotten meat. The man has eyes for nothing but the cash as he holds the key out to us. He’s counting it when we leave.
***
The “nice suite” features a threadbare rug, two dusty candles, and a special code to unlock the adult channels on the television. Otherwise, it’s as drab as
