Sentinel - Devil Riders MC Book 1 (MC Romance Novel with FREE Bonus Novel!) (25 page)

Chapter Twelve

Eli

Eli was bone-tired. He could barely keep his eyes open, and it was a struggle to focus on the road. He'd had only a couple of hours sleep the previous night, and riding all day with a passenger on the back and in the taxing heat had really taken it out of him. He rubbed his eyes with one hand and looked around him. The sun was just starting to set, a brilliant crimson glow that set the sky on fire.

Under normal circumstances he'd take the chance to have a rest, to stop and admire the beauty of the view. But here, today, these weren't normal circumstances. Tex didn't care if Eli was tired, if he was hungry. He'd chase him down like a dog no matter what.

But still. They couldn't just keep going forever. The two of them were going to have to find a place to rest for the night, and soon. The temperature would start to drop once night fell, and Tess didn't have appropriate clothing. She was still dressed in the same pantsuit that she'd obviously turned up in the previous day. He craned his neck to take a glance at her. She was barely conscious - sunburned, slumped down, eyes glassy. She couldn't keep this pace for much longer.

Eli gritted his teeth. If only she hadn't been there, this would all have been so much simpler. He could've spent the night out in the desert, far away from where they could be found. But Tess complicated things. They'd need to find a motel or something for the night. She needed a change of clothes, some food.

Eli's stomach rumbled as he suddenly realized that neither of them had eaten all day.

A sign came looming up from the rapidly encroaching darkness.

"Little Hope. Population 543. 10 miles."

Eli had never heard of the place, certainly never been there. Little towns like these dotted the desert haphazardly. Some were old mining towns, some were completely abandoned. He just hoped Little Hope had somewhere they could spend the night.

He turned to speak to Tess, to give her probably the only good news she would have heard all day.

"We'll stop up here; find a little motel or something to spend the night. It's a risk, but one we'll just have to take. We'll bank on Tex being forced to stop too. He'll know we won't be able to get too far away."

Tess just nodded in resigned silence, seemingly barely even able to summon the energy for that.

Shit. She really doesn't look good.

Eli sped up, and it was only a couple of minutes before Little Hope came into view. It looked to be exactly as he'd imagined. A sad, worn-out little town, dry and sandblasted. But Eli's heart lifted as he spotted a neon sign glaring.

High Desert Motel. 1 Mile

They passed boarded up houses and stores - the roads were almost devoid of traffic, and there was little to no human activity. But still, that sign had been lit. The motel had to be open.

He spied the turn off and gently eased the bike into the parking lot of the High Desert Motel, a collection of dusty, low-roofed buildings that had definitely seen better days. But, the light in the front office was on, and the parking lot was practically empty. Perfect for their needs.

When he stopped the bike, Tess stepped off and stood still, staring into the middle distance. She swayed as if she was drunk, and looked just about ready to pass out from exhaustion and hunger.

"Tess, wait here with the bike for a couple minutes. I'll get us a room, then go and find something to eat."

He went to the door to the reception and pushed it open. The decor was about thirty years out of date, and what little furniture was there was tatty and ragged. Last year's calendar was on the wall, its pages yellowing and crumpled, and a little fan desultorily pushed warm air from one side of the room to another.

Eli approached the front desk and rang the little bell that sat on it. No response the first time, so he rang it again, harder this time.

"All right, all right," came a wheeze from the back room. "I'm comin', jeez."

A middle-aged woman appeared after a few moments, eyes heavy with sleep, jowls hanging. She eyed Eli up warily, her eyes lingering on his biker's jacket.

"What can I do for ya?"

Eli rolled his eyes.

"A room. For the night."

The woman's eyes drifted over Eli's shoulder to where Tess stood outside, and then back to Eli. A knowing grin crossed her ugly features.

"Alright. Twenty-five bucks. No drugs, no animals."

Eli fished out the bills and slapped them down on the counter, then snatched the keys out of the woman's hand. As he turned to leave, she wheezed in laughter.

"Y'all have a nice night."

Eli didn't bother responding as he walked back out into the rapidly-cooling night air.

"C'mon," he murmured gently to Tess. "I got us a place, just over here."

He lifted the suitcase and then took her arm, leading her over to the room. He unlocked it and flicked on the lights. It was unremarkable in every way, but at least it looked relatively clean. Tess stumbled over to the bed and collapsed on it immediately. Eli set the suitcase down and looked at her for a few moments. Her face was flushed with sunburn, her hair was a wild, greasy tangle, and she looked as if she'd aged a year since he last saw her.

But, for all that, she was still beautiful. Somehow even more beautiful, in a strange way, because she'd endured the day's ordeal with practically no complaints and no fuss.

She's stronger than I gave her credit for.

Shaking his head, he pulled the door closed behind him and went back to the bike, wheeling it over to the parking spot in front of the room without starting the engine. He debated leaving it there, but if the Sons happened to drive past, they'd spot it immediately. After a couple of minutes of scouting around, he discovered that it was relatively simple to wheel the bike behind the building. It would take longer to get there if they needed to leave in a hurry, but there wasn't much other choice.

Once that was done, Eli patted his pockets and pulled out his wallet. After paying off that old gas station owner earlier in the day, and now the room, he wasn't left with much cash. Enough for food tonight, maybe tomorrow too. After that, he was going to be reliant on Tess.

His stomach rumbled again. He'd go and get food soon, but he decided to sit down first, just for a little while.

There was a battered old armchair next to the bed, and he sank into it with a deep sigh. His thighs ached and his fingers were stiff from gripping the handlebars on the bike the whole day.

