“Wow. Zero to a hundred, huh?No, JJ, I do not have a garrote up my sleeve. Turn back around.”
I swiveled my head back to stare blankly at the TV, but did a whole-body flinch at the first touch on my head. “Seriously,” he said. “Calm down.”
I tried to relax my shoulders. When I realized that all he was doing was pressing the dish towel to my head, it got easier. And a few minutes in, the rhythmic motion actuallydidhelp me relax.
“You have to pat, not scrub,” Miller told me. “You’ll weaken the hair at the roots otherwise, end up like Vin Diesel. And, Lord have mercy on your follicles, you also need to get a decent towel for your hair.”
I grunted. The weakened-hair theory sounded like bullshit to me, and I fully intended to go back to scrubbing dry with a dish towel once Miller was out of my apartment. I didn’t have time for this kind of shit. Even my barber knew he had five minutes tops to cut my hair.
But right then, it felt nice to have Miller take his time. He even worked in a kind of massage that had me leaning back into his hands.
No one had taken care of me like that for a long time.
“See?” he murmured when he was done. “Self-care isimportant, JJ.”
I almost asked him to keep going, but I saw the time. “Shit.” I jumped up and crossed the floor to the closet. “We need to get moving.”
I thought I heard him sigh, but when I turned back, clothes in my hands, all he said was, “My car’s still at Nate’s house.”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’ll take mine.”
“You want to take…yourcar? The Pinto? To the Chateau?”
“That’s the plan.”
Miller grinned as I pulled on my clothes, shamelessly ogling me. “Hell, at least you know the valets won’t take it out for a joyride.”
“You can apologize toherfor that remark,” I said, tucking my extendable mirror into an inside pocket. I hesitated over it, but I left my gun behind. There’d always besomethingaround to use as a weapon if I needed it. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Chateau de la Lune was a fucking pretentious place that I’d always hated even before The Incident. And afterward, it was the stuff of nightmares from time to time, the kind of dreams I could never get back to sleep after.
Today, turrets gleaming cream and silver like the moon it was named after, the Chateau seemed deceptively pretty. The staff was well trained and the valet didn’t even do a double take at the sight of my Pinto when we pulled up in the pick-up-only bay. He just asked for the keys with a smile.
“I’ll park it here,” I said, smiling back. “We’ll just be a minute.”
I pulled Miller with me before he or the valet could object. I’d worn my hat, as usual, keeping it low over my face, but any attempts at escaping notice were immediately squashed when we hit reception.
“Mr. Beaumont, so lovely to see you again,” the receptionist said politely.
“Hey, Larry, good to see you.” Miller kept walking, but then the receptionist caught sight of me and his face changed.
“One moment, Mr. Beaumont,” he called, and Miller stopped dead where he was, surprised. I bumped into the back of him.
“Keep moving,” I muttered, trying to steer him with a hand in the small of his back.
“What is it?” he asked instead, swerving back to the desk.
The receptionist was still staring at me. “Um,” he said, and that’s how I knew I was screwed. Receptionists at the Chateau rarely had to think. “I’m so sorry—if you could just wait here a moment, I need to speak to the manager.”
Miller laughed as the receptionist disappeared into a back room. “That’s a new one. Usually it’s the customer who wants to see the manager, right?” He glanced at me and his face dropped. “Oh, shit. What is it?”
“Itoldyou to keep moving,” I hissed. “Ialsotold you I’m not supposed to be in here.”
His jaw worked from side to side. “No,” he said at last, “you told me youcouldn’tbe here, but you never said anything more about it. You let me think you just didn’t like the place for unknown,nebulousreasons.” He waved his hands in the air to indicate, I assumed, the nebulousness of my reasons.
I made up my mind. “Let’s go. We’ll find a different way to contact—”
