Payback by Melinda Metz - Fingerprints - 7 Read Free Book Online Page A

Score,” Anthony answered.
    “Yana didn’t have a phone in her room,” Aiden told him. “And she was drugged up the whole time I had her here.”
    “Not too drugged up to escape,” Anthony shot back. Aiden didn’t have an answer for that. He just waved Anthony down a sterile corridor with pale green wal s.
    “This is it.” Aiden stopped in front of a large glass window, the kind of glass that was reinforced with embedded crisscrossing wires.
    Anthony peered inside. It was empty except for a single bed with a plain blue spread and a freestanding toilet and sink. “Can I go in?”
    Aiden nodded, and Anthony stepped into the room. The first thing he did was rip off the bedspread and shake it out. He pul ed the pil ow out of the case and turned the case inside out. He felt the pil ows, hoping to find a little tear that might mean something was hidden inside. But it was smooth and soft under his fingers.
    “Next,” he muttered as he flipped the mattress. Nothing underneath. He stretched out on his stomach and checked under the bed. Clean. While he was down there, he did a survey of the whole floor. Bare linoleum. No bumps. No pencil marks or anything.
    Crap.
    Anthony stood up and checked out the ceiling. No tiles that could have been pul ed down and then replaced. Aiden was right.
    There was nothing here. And even if Yana had left a print somewhere that Rae could pick up, they already knew Yana could block her thoughts. There was no point in dragging Rae al the way out here. “So there was a power surge and she just waltzed out the back door. Is that right? Even though she was so drugged up?”
    “Yes,” Aiden answered. The bastard wasn’t helping any more than he had to. Fine. Whatever. Anthony had needed him to find this place, but he didn’t need anything else. Right now, anyway.
    Anthony opened the back door and stepped outside into an al ey that was about a car length wide. There was a Dumpster to one side of the door. Empty. “What’s the closest public transportation to here?” Anthony asked. “Bus? Train?”
    “The bus station’s about half a mile away,” Aiden answered from inside. “East on Hil ary to Curtner. On that corner.”
    “I’m going there. You coming or staying?” Anthony leaned through the doorway and looked at Aiden.
    “Staying,” Aiden answered.
    “So am I going to have to make friends with every bookie in town so I’l know where to find you if I need you? Or are you going to cough up an address?”
    Aiden didn’t answer. Anthony crossed his arms and waited.
    “I guess I’l be here for a few days at least,” Aiden answered. He smoothed a loose piece of hair back into his ponytail. “Safe as anyplace, I guess.”
    “When you decide to move, I want to hear from you,” Anthony said. “You owe Rae. You know that.”
    Aiden nodded, but that didn’t mean anything. Anthony locked eyes with him for a moment, trying to figure out if he could trust the guy. Aiden gave him nothing back. But it wasn’t like Anthony could do anything. He couldn’t handcuff Aiden to him until the Yana situation was dealt with. Although if Anthony could have, he would have.
    Without bothering to say good-bye, Anthony started down the al ey.
    “Wait,” Aiden cal ed. Anthony turned back, and Aiden threw a pack of matches at him. “It’s the number here. In case.”
    “Thanks,” Anthony said. Aiden ducked back inside. Anthony stared after him for a few seconds, then turned and circled around to the parking lot. He climbed in the Hyundai and drove straight to the bus station. If Yana had been here, somebody had to have noticed her, he thought as he got back out of the car, hurried inside the station, and got on the shortest ticket line. Yana didn’t exactly blend, not with her bleached blond hair and that tattoo on her bel y.
    Come on, come on, come on, he silently urged the guy ahead of him who was careful y counting his change. The guy placed the money in his wal et in what seemed like slow