The guy turned around from where he had his hand shoved into a deep pocket in my suitcase, and I blasted him across his sharp chin with a well-placed punch. Unfortunately, he had bones of granite because he didn’t so much as budge.
“Hell,” he snarled, and with that one word, I at least knew this was an Aussie and not someone who had followed us from New York. He hefted the entire suitcase up and smacked me across the side with it. I kept on my feet, but the blow was enough to let him dart away. He had on a pink polo—the same color all the other hotel employees wore. Was I being robbed by one of the staff? Well, the joke was on him. I didn’t have anything much, and I carried my wallet with me, but still, I couldn’t let this go.
I chased him, and as I barreled after the man along the hallway, my heart went cold because he turned with a gun in his hand. I zeroed in on the muzzle aimed at my head.
“Shit!” I darted into a doorway and ducked as he fired, thankful for the decorative stone wall on the lower half. The noise was deafening, and down the hall someone screamed like they were in a horror movie. My heart hammered, and I talked myself into sticking my head out to spot the guy, but by the time I did, he was long gone. I slapped my hand down to my balls and sucked in a deep breath. Yeah, they were still there. Better do this. I wouldn’t be able to look Cillian in the eye if I let our shit get taken without giving the guy a good fight.
I ran after the thief and down a set of stairs, then across the lobby, but as I busted out into the pool area it was clear that he was long gone. My stomach cramped with anxiety as I spun in a circle, taking in every corner. He had to have run this direction. I spotted a man in the same type of pink polo shirt, but he was much shorter than the thief—and blond. He smiled and waved at me around an armful of white fluffy towels that he plopped onto a table near the pool, and then his face fell.
“Sir, you all right? You need to sit down or something?” He frowned and came near me, but I shook my head and turned around to race back up to the rooms.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I mumbled. “They’re going to be so mad at me. Why did I have to be the one to come back to trouble? Just let the mob boss kiss you, Finn. That was a great move. And because you did that, now this is happening. The world has it out for you,” I grumbled.
“Are you all right, love?” a woman in a pink blazer asked as she came hustling out of a different room farther along the hall. She was one of the staff because, if I remembered correctly, the women at the front desk wore those blazers, and I caught the glint of a silver nametag on the lapel. Her hair was almost as red as mine, and she tugged on the end of her ponytail. Her eyes were too wide. “Did you see what happened?”
“There was a man, and he fired a gun.” I glanced around the hallway and spotted the bullet hole in the wood above the stone on the bottom. It had ruined the paint and was clear as day. “There,” I said, pointing at the hole.
“Christ, I better make sure no one was hurt!” she said, then whipped out a key card and rushed inside the room I’d hidden near.
I ran back to my room and took in the mess. Nothing was missing... as far as I could tell. Shaking my head, I went to my suitcase and frowned, then groaned. I picked it up off the floor and flung it back on the bed. The only thing I’d kept in the big pocket was my passport. I stuck my hand in and my gut dropped. I hadn’t noticed that guy taking the small booklet, but it was missing.
“Fuck,” I grumbled, then pulled my phone out of my pocket. I went out into the hallway and stared into the rooms the other guys had been sharing. I suspected that if I checked, they would all be missing their passports, too.
It only took a few pulses of the ringback tone before Cillian answered. “What? Ye okay, boyo?”
Flinching, I let out a sigh. “Mostly. Uh.... Well, we were robbed.”
“Come again?” he asked, genuine confusion carrying across the airwaves to me.
Snickering, I shook my head. I wanted so bad to make a wisecrack, but I didn’t. “Well, Legend told me to come pack my crap and get back to his house. He even got me a car to bring me here to the hotel, but someone was in our rooms.”
“What’d he look like?” That was Cillian, all about the job. “Hurry up!”
I stared blankly at the wall and tried to think. Before he’d sorta yelled at me I was already gearing up to tell him, but the angry words had slapped it directly out of my brain. “Uh.”
“Of all the goddamned bloody fecking luck. Are ye a lookout or what, Finn?” he snapped.
“Give me a second. It surprised me!”
Closing my eyes, I hummed. “He was taller than me, brown hair, brown eyes, thin face with one of those prissy goatees that take a ton of work to keep that way. You know, the chinstrap ones. Pink polo shirt, but that might’ve been to blend in. The staff here wear those.”
Cillian growled like a rabid dog. “Was he Italian or what?”
“How the hell would I know?” Irritation swamped me, and even though Cillian Shaughnessy was terrifying, I couldn’t bring myself to bite my tongue. “He didn’t exactly stick his hand out and introduce himself as he was shooting at me. He sounded Australian from thesingleword I heard him speak.” I kicked the wall and it hurt my toes, but I felt a little better.
“Get back here. Bring everyone’s shite with ye,” Cillian barked, and then he was gone.
“You’re always so sweet to me,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes as I stuffed my phone back in my pocket.
Before I could go into my room to scrape together my clothing and the last of my dignity, a new man raced up the stairs. I stared at him as he whipped toward me with a gun in his hands. It was all I could focus on.
“Stop right there! Let’s see those hands,” he shouted, and he sounded a little scared. Since he was armed, I complied. It took me a second to piece together what was happening, but police everywhere dressed about the same. His dark blue tactical pants topped by a blue short-sleeved button-up with the boxy thingies on the shoulders and the patches on each sleeve gave him away.
“They’re up!”
“I’m with the police!” He scowled.
“I got that,” I said with a sigh.
