The Waitress

12 - The Orchestrator's Due

Kaely was still reading when there was a knock on the room door, and she knew who it was without having to ask for a name. She dropped her book with a sigh, got up and moved to the door to double-check first. She opened it when she recognised the bottle-blonde head of Lexus Trainor.

Kaely liked to call her Lexus Traitor in her head.

"Is Eliot okay?" Kaely asked first, pulling the door open carefully, and Lexus stepped in, her hands holding onto her bag.

"Hello to you too," she muttered. "Yes, he's fine. Milking it a bit, I reckon." She paused, then saw Oliver. "I see you've met Dalton number two," she added as she shut the door and Kaely pursed her lips.

"I'm not going to get a chance to tell the guys that Jared's brother is here," she realised. "I'd say that was clever, but it wasn't."

"No worries," Lexus shot back. "I just saved your life; you're welcome." Kaely bit her tongue and dropped back to her bed, lifting her legs up lazily.

"Come on, it's only three o'clock," Oliver growled. "Quit arguing or I'll throw you both out."

"I paid for this place," Kaely announced, pointing a finger at the roof, "so I can kick you out."

Oliver grumbled something that Kaely couldn't quite hear, but she didn't press it. Besides, he was kind of right; the more Kaely and Lexus fought, the harder getting along would become.

"Alright, so, what's the plan?" Oliver asked finally, and Kaely frowned at him.

"Didn't you just hear what I said?" she asked dumbly. "They're not coming back for me."

"So we need to keep you safe while Australia wants you behind bars, don't we?" Oliver shot back, and Lexus rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, whatever," she replied, pulling up a chair by the door. "What are we supposed to do, keep her locked up in a hotel room for the rest of her life? A girl's got to get out, Oliver."

"We're not keeping her here," Oliver told them as if it were obvious. "No, of course not. We need to keep moving; they won't know that she's split with the guys so they won't be expecting her in a smaller group."

Lexus' eyes widened.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," she snapped. "I am not travelling Australia with this." She jerked her thumb in Kaely's direction, and Kaely shrugged.

"That's fine, because I wasn't up for going with you either," Kaely hissed, but Oliver stepped in.

"I'm older than the pair of you," he said sternly. "I'm superior here. You will both do as your told if you want to stay alive, and you will do it without complaining, am I clear?"

Kaely narrowed her eyes. "Crystal," she shot back, folding her arms in front of her irritably.

"Yeah, whatever," Lexus replied, then gestured to Oliver. "The gun bag," she added. "Pass it to me."

"No," Oliver shot back. "I'm not stupid."

"I'm not going to shoot her," Lexus exclaimed in protest. "I was actually going to teach her how to use one. Hand it over or I'll stop trying altogether."

Oliver sighed and pulled a gun out of the bag, chucking it to Lexus carelessly. She caught it and gestured to Kaely, leaving Kaely to get up uneasily and move over to the end of the bed Lexus sat on. She positioned herself on the edge so that she was in front of Lexus.

"This is an AMT AutoMag III," she told Kaely, "a semi-automatic pistol. Understand?"

"No. What's a semi-automatic?" Lexus nodded.