Please enjoy this excerpt by S. Van Horne. It’s from her book Last Resort Motel Room 519. You can find all her books and info at
PROLOGUE
JENNIFER
BLOOD. ALL I CAN FOCUS on is the blood that's pouring from his wound. This isn’t what I thought when I imagined this nightmare finally ending.
“Jennifer. Baby,” he chokes out as his hands reach out to me. I clinch my eyes shut, afraid that if I look into his Jackson’s eyes, I’ll see the life leaving his body. I say a quick prayer that God will save him as there's no way I can handle the thought of the world without him in it.
CHAPTER ONE
JACKSON
LEANING UP AGAINST MY 2016 Dodge Ram pickup, I take a deep breath as I read the text that just came through my phone.
My skip, what we call a person who fails to appear in court for trial after they've been bailed out of jail by a bonds company, died a few months ago in some kind of mining explosion. I have no fucking clue why we weren’t told when it first happened. If they'd let us know then, it would have saved a lot of time and money. With this development, I won’t be getting paid for this trip.
Dead bodies can’t be brought in to finally stand in front of a judge for trial.
Fuck my life.
I quickly type out a response asking if there's any close jobs near me, and then decide I better get situated in my room. My eyes travel around the motel that I checked into earlier today.
This wouldn’t be a place I would choose to stay at too long . . . however, it beats staying in the back seat of my truck again.
Groaning at that thought, I grab my overnight bag. The only other vehicles in the motel side parking lot are a brand-new Jeep, and a classic, black sixty-nine SS Camaro. Both are so out of place sitting by a beaten down motel. I assume that it's the manager's apartment, but not sure as I didn’t ask when I spoke with Aurora, the owner of the motel. Taking in the horseshoe shaped motel, I wonder how they're still even in business. It has to be the cheap prices, even though my room was seventy-five a night.
The growling of my stomach and the tightness of my muscles let me know that I need at least a hot shower before I grab some breakfast and pass out. Nine hours on the road all night long, with only stops to take a piss, is more than enough to have me deciding that this motel will just have to do. Noticing the packed restaurant as I head to my room, I'm relieved. I guess that means the food is good here.
“Good morning.” A male voice has me glancing to my left, finding a man heading my way.
“Morning,” I respond. “Are you from the area? Think you can tell me what's available to do around here to kill time? I’m between jobs until I get my next assignment.”
“Nah,” he chuckles. “I do live here with my girl, Aurora, who's the owner. But I’m not from here. There really isn’t much to do, honestly. There's some hiking trails and such, though. The next town over has a festival going on this week. We'll have a full house here in a few more hours with check ins from online reservations. I’m assuming, by your question, you aren’t one of them.”
“Nope, I was supposed to come pick up a skip. But we weren’t told that he was killed in a mining explosion about a month ago. So now I’m here just waiting until I get the next assignment.” The flash of something in his eyes when I mention the mine incident doesn’t go unnoticed. “You know about the mine thing?”
“Yeah,” is all he offers. “Stay away from them. Most haven’t been looked at in over a hundred years and aren’t safe. Which room did my girl give you?”
“Room 519 . . . which confuses me because there are only like twenty room around here.”
“Yeah, her parents thought it would be hilarious to randomly number the rooms based on ones that meant something to them, instead of just making them one through twenty-five. When she inherited it, she decided to keep it the same. You got the one that was renovated last week.” He nods his head towards the upstairs area. “It's right up there. First door once you get up the steps. My name is Max, by the way. Let us know if you need anything.”
“I’m Jackson.” He lifts his chin and starts to walk away. “Hey Max, how's the food at the restaurant?”
“They have a mean big breakfast in the morning, and great steak dinner in the night. We're only open on the weekends for lunch, but we do offer take-out lunch orders if placed before ten for pick up at eleven.”
“Thanks,” I murmur as he starts to walk towards the front office. I finish making my way to my room and open the door. The blast of warm air hits me and I hope that I'll be able to control the temp in the room. It seems during the day the temps run between the 50's and 70's but drop into the 30 and 40's at night.
The pinging of my phone has me throwing my bag on the bed and reaching for it.
Keegan: Just stay there for a moment. I might have something in the next few days.
Me: You do realize there's fucking nothing in this town, right?
Keegan: Wanna switch? Your sister is driving me fucking crazy with her mood swings. I could use the break until my son decides he's ready to come into this world. Don’t tell her I said that.
I chuckle and quickly send a text to my sister letting her know that Keegan wants to take a break from her until Maddox is born; knowing she will end up tearing into him. He may talk like he wants to get away from her, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that he wouldn’t trade places with me for anything. And I'm genuinely happy they have each other, although it’s nauseating to watch at times. He's seriously hung up on my sister, and she's over the top in love with him, despite the childhood we had.
My sister, Tonya, and I really only had each other growing up. Our parents weren’t really bad per say, but they were more stuck on climbing the ladder in their careers than taking care of their kids. