A heavy silence hung over them for a moment. John wondered if the others had as bad a feeling as he did.
He’d often heard police officers talk about a “cop sense.” Sort of a gut feeling when something wasn’t right, honed by spending time on the streets in dangerous situations.
He knew what they were talking about.
While he wasn’t a cop, he suspected every first responder—not to mention military personnel—developed that same sixth sense.
And he was both of those things: a former Army Ranger turned fireman.
Yeah, he had the intuition. And it was setting off alarm bells in his skull right now.
“We could go to the house and talk to the occupants,” John pointed out. “Obviously, we have no legal authority. We’re getting into other people’s business here. Maybe they’re feeling neighborly.”
“Maybe,” Trevon said. A few seconds passed. “Let’s do that.”
Athena followed them to the door. The worried look on her face told John what he’d figured.
She was worried, too.
Chapter Ten
Trixie stayed in her room for about twenty minutes after Jack and Ace saw her safely inside.
But she wasn’t ready to go to sleep yet. And what fun would it be to stay in that nice hotel, so close to the action and excitement of Hollywood Boulevard, and not do a thing?
Just stay locked in her room like a prisoner?
No thanks.
It already felt as if the walls were closing in on her. She needed to get out of there and walk around. Just for a little while.
She would be careful. Besides, no one from Vegas even knew she was in Los Angeles.
With it being the second largest city in the United States, the odds of her running into someone she actually knew where pretty slim.
So, she left her room on the seventh floor and headed down the hall. On the way toward the elevators, she passed a family—a mom, dad, and two kids, —all in bathing suits and with towels wrapped around their necks. Smiling, she gave them a little wave and kept on.
Trixie stepped aside when a hotel employee pushing a room service cart came down the middle of the path.
Just past him, two strong men were walking toward her. It was faint—as if they were trained not to react much—but she saw something in their eyes.
A light of recognition.
She swallowed hard and tried to act casual as she continued toward the elevator. Glancing over her shoulder would only let the men know she was onto them—if they were indeed there for her.
Oh crap! She should have stayed in the room!
But maybe they were going to her room. That was the direction they were heading, after all. So, perhaps leaving had been the right call.
She suddenly wished she’d taken Jack and Ace up on their offer. Or even Auntie Athena. The kind woman had offered her a room there at the nursery. It wasn’t as fortified as the Daddy Guard mansion was, probably, but there was no way anyone was getting past Trevon!
None of that mattered now. Trixie had made her bed. She was just going to have to lie in it.
It seemed to take an eternity for the elevator to arrive. After nearly giving up and sprinting to find the emergency staircase, she heard the ding a few seconds before the doors slid open.
She stepped inside and turned around to push the button for the ground level, still trying to appear casual like any other hotel guest going out for a bit.
But the act crumbled the moment she saw the two big men coming straight toward her. They were probably twenty feet away and gaining ground fast.
