Chapter 6 - The Hotel

They had been driving for a while, and Cat wanted to get out of the car. Being so close and aware of Trey was messing with her senses. Not to mention his cologne was filling her car to the point she felt like she was swimming in it. The smell wasn't unpleasant; it was comforting, and she found herself relaxing even more, which wasn't a good thing. She saw an exit up ahead near Truckee that showed lodging, so she started heading toward it.

"What are you doing?" Trey asked anxiously as she drove down the off-ramp.

"You're supposed to be keeping me in a hotel, right? So, let's check into a hotel. I need to clear my head."

The first hotel they saw looked nice, but the front desk would require identification. Cat didn't have any, so she went to the next one pulling into the parking lot. The hotel was perfect. It looked like a cash establishment that would be a great hiding place.

"Why did you choose this hotel? The other one looked cleaner." Trey sounded surprised as he looked around.

"This one will be easier to hide in. The rooms are spread out into multiple buildings, so if we get one in the back, my car won't be seen from the road. The doors lead directly outside rather than into a lobby or an elevator, making for an easier escape route if needed. Also, they won't require identification or care about who's checking in. Would you prefer the cleaner one?" Cat looked over at Trey, and he was staring at her in astonishment.

"This is fine. You just took me by surprise. Most people don't think like you do."

"This isn't my first time running from a monster," Cat said softly. She looked down at her hands, feeling vulnerable. She didn't like that feeling. It allowed someone to sneak in and hurt her. "I have cleaning supplies, so I'll make it tolerable."

Cat looked over at Trey and met his hazel eyes. She couldn't look away. As he stared at her, everything else seemed to slip away.

"I can see the fear in your eyes despite the brave front you're putting up. I'll keep you safe if you let me." Trey said softly.

Cat continued to meet his gaze, looking for any hidden lies. She didn't see anything other than kindness and determination. She knew she couldn't admit she was terrified about being alone with him. She also couldn't tell him that she was beginning to trust him. To show any emotion was too risky.

"It's nothing against you, but I don't trust anyone. While we're together, we work as a team, so you must be honest with me. You know the police work, but I know Leo. The fact that I'm still here and haven't run should tell you something if you talked to Detective Cummings." Trey smiled at her and nodded.

"I can get the room." She stopped him before he could say anything else.

"No, it needs to be me. I'm more unrecognizable, and if the clerk is a woman, we don't need her swooning all over the place like the nurses in the hospital were doing."

Cat saw him shaking his head as she jumped out of the car. She went to the trunk to get the backpack that she had hidden there. She had cash, a spare credit card, clothes, and other essentials. Cat grabbed some of the money and headed toward the office.

The clerk was an overweight older man with thin greasy-looking black hair. He was even less interested than Cat could have hoped. He didn't look up from the newspaper he was reading during the entire interaction. She paid for one night. Check-out time is eleven tomorrow morning. It was only a little after five, so they had over twenty-four hours to decide if they needed the room longer.

Cat was successful with getting the room farthest from the road. From the looks of it, they were the only guests at the hotel anyway. She went outside, jumped into the car, and drove them to their room.

"How did you pay for the room? You left your purse at the hospital."

"I had a backpack hidden in the trunk with cash, a spare credit card, and a few other things. I like to be prepared for the unknown." She replied quietly.

"I only just met under extreme circumstances, but I can already tell how strong you are." Cat continued to look away. She had a lot of practice making sure she always appeared strong to others, even when she felt like the scared little girl from the past.

"I have to be strong. I learned long ago that I couldn't depend on anyone but myself." Cat still spoke low, so she wasn't sure if he could hear her.

"I won't let you down. If you let me, I will protect you." She could no longer stand the closeness of sitting in the car with him. It was messing with her head.

"I'm willing to do this for now, but I need a shower and some sleep so I can think straight. I imagine you're tired after having an allergic reaction and being admitted to the hospital. You didn't have to go to those extremes. If you had come to the unit and told me the truth, I would've left with you."

Before he could respond, Cat got out of the car, grabbed her backpack and the disinfecting wipes from the trunk, and headed to the room. As she unlocked the door, she could feel Trey standing behind her. While driving, it was one thing to feel brave, but now that they would be in a hotel room together, some of her uneasiness returned.

Cat had never stayed alone with anyone, but she felt sure he wouldn't hurt her. She was still standing outside the door, frozen as many thoughts ran through her head. She didn't know why, but she felt as though everything in her life would change the minute she went through the door. She wasn't sure if it would be for the better or worse.

"I don't want you to do anything you're unsure of, but please believe me when I say I won't hurt you." It seemed to Cat like he had read her exact thoughts. She looked up into his eyes and then quickly turned back to the door before she could change her mind.

"I would never do anything I didn't want to do. I trust you not to hurt me. That's why I'm still here." Cat kept reminding herself to stay calm to keep the panic away.

She pushed the door open and flipped on the light switch just inside the door. The room was as bad as she had figured, but at least she was prepared. There was only one bed, which worried Cat, but she told herself she didn't care as long as Trey stayed on his side.

