THE DRY CLEANER'S MESS

CHAPTER 19

Arielle's eyes kept following Luke as he paced left to right and back, hands akimbo, face scrunched deep in thought, until she almost became cross-eyed. Her frustrated huff made him pause in his tracks.

"You need to stop this pacing. Calm down, Luke. You're making me more nervous and tenser than I should be."

He scowled and continued his movement. "The situation at hand is much more grievous than we think."

A small frown creased her brows. "How so?"

He came closer to the bed and stood. "We don't know the two men you overheard discussing. We don't even know if they are only 2 or 50. We don't know if they've infiltrated my staff in this house. It's very dangerous fighting in the dark."

She nodded in agreement. "So where do we go to?"

"Geraldine Hotels. We can go there right now and plan better from there but we need to leave here immediately."

She frowned at his suggestion. "I literally just said treat everyone, especially those close to you, as suspects. How is going to Leonardo's hotel treating him as a suspect?"

Luke shook his head. "Leonardo can't be the traitor. Stop planting such thoughts in my head."

Arielle facepalmed and rubbed her face in mild agitation. "I didn't say he was. In fact, I know he isn't but let's leave no stone unturned. Treat everyone equally, believe me Leonardo would applaud your tact when you uncover the traitor."

Luke contemplated for a while before nodding slowly. "Okay, so where do we stay?"

"Jameston."

His face scrunched in confusion. "Why Jameston? Isn't that where you ran to?"

She nodded. "Jameston is like an off-the-map town. Perfect location for a hideout."

He gave a wary look before giving in. "Jameston it is then. Pack your things, we'll leave in 30 minutes."

She shook her head. "Packing bags would attract unnecessary attention. When we went to Jeffery's store, we didn't pack any bag, did we? This one shouldn't be any different."

Luke gave a small smile of approval. "Alright then. How do we order that cab we used the other time?"

"Lyft? We can download the app on your phone and do that."

Luke handed her his phone and watched intently as she finally ordered a ride for them.

"We have 30 minutes till he arrives." She proclaimed as she handed him his phone.

He nodded and walked towards the door. "Let me get a few things and come back down."

She called out to him just before he turned the door knob. "Remember don't tell anyone. Not Xavier, not even Martina. Not a soul. Don't ruin this for us, Luke."

His lips formed a scowl. "I know, Arielle. I'm not dumb."

She shrugged. "You could have fooled me." She laughed at the string of profanities that left his lips as he left the room.

All alone in the room, she started to plot. What were they going to do in Jameston? How could they even get to Jameston, since the Lyft cab would only take them to Davenport? If she was with someone else, she'd just hotwire a car but then, this was Luke. She couldn't possibly steal a car in front of him. Or could she? Beggars aren't choosers, he'd just have to manage whatever would be available.