Just a couple minutes, to rest my eyes. I'll deal with everything else after that
.

*****

Eli jerked awake with a sharp intake of breath, looking around himself in befuddlement. It only took a few moments for everything to come flooding back. He silently reproached himself for falling asleep without even locking the door to the hotel room. Tess was still sleeping exactly where she'd collapsed on the bed, her breathing steady and even.

Eli stood, grimacing at the stiffness in his back and neck from the uncomfortable chair, then checked his watch. Almost 3am. He went to the window and pulled the curtains back. It was deadly silent outside, not a living thing in sight. The front office was still lit up, but he couldn't see anyone in there. Eli figured that he'd probably slept for three to four hours, and that would have to be enough. He wanted to be out of here before first light, to give them as much headway on Tex as possible. He didn't know where they would have stopped for the night, be he doubted they were far away.

Stretching and yawning, Eli opened the motel room door and stepped out into the chilly night. Even after a whole lifetime spent living in the desert, he was always surprised at how cold it could get in the dead of night. He needed to find a 24 hour convenience store - somewhere he could get something to eat, maybe a change of clothes for Tess.

He debated taking the bike, but he didn't want the loudness of the engine to attract any unwanted attention, so he decided to walk. He went to the office and woke the front desk attendant, the same woman from before. Through yawns, she told him that there was an all-night convenience store a few blocks away. Eli set off into the darkness, hands tucked deep into the pockets of his jacket.

The cool air perked him up a little, cleared his head. He needed a clearer plan for the next day. They couldn't just keep running forever. At some point he was going to have to deal with the problem, face it head on. In a straight up fight, he had no chance. He needed to find some way of ambushing them, or tricking them, or something.

It didn't take too long to find the store, lit up like a beacon in the night. The clerk eyed him warily as he entered, but Eli just ignored him. Their clothing selection was...minimal, to say the least, and he had no idea what size Tess normally wore. He picked out some plain jeans, a few white cotton t-shirts, and some basic panties. That would just have to do, and if they didn't fit...well, he'd tried. They didn't have time to go on a shopping trip.

The only hot foods in the place were some gross-looking hotdogs, but Eli bought some anyway. They smelled surprisingly good in his ravenous state. He picked up a couple of bags of chips, some coke and water, and paid using the last of his cash. The clerk bagged it all up, giving him a weird look, and Eli was on his way, back out into night.

When he pushed the door open to the motel room, his heart lurched when he saw that Tess was no longer sleeping on the bed, before he relaxed when he heard the sound of the shower coming from the bathroom.

He set the clothes down on her bed and tore open a bag of chips, stuffing them into his mouth in handfuls between huge bites of hotdog. The bathroom door opened and Tess emerged, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Hungry, huh?"

Eli's cheeks bulged and he reddened a little as he tried to swallow in order to answer. She didn't seem to care though. She was wrapped in a towel, and her hair hung around her face, wet and smelling of shampoo. She sat on the bed and crossed her legs, and it took all of Eli's willpower not to stare at them; long and shapely, and that towel really didn't leave much to the imagination... She looked infinitely better than she had when they'd arrived, and she started digging around in the grocery bag, fishing out one of the hotdogs and taking a huge bite.

"Mmmm," she said with her mouthful. "Usually, I wouldn't go near something like this. But with how hungry I am, I'd eat damn near anything right now."

"I got you some clothes," Eli said, gesturing to where he'd set them down on the bed. "I didn't know what size you wear, so I just guessed as best I could."

She picked up the jeans and took a look at the label.

"Close enough," she smiled. "They might be a bit baggy, but I'll deal."

She whistled as she saw the cotton panties.

“And you bought me underwear too? Wow, normally I’m a few months into a relationship before the guy buys me lingerie.”

She took another bite, before fixing him with a look.

"Thanks. For everything. Listen, I'm sorry....about what I said, yesterday morning in the workshop. I should've talked to you before jumping to conclusions."

Eli waved away her concerns.

"It's OK. What else were you supposed to think? I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. It's just been a crazy stressful few days."

He held out a hand.

"Friends?"

She laughed.

"Friends."

She took his hand and they shook solemnly, Eli trying not to crack a smile. He caught her gaze and their eyes locked for a few moments. Something passed between them, then....here they were, alone in a motel room in the middle of goddamn nowhere, on the run, and Eli was lusting after her. That morning, he’d been so angry with her, so angry that he would have been happy never to see her again. But now, things were different.

She’d shown him that she was capable of more than he’d thought. She’d shown him that she was tougher than he’d thought. And she’d shown him that he’d been too quick to judge her.

And so, as they sat there facing each other on the bed, Eli wasn’t sure what to do. He wanted to reach out to her; he wanted to pull her into his arms. And all the while, as these thoughts were going through his mind she was staring at him. Like she was waiting for him, waiting for him to make the first move.

But Eli was frozen. He couldn’t. He felt cowardly and ridiculous; he could fix a car, he could steal drugs from the Sons of Flame, but he couldn’t make the first move on Tess. Not right then. In his heart of hearts, he knew that she was waiting. But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He wasn’t good enough for her. It was his fault that she was even in the situation in the first place. If she’d never met him, she’d be at home in bed right now, not in this dingy old motel on the run from dangerous criminals.

The moment had passed and Eli didn’t know if it would ever come back again. But it was too late for that now. They needed to get some more sleep.

“I’ll take the floor. You have the bed.”

She started protest, but Eli just waved away her words.

“I’ve slept in worse places than this, trust me. This is luxury compared to prison.”