Page 10 of Shamelessly Loyal

“Lainey!” I hadn’t heard that squeal in years. It catapulted me back as Ivy threw the door open. The girls gripped each other in a tight hug, all but dancing before Ivy dragged “Lainey” into the room. “What are you doing here?”

Whatever the answer was, the door closing cut it off. Fuck me.

Adrenaline flooded my system. After emptying my bladder, I splashed water on my face and brushed my teeth. Every hotel room came with its own coffee maker, so I brewed a cup. It tasted like ass, but caffeine was caffeine and I’d had way worse, honestly.

I’d barely downed two swallows when the door across the hall opened again. The girls were coming out. Ivy had put her hair up in a ponytail and wore sneakers. She also had a purse strung crosswise across her body. Where the hell were they going?

“I still can’t believe you’re here!” Ivy’s excitement punctured my anger so deftly that I damn near forgot why I’d been annoyed.

“I’m so fucking grounded,” the other girl said with a laugh. “Worth it.”

Then arm in arm, they headed for the elevators.

Son of a bitch.

I stuffed my feet into shoes. I was still in jeans and a clean t-shirt. It would have to do. I snagged a baseball cap out of my duffle and shoved it on my head. Wallet in my back pocket, I downed the rest of the scalding coffee in one swallow and headed for the stairs. I made it to the lobby in time to see them spill out of the elevator in a mini-crowd of people. It didn’t take them long to separate over to the concierge desk.

The two girls, both possessing an unnatural poise, kept breaking into giggles that had me grinning. Tickets to the parks purchased, they followed the concierge’s directions to head out the doors. Why did the guy just sell them tickets? Then again, I hadn’t heard exactly what they said to him.

I crossed to him and handed him the credit card. Fuck the cost. “One ticket to the parks.”

“Hopper?”

“Whatever.”

The guy opened his mouth to ask me another question and I just fixed him with a look. This wasn’t a social call. “Of course, one moment.” It took two, agonizingly long minutes. “Here you go, the hotel offers a shuttle to the—”

I didn’t wait for him to finish that part. I’d already caught the bus idea. Relief swarmed me when I got outside and found the girls waiting with a group of others for the bus. It was easy enough to drift into the crowd. I surged on behind them, sunglasses keeping my eyes hidden. They sat together, still giggling, and as much as I wanted the seat right behind them, I took one a couple more rows back.

At the park entrance, the thronging crowds worried me, but they also provided camouflage. I was just another kid on his way to the park. I didn’t have a bag, but I also didn’t set off the metal detectors. I’d left my knife back in the room. And I hadn’t brought a gun. To see Ivy? I didn’t think I’d need one.

For the next few hours, I soaked up both the park and the girls’ reactions to it. There was no artifice. They laughed. They played. They bought each other t-shirts. Ate ice cream. Rode the rides. I did actually manage to land in the same conveyance with them more than once. They never noticed me. They didn’t pay attention to anyone. I even managed to get a picture or two when they found a couple of villains, including the wicked-looking chick from Alice in Wonderland.

They made no move to leave as the park segued into the evening. There was a huge Halloween party, and you needed a special ticket. Turned out I’d gotten one from the dick at the hotel. Go me. They trick-or-treated around the park, laughing and playing madly. When the parade came through, they were right at the edge of the curb. The darker it got, the closer I drifted.

By the time the fireworks lit up the sky, I’d forgotten about the driving need to be here and just enjoyed their pleasure at it all. Then it was closing time, and we were all leaving the parks. The lines to get back on the buses were long. Thankfully, it didn’t look weird to be standing with them and about a thousand other people.

I didn’t let anyone jostle them, and this time, I parked my ass right behind them on the bus. Maybe I was being selfish, but I’d already figured out this was a birthday present from Lainey to Ivy. I hadn’t realized she had such a good friend. Stupid, right? Of course, she had friends. But she’d constantly been traveling the last three, going on four, years. I wondered if she had anything “normal” in her life.

They planned together laughing giggles about everything they would do back at the hotel—more food, then a movie, and a sleepover. No adults. Just them. Perfection.

Good, once they were tucked into their room, maybe I’d give Miss Sarah Jane a call and —

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." The snarl in Lainey’s voice snapped me out of my plans and I narrowed my eyes at the two men standing between the girls and the hotel door. They weren’t small, but they were pissed. Ivy was already cutting in front of Lainey like she was going to take them on.

Fuck that—

"Ignore him," Lainey ordered.

"Who is he?" Damn good question, Ivy.

One of the pair glared at Ivy briefly, before transferring that look to Lainey. Personally, I was about to pluck his fucking eyes from his head. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to find you?"

"Not long enough," Lainey told him. "And this is my mother's lover's son, or as I like to refer to him, the human version of period cramps."

The guy behind him burst out laughing and Mr. Period Cramps glowered. My lips twitched, because that was a damn good nickname. In fact, little Miss Magpie there just started forward like she was going to plow through.

"If you wanted to come see your friend," Crampy said finally. "You should have just said something."