There was also a small table with two dirty unmatched chairs, a bedside table, and a small chest of drawers with an old TV on top.

The color scheme seemed to be different shades of brown. The bathroom was okay, not too dirty, but she would still wipe it all down. She could do nothing about the dirty, threadbare brown carpet, but at least the bathroom had a tiled floor.

"I'm going to clean up a little, and then I think we should crash. It's been a long night for both of us. After I finish the bathroom, why don't you get a shower while I clean out here? I'll get a shower when I'm done." Cat grabbed a pair of gloves and disinfecting wipes from her bag and got busy. She could feel Trey's eyes on her while she headed to the bathroom.

"Do you typically clean the hotel rooms you stay in?" Cat could hear the amusement in his voice as she turned to look at him with a slight smile.

"Only the ones I'm sure haven't been cleaned in a while. Don't worry, it won't take me long. I hope you don't mind sleeping without the comforter because I'm almost sure it has never been cleaned." Cat tried to sound more fearless than she felt as she went into the bathroom and wiped everything down. There was a fresh bar of soap, and the towels appeared clean because she could smell the bleach on them.

"Okay, the bathroom's ready. You can go ahead and shower while I clean in here." Cat looked around the room as she prepared to get started.

"There's only one bed, I can sleep in a chair, and you can take the bed. I don't want to make you uncomfortable." Trey looked away like he was afraid to meet her eyes. Even though she was almost shaking with fear, she wouldn't admit that to him.

"I think we're both exhausted. I trust that you'll stay on your side of the bed. Now go shower so I can get one when I'm done. You can take that bandage off your arm where the IV was. You shouldn't be bleeding anymore. You don't have any symptoms from your allergic reaction, do you? Any itching or shortness of breath?"

"No, I'm feeling fine, I only ate a small piece of kiwi, and I wasn't having much shortness of breath in the hospital. I just took the gadget off my finger a few times to give the appearance that my oxygen was dropping. I wanted to make sure they admitted me." Trey smiled at her.

"Have you done that before? How did you know it wouldn't cause a more severe reaction? Also, how are you so wide awake if they gave you Benadryl before bringing you to the room?" Cat was firing questions at him one after another. She was angry that he took a risk to get to her but also grateful for the reason he did it.

"That was the first time I made myself have an allergic reaction. Making sure you were safe was all I cared about. I didn't take the Benadryl because I knew it may make me sleepy, so I pretended to take it and then acted like I was drowsy."

"I knew you were faking when they brought you to the room. Thank you for considering my safety, but you didn't have to put yourself at risk. Go get your shower."

Cat turned around to begin cleaning. She heard him turn the water on in the bathroom. She vaguely wondered what the hospital thought happened to her and her patient.

She couldn't believe she had just agreed to sleep in a bed with a man she didn't know. She had never slept in a bed with anyone under any circumstances. She did feel like she could trust him, and his eyes told her he wouldn't hurt her.

Cat felt safe with Trey, and she had never felt safe with anyone. When she thought about the look in his eyes when he looked into hers, it made her heart skip a beat. She started focusing on cleaning, so she didn't have to think about why she wasn't running away.

After every surface was cleaned to Cat's satisfaction, she took the comforter off the bed while still wearing her gloves and laid it on the floor in the corner. The sheets looked clean and smelled like bleach, the same as the towels.

After removing her gloves, she checked the mattress's creases to ensure no bugs were hiding. She didn't see any bed bugs or other evidence of critters in the room, so that was a relief.

The bed was only a double, so it would be tight, with both of them trying to stay on their sides. Cat just kept telling herself she would be fine. She refused to let Trey see how scared she was. She had to continue looking and sounding like she was okay with their situation.

A few minutes later, Trey came out of the bathroom wearing only a white t-shirt and boxer briefs. He hung his clothes on the back of one of the chairs at the table, and Cat watched him move around the room feeling her mouth go dry.

He was so handsome and muscular that she couldn't take her eyes off him. His hair was still wet, making it look even wavier than before. With his size, the small hotel room suddenly felt extremely claustrophobic. It didn't help that her body began to get hot while she stared at him. Cat wondered what it would be like to rub her hands on Trey's muscled skin. She was only a woman, after all. She may be damaged, but she wasn't blind or dead.

She swallowed and dragged her eyes away before he caught her staring, or she made a fool of herself. No man had ever caused that type of reaction in her. Cat's heart ached a little as she wished she was normal and not such a messed-up freak.

"Wow, it smells clean in here and actually looks decent." Cat could tell he was trying not to look at her. She didn't understand why he was acting all shy. She was sure that he had been alone with women before. Although most of those women probably threw themselves at him. She felt a knot in her stomach when she thought of him with other women, but Cat didn't understand why she cared. It wasn't like he wanted a relationship with her or that she could allow that to happen if he did.

"Thank you. I checked the bed, too. No bugs hiding, so I think we're safe. I'm going to take a shower. Please feel free to go ahead to bed." Cat quickly slid past him into the bathroom with her backpack, hoping he would be asleep by the time she returned.