Chapter 10

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Jean set her shoulder bag down in the hotel room and had to keep herself from climbing into the king-sized bed. She hadn't had a coffee since her shift at work and was ready to either crash or insert a caffeine IV straight into her arm at this point.

Colin followed her inside and set her larger carry-on down. "Here's the room key." He pulled out the small envelope from his back pocket and put the credit card-looking thing on the dresser with the television on it.

She noticed the envelope wasn't empty when he set it back in his pocket. "You're keeping a key to my room?"

"Just in case. But I'm not going to be far." He turned around and stood in front of the discreet door between the entryway and the living space of the room. He undid the bolt lock and opened the door, revealing another closed door behind it. "I'm going to be right through here, so if you need anything, I'll be close."

Jean set a palm over her mouth as she tried to hide her smile. "I didn't realize you were my servant for the time being."

He turned around and narrowed his eyes, but the hint of a grin told her he caught the humor. "I'm just trying to make your stay easy. Either way, I'll be right through here. My door will be unlocked and your door had damn well better be unlocked too."

"Well, damn, there goes my idea of hooking up with random New York guys."

Colin's scowl turned genuine. "If I want to listen to strangers fucking, I'll watch porn, understand?"

Jean took a small step back, trying to figure out when they'd gone from joking "ha-ha" back to him issuing her warnings and threats. Sure, the ride to the airport had been awkward, but after he'd talked her through takeoff, they'd been in a sort of truce. He gave her a small tour of the city as he drove her, this time in his own Lincoln Navigator, through the boroughs to the Manhattan hotel he'd booked for them.

Oh well. She supposed there would never be any long lasting peace between the two of them. "So what happens now?"

"We're going to meet with Robert tomorrow. Hopefully we can get the DNA test submitted then too and get the ball rolling on your inheritance claim."

"We never talked about what's happening with that. Are we switching out the sample or something?"

Colin shook his head. "I told you...it's all taken care of. The lab tech who's going to be doing the testing is in place and knows what to do. You're all set."

"And is his bribe money coming out of my cut then?"

"As I said, I'm getting all the expenses. That means all of them."

Probably because he knew exactly how she'd feel about a bribe. "Okay. I'll probably lay low for the rest of the night. Should we order pizza or something for dinner?"

Colin shut the door to her room and grabbed his own bag as he headed for the door next door which opened to his room. "I have a few things I need to take care of. Feel free to order pizza, room service, Chinese—whatever you want."

"What kind of things are you doing?" She regretted the question the second it was out. Even with how angry she'd been at Colin just that morning, it was so easy to start thinking they were friends. Maybe friends was a stretch, but she kept forgetting they were basically enemies.

"Nothing important. Just get some rest, Jean. I'll wake you up tomorrow morning."

With that, he was out of her room and the door slid softly shut behind him. Nothing important? That probably meant it was something unsavory. Figured.

Jean shrugged off her zip-up sweatshirt and set it along the back of the chair in front of the desk area. The room was nicer than she'd expected. She was too used to the shady motels that Katherine had been staying at lately with stains on the walls and carpeting.

Everything looked new in this room. The TV was a larger flat-screen with a list of channels next to it. The bed was covered with a thick comforter with a natural dark-green pattern that contrasted nicely with the golden wallpaper.

She wouldn't mind spending a few days here. Though, from the little she knew about inheritance disputes, they could take months, so she wasn't sure what Colin's long-term plan was. But that was his problem, not hers.

And, considering he didn't leave her any cash to order in, she supposed room service would have to do. At least she could charge that to the room and, therefore, Colin.

She pulled the information binder off the desk and sat on the bed as she looked through the menu. All of her glee about charging dinner to Colin fled when she realized how expensive everything was. Good grief. Chicken strips were twenty bucks! Who paid that?

As she flipped through the pages of the menu, she decided to strike a balance between her hunger and pity for Colin's wallet and called downstairs to order a plain burger. The nice woman who took her order said it would be ready within twenty minutes.

Jean fell back on the bed and thought about what she'd do while she waited. TV was really the only option. She wasn't used to not having anything to do. Her life was a cycle of work, fix problems, and fall asleep exhausted. Rinse, repeat.

Well, at least she had the exhausted part down. She'd been up since two in the morning and hadn't been able to get a wink of sleep on the plane. As she looked at the clock to see how much time had passed, she debated cancelling the order so she could just sleep.

Except she probably couldn't get a refund. Damn it, no. She could stay awake for just a few minutes more.

The ten minutes stretched to forty and the damn food still hadn't arrived. Jean had been flipping through channels, but nothing looked interesting and she finally gave in and called, asking about her burger. Except they said it had already been delivered. They apologized profusely and promised to send up a new one and make sure her room was never charged.

As much as she loved the idea of a free burger, she'd rather get a candy bar out of the vending machine and call it a night.

The sounds of shuffling came from the room next door and Jean sat up. Was Colin still there? She figured he'd be long gone by now. She flipped the TV off and crossed to the little doorway that connected their rooms. She tried to listen through the two sets of doors, but nothing came. So she opened her side to see the blank, handle-less door to Colin's room.

"What are you doing over there?" she called. "I'm starving and my food still isn't here. Did you have any food hidden in that luggage?"

The door to Colin's room slid open, except it wasn't Colin there. She never even had a chance to scream.


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