Free Escaping Vegas (The Inheritance Book 1) by Danielle Bourdon Page B

and met Cole at the back of the car. Strangely, she missed the connection of their hands. She’d drawn comfort from it while they’d been on the run.
    Cole held the lobby door open and followed on her heels.
    The Whittier Inn was about as standard a hotel as one could imagine. Flat brown carpet in the halls, nondescript wallpaper, generic print paintings of Southern California hot spots. At least it was clean.
    Taking charge of renting a room for the night, Cole paid with cash and said little more than necessary to the chatty, too-happy clerk. Before Madalina knew it, they were in an elevator on the way to the third floor. Shortly after that, Cole opened the door to their room after scanning the hallway, ever on alert for unwanted company.
    Madalina expected to find a set of double beds, plain furniture, a television on a dresser, and a small white-tiled bathroom, which is exactly what greeted her when she stepped inside. The color scheme was brown and sage green, the curtains parted to give a view of the parking lot in front of the lobby. She set her purse on the dresser and sank onto the edge of a bed, staring down at her booted feet. The sense of melancholy over the destruction of her home, of everything she owned, became a great weight that slumped her shoulders and bowed her spine. She didn’t know where to go from here or what to do next. Living in the hotel for longer than a few days wasn’t an option. She needed clothes—which she intended to get from the sale racks at her own boutique—shoes, shelter, and a plan.
    “Hey.”
    She glanced up when Cole came to stand next to the bed. He towered above her, tall and strong and handsome in the single light burning from the nightstand. “Hmm?”
    “Did you leave your grandpa’s keepsake in the safe deposit box? Because if it was in the house, it’s either gone or destroyed. I think that’s got to be our best lead about what’s happening to you.”
    Madalina studied Cole’s features, the unusual color of his eyes. She said, “I took it out of the safe deposit box. It’s somewhere else. I didn’t plan it that way; it just worked out that the person who was with me when I listed the information on the antique site had the dragon and kept it while I went to Vegas.”
    Cole slid his hands into his pockets, weight shifting from one foot to the other. “I think we should go take a look tomorrow. See if we can find out more about it. I mean—if it’s nothing, a cheap knockoff, then we’ll be able to rule it out and turn our attention to something else. Systematically going through the possibilities of who is after you, and why, will help us make better, safer decisions.”
    It didn’t sound to Madalina like Cole meant to go anywhere. He talked as if her problem was his problem, as if he was in it till the end. She thought she should ask him how long he planned to stay, how much dedication he meant to expend on her behalf. Maybe after breakfast, when some of the shock had worn off.
    “All right. Tomorrow we’ll do that. I’m not sure what we’ll find. I need to stop by the boutique, too, to get some clothes and shoes. I can’t keep wearing this skirt and shirt.” Madalina had a thing about wearing clothes over again. It skeeved her out if she couldn’t change into something new and fresh after showers or in the mornings. Sometimes she changed twice a day. Besides her peculiar obsession, concentrating on this kind of mundane task helped keep her anxiety in check.
    “ Your boutique?” Cole asked. He didn’t move away, didn’t take a step back.
    “Yes, mine. I can get the clothes at cost. It’ll be cheaper than going to a regular store.”
    Cole’s whiskers rasped against his fingertips when he rubbed his jaw. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
    “You think they’ll be watching it, too?” she asked with a frown. Madalina hadn’t considered that the Chinese agents might haunt her place of business. Then again, she hadn’t expected her