Paved with Good Intentions

Chapter Two

I woke up the next morning in the dark quiet of my motel room, the only sound the mechanical hum of the air con as it strained to keep the desert heat at bay. I stretched out in the bed, enjoying the feel of the cold air on my skin and that delicious muscle ache that I got after good sex.

After Trevor had stormed out, I'd sat on the bed for a long time spiralling into a progressively darker mood as I chewed over how we'd left things. Finally I'd decided that I'd moped for long enough and wandered out to closest gas station, stocking up on as much junk food as I could carry. When I got back to the motel, I switched on the TV and flicked through the channels until I found one showing reruns of Vinewood classics. I spent the evening eating candy, watching old movies and feeling sorry for myself before passing out in a sugar coma in the early hours of the morning.

I yawned and reached over to turn on the lamp, blinking sleepily as warm light flooded the room. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Coffee. I needed coffee. Still in my pyjamas I wandered outside to the vending machine at the end of the corridor and punched the button for caffeine-y goodness. As the machine whirled, I leaned against the cinderblock wall and looked out at the desert. It was still early but the heat was already crawling over my skin like ants, and I scratched at my arm absently as liquid seeped from the machine into the little paper cup. The vending machine beeped once to let me know that it was done and I grabbed the cup, noting the blossoming bluish tinge on the skin around my wrists and I shivered slightly as I remembered the feel of Trevor's hard body pushed up against mine.

I shook my head to dispel the memory and walked back to my room, letting out a sigh of relief as the cool air enveloped my skin. I took a sip of coffee and sat back down on my bed. Thanks to my inability to keep it in my pants I'd lost a full day's work yesterday and really couldn't afford any more distractions. I booted up the laptop and keyed in the URL to pull up the schematics of the port. It took a second to load but when it did my jaw dropped.

Instead of the list of dark blue schematics that I'd been expecting, I'd been redirected to a blank page with nothing on it except for a crudely drawn gif of a balding man in a white tank top on the toilet with the words "Fuck u" scrawled beneath it. I sat in stunned silence. I don't think I'd ever been more surprised by anything in my life, and I'd lived with Trevor Philips for a year. Bright laughter bubbled up from my chest, spilling unbidden through my lips. I laughed until tears streamed down my face and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't help it. That shit was funny.

Or at least it was funny until I released that every single damn thing that I tried to open redirected me back to that stupid page. I pinched the bridge of my nose and pulled out my phone, scrolling through until I landed on the only contact, other than the asshole responsible, who could help me sort out this mess.

"Well, well. Two ghosts in one year, what are the chances?" came Lester's nasally voice over the phone. I grinned and leant back against the creaky headboard of the bed.

"Hey Les. How've you been?" I asked, genuinely surprising myself with how happy I was to hear his voice.

"Busy." Came the short reply and I smiled. "Spending a lot of time keeping your psychotic ex out of trouble."

"He's not psychotic." I said, frowning, and Lester hummed over the phone.

"Yes, I suppose you're right. It's not fair to lump your garden variety psychopath in with him." He said and I snorted despite myself.

"Anyway, I can guess why you're calling. I got a pretty erratic call from Trevor last night. Erratic even by his standards. Asked me to put a blocker on some files pertaining to a shipment coming into the LS docks next week. I know it's nothing to do with him, I keep a tight surveillance on his business dealings, so I dug a bit deeper and found out that it's connected to a missing persons report in Liberty City. Know anything about that?" he asked, and I stayed quiet.