Outlaws

Chapter Fourteen

            The sound of a door opening and closing breaks us from our trance as we both pull ourselves apart from our embrace. The same thought coming across our minds.

"What are we doing, making out on a car like a couple of high schoolers?" I laugh, trying to sound serious but fighting to keep the childish grin I feel in my chest from showing. "We need to get inside."

"Right yes," James raises an eyebrow, "inside where its more... private?"

"Where it's safer from being attacked or spotted," I glare at him playfully, "now let's get our stuff inside the room shall we?"

We both laugh quietly to ourselves as we pull our bags from the back of the car. James takes the key to the room door and opens it. Before he steps inside, I put my hand over his chest and whisper for him to wait. I place my bag quietly by the door and make my way around the small room to clear it.

The place smells like dust and mould trying to hide behind an over the top linen scented air freshener. There is one king size bed in the centre of the room, a bedside table either side with a lamp for each. There is a small round wooden dining table with two chairs over by an even smaller kitchenette. At the end of the bed there is a wall mounted TV and a small corridor leading to the bathroom. Before heading down that corridor I make my way to the rooms curtains and check behind those. The room has both blinds and curtains, which usually means the curtains are not very thick fabric. I open the blinds but close the curtains, I want to raise the blinds completely however taking a look out of the window to all the other rooms around the place with their blinds down it would stand out dramatically. Finally making my way down the short corridor I brace myself against the wall, take in a deep breath and wait listening for any sounds coming from inside. In a swift movement I fully step into the bathroom and turn on the light. Empty, shower curtain pulled all the way back to indicate there are no secret assassin lurking.

Satisfied the room has no physical intruders I signal for James to enter the room quietly. He looks at me both amused and confused by what I am doing. Now knowing the room is safe from physical intruders I start to look for bugs that may have been placed in there. Not necessarily in anticipation of us being here but just in case there was one left behind that might still be active. I look behind the hideous motel artwork, feeling along the backing paper for anything protruding. I go to the room phone and separate the pieces carefully inspecting the inside electronics for anything that might be in there before reassembling it.

James has taken a seat on the edge of the bed, silently watching me work my way around the room. I continue my search, pulling things apart and putting them back together examining high and low and in unexpected places before finally feeling satisfied we are somewhat secure. I take a seat on the bed beside James and promptly lie myself flat on my back with my feet dangling over the edge and let out a deep breath. It has been a long time since I have needed to do a full sweep of a motel room and it's just beginning to dawn on me that this won't be the last time for an indeterminate amount of time. James lays himself down beside me to, I let my head fall to the side to look at him as he stares up at the ceiling, the traces of a smile sit on the corner of his lips. He points up at the lightbulb above the bed and looks at me with a smirk.

"I think you missed something."

I roll my eyes at him; I can tell he is being sarcastic but he is also right. I roll myself off the bed and onto my feet making my way over to the light switch and turn it off before heading back over to the bed and standing on it for the height. I stretch to reach up and am just a little too short to reach the bulb. I try standing on the tips of my toes but quickly start to lose balance with James' weight pulling me much too far forward when I do. He notices and stabilizes my legs with his hands so I reach up again. Only this time I do reach the bulb to find it is too hot to grip. James laughs softly as he gently taps the back of my thigh to signal for me to stop. He lets go of my legs and gets up himself, standing so close I can feel the heat emanating off him. He reaches up with his left arm and unscrews the light bulb, his metal fingers unphased by the heat from the small bulb. His gaze does not leave mine until he pulls the bulb out of its socket. He squints in the dark at it before announcing there is no bug in there either. I don't look up to check for myself, I just stare at his lips remembering the taste of them on my tongue I follow his jawline, eyes tracing along the lines down his neck to his chest.