“Right.” The night clerk looked her up and down and then gave Jake another smirk. “Security check.”
Jake looked at him. “I’m sure you’re aware that the security lock on the sliding glass door is broken.”
The clerk frowned. “Nobody reported any broken lock.”
“I’m reporting it now,” Jake said.
Clare folded her arms and raised her eyes to the ceiling.
The clerk moved hesitantly into the room, taking in the sight of the rumpled bedspread and the high-heeled sandals on the threadbare carpet. He fiddled with the sliding glass door a couple of times. There was a click as the lock slid into place.
The clerk regarded Jake with a triumphant expression. “The lock works just fine.”
“Yeah?” Jake shook his head. “I’ll be damned. Must have been a case of operator error.” He turned to Clare. “Something tells me it’s time for me to go.”
She smiled wryly. “I think so, yes.”
“I’ll call you in the morning.”
Laughter gleamed in her eyes. “They always say that.”
“I don’t always say it. But when I do, I mean it.”
He touched the side of her cheek, bent his head slightly and kissed her. It wasn’t a proper good night kiss. It was a message to the night clerk. The lady is mine.
When he raised his head he saw the sparkle of amused irritation in Clare’s eyes. She understood the message that was being sent, too.
He went out into the hall and waited for the clerk to join him. Clare closed the door firmly behind them.
Jake started down the stairs. The clerk hurried to catch up.
“I’m just doing my job,” the clerk said apologetically. “No unregistered guests in the rooms. That’s the rule.”
“And an excellent rule it is.”
The door to room 208 opened again. This time the bald-headed man peered out. His gaze went first to Clare’s door. But when he saw Jake he hurriedly ducked back inside his room.
“I think I can guess where the complaints came from,” Jake said to the clerk.
“The wife in two-oh-eight is a little on the uptight side.”
Jake went down the stairs, thinking about the two things that had been bothering him all evening. The first was Clare’s effort to ensure that everyone in Stone Canyon with the exception of himself and Elizabeth believed that she was staying out at the airport. The second was the serious scare she had received in the mall parking garage that afternoon.
Taken independently, neither fact was enough to generate a great deal of concern, he thought. There were reasonable explanations for each. After witnessing Myra’s obvious tension and Valerie’s out-of-control rage at the cocktail party the night before, he could understand why Clare didn’t want to advertise the address of her motel. Valerie, at least, was quite capable of showing up unannounced and causing a scene.
As for the incident in the garage, that could be explained away easily enough by an inattentive driver or a young punk bent on frightening a woman alone.
But the combination of the two made him uneasy. When he added in the fact that the last time Clare was in town she had discovered a dead body, he got downright edgy.
He checked his watch when he reached the lobby. It was nearly one o’clock in the morning. Time for an executive decision.
“You can check me in,” he said to the clerk. “I want room two-twelve if it’s available.”
“Huh?”
“The room on the other side of Miss Lancaster’s room. Is it available?”
“Well, yeah, I guess so, but—”
“I’ll take it.”
“Gee, I don’t know. This is kind of an unusual situation.”
“You got any problems registering a paying guest?”
“Well, when you put it like that—”
She had changed into her nightgown and was pulling back the covers on the bed when she heard him come back down the hall. She knew it was Jake. There was an unmistakable resonance to his long, prowling stride that reverberated through the cheap floorboards.
Startled, she hurried to the door and opened it a couple inches. She was in time to see Jake slide a key into the lock of the adjoining room. He had a small leather duffel bag in one hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded in a loud whisper.
“Spending the night in a third-rate motel.” He got the door to his room open and looked at her. “Not my first choice but I hear the place is clean.”
“Jake, you can’t be serious.”
“Trust me, I’m serious. See you in the morning.” He started to enter the room.
Her senses verified the statement. Okay, so he was serious.
She leaned a little farther out into the hall, struggling to conceal her nightgown-clad body with the door.
“Wait,” she said urgently. “What is this all about?”
He propped one shoulder against the wall, folded his arms across his chest and regarded her with a puzzled frown.
“I don’t like the idea of you staying here,” he said. “You refuse to move. Therefore I’ve got no choice but to stay here, too.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Well, there is one other option.”
“What’s that, for heaven’s sake?”
“I could spend the night in your room instead of this one but something tells me the mood has been shattered.”
She blushed. He was right. Now that the dazzling energy of passion had faded to more manageable levels, she had come back to her senses. She needed to think about what was going on here. Wild flings with men she had known for only a couple of days were not her style. She had never been into one-night stands. When you were the product of one, you thought twice—make that three or four times—before you took that kind of risk. In addition, she was definitely not accustomed to being out of control the way she had been a few minutes before.
Yes, she certainly needed time to contemplate events.
“Very perceptive of you,” she said. She frowned at the duffel bag. “Do you always keep an overnight kit packed in your car?”
“I was a Boy Scout. I take that ‘Be prepared’ stuff seriously.”
She was abruptly incensed. “You do this kind of thing a lot?”
“Are you kidding?” He managed to look highly offended. “I haven’t stayed in a low-rent joint like this since I got out of college.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”