Anchor looked at her.“What?”
“Maybe this guy just wants to play with you.”Her eyes lifted to Anchor.“Mess with the club.Make you chase shadows.Make you question everyone.”
“Why?”Anchor snapped, frustration finally cracking through.“Why the fuck us?”
McKayla looked around the motel room for a second before answering.“I think we need to look harder at Bernice and Caleb Token.”
Anchor went still.
So did I.
She continued carefully.“Everything keeps circling back to that.Shay.Bernice.Your island’s past.The old clubhouse by the lake.Caleb’s death.There has to be more we don’t know.”
Anchor ran his fingers through his hair roughly and turned toward the window.“Yeah,” he muttered.“Fine.We’ll dig deeper.”
That wasn’t an excited agreement.
It sounded like a man who already knew digging deeper meant finding rot.He looked back at us.“We done here?”
McKayla took one last slow look around the room.“Yeah.I guess so.”Her mouth twisted.“I don’t think we’d be lucky enough to get the front desk girl to let us look in every room for Erin.”
“Maybe we send Vin and Cross to sweet talk her into doing that,” I said.
Anchor shrugged.“Wouldn’t hurt to try.”
McKayla snorted.“Good luck to them.”
We left room eleven and headed back toward the office.
The sun was sinking lower now, painting the parking lot in dull gold and stretching our shadows long across the cracked pavement.McKayla walked between Anchor and me with the posters tucked carefully beneath one arm.
When we reached the office, Anchor and I stayed right by the door where we could hear, but McKayla stepped inside alone to return the key.
The girl looked up from behind the desk and immediately made a face.“Find what you were looking for?”
McKayla stopped at the counter.For a second, I thought she might fire back something funny.She didn’t.Instead, she sighed and slid the key card across the counter.“My sister is missing, and I’m looking for any clue I can to find her, okay?”Her voice stayed even, but there was an edge underneath it.“I’m sorry I cock-blocked you.I guess my priorities are different from yours.”
The girl’s mouth dropped open.
Anchor made a choking sound beside me.
McKayla turned and walked out before the girl could answer, and I fell into step beside her.Anchor did the same on her other side.
“That was interesting,” I said.
McKayla rolled her eyes.“That girl is annoying.Good luck to Vin and Cross.”
Anchor chuckled.I did too.
Even with everything pressing down on her, McKayla still had that spark.That mouth.That refusal to be swallowed whole by fear.
We reached the bikes, and she stopped beside mine like it was already where she belonged.That hit me harder than I wanted to admit.
She pulled on her helmet and climbed on behind me without hesitation.Her hands settled around my waist naturally now, like she’d done it a hundred times.
I liked it.
No point pretending I didn’t.
