Simple Man

- FOURTEEN -

The orange velvet couch she slept on was terribly hard but that wasn't the reason Iyana was up before the sun. She never slept in. Even before this assignment. Iyana had her morning rituals and she was very disciplined in keeping them. One of them was cleaning her gun—a Glock 22. She always had a gun on her, even in the Lord's House.

She didn't like wearing dresses like the one she wore last night because it was nearly impossible to conceal carry a gun that size. She wore what she had to to blend in. It was bad enough she was the only woman in town who's hair was almost completely buzzed to the scalp so to avoid sticking out further she covered up her tattoos and stuck to more traditionally feminine attire. Nothing revealing. All knee length. Flowy.

She was much more comfortable in ribbed tanks, thermals, hoodies and tactical army trousers. With her hair length as short as it was wearing what she was use to people might assume she was lesbian. Not that Iyana had anything against that. Hell, if it kept men at bay so much the better but she knew people would talk more than they already did. Again, it was about blending in with the community.

The streetlights were still on and Iyana remained vigilant as she perched herself next to the window. Iyanas' back pinning the sheet that she hung for privacy against the wall. The road below quiet as always. No, wait. There was movement. It was the familiar green of Kenny and Willow's pick-up truck. The exhaust blowing fumes as it idled to a stop in the middle of the road. Willow was at the steering wheel as Kenny, her brother, who was in the truck bed hopped out and grabbed two stacks of newspapers.

He walked up to drop off the stack at the front door of the inn and dropped off the other stack at the convenient store next door. Iyana watched as he hopped back into the bed and hit the roof of the truck before Willow slowly took off to their next stop. Iyana stopped cleaning and laid her Glock down on the coffee table. She was off. Technically Craig could get them later but she knew they were there and the ground was still soaked from the night before.

   Iyana peeked into Kyra's makeshift room. The large rattan screen didn't replace real walls but they made due with what they could find. The fishes in Kyras' ocean nightlight were tirelessly swimming over every available surface. Kyra was sprawled all over her twin mattress. Her face peaceful. Did she not have a nightmare or was Iyana getting use to sleeping through her sounds of distress?

Iyana frowned at the idea of the latter.

  She left their apartment and quietly made her way down the stairs to the lobby. As to be expected the lobby was empty but curiously she heard a stirring from the kitchen. It was probably nothing, but the cook wasn't expected to arrive for breakfast prep until 4am. She had to check it out. Her back up was already holstered at her hip under her hoodie. She lifted up her hoodie ever so slightly and felt her gun resting in its holster.

She creep toward the kitchen door and pushed it open ever so slightly to peer inside. Iyana sighed, not in relief but in annoyance. Rowan was up, facing away from her and helping himself to a cup of coffee from the pot he just brewed. It wasn't the worse rule a guest had ever broke but it spoke to his entitlement and she didn't like that. Normally Iyana would tell him that he wasn't allowed in the kitchen, the door clearly said 'employees only.'

   It wasn't his celebrity that stopped her but something far more obvious. He must've showered, she observed but not because he was now mud free. It was all the more apparent because he was in nothing more than a sage green towel. 'You've got to be joking me' Iyana thought, wanting nothing more that to crawl away and forget she saw all the muscles in his tattooed back.

    She snapped out it and slowly let the door swing back into place but winced when it squeaked so loud coming forward. Iyana could have hit herself as she silent cursed the air. "Hello?" Rowan called from the kitchen, "Anyone there?"