Back and forth.
I sit, bounce my knee, get up again.
I roll my shoulders. Crack my knuckles. Move behind Ryder, watching his fingers fly across the keyboard, gibberish spilling over the screen. Words and numbers come and go faster than I can read them.
“You’re hovering.”
“Deal with it. Anything yet?”
“You realize these things take time, right? More if you keep interrupting. Even more if you keep breathing whiskey at me.”
“Better whiskey than pussy.” I step away to refill my glass.
That’s my fourth drink in twenty minutes and the alcohol to blood ratio in my veins hasn’t changed. I take a whiff in case Ryder filled the bottle with tea.
It smells sharp, woodsy. Divine.
He didn’t.
Which means tonight, I’m immune to alcohol and have no hope of passing out in a pool of my own vomit.
Great.
Ryder breathes in when Bianca darts out of the bedroom to fetch a glass of water. A small smile lights his face, not a common sight.
“She’s good for you,” I say, pointedly looking at the mouth of the corridor where Bianca’s disappeared.
He looks that way too, his tone wary like he expects me to mock him. “Yeah, she is.”
“Good. She’s calmed you down. Before her, you were wound up tighter than Carter.”
He snorts, nodding toward me. “You should see yourself right now. You look ready to jump out of your skin.”
That sounds about right.
I don’t comment, eyes on Ryder’s tapping fingers at the keyboard, the letters long since rubbed off.
“Fuck!” he snaps, sending my heartrate into overdrive.
“What? What have you found?”
“Vaughn.”
I lean over his shoulder. On the screen a short, grainy clip shows Charles Vaughn wheeling down a street in Columbus.
“What the fuck is he doing?” I ask as his wheelchair turns to enterTheMillennium Hotel.
Ryder doesn’t answer. He pulls his phone out and dials Carter’s number. I’m close enough to hear him answer.
“Ryder?”
“Vaughn’s in Columbus. He checked intoMillenniumtwenty minutes ago. I’m watching the footage now.”
A boomingfuckcomes first and then, “He’s fucking asking for it now. Drop whatever you’re doing. Call Koby and meet me at the hotel as soon as you can. I’ll call Broadway.”
I snatch my car keys from the coffee table and hook my jacket over my elbow.
“Koby’s already here. We’ll head out now.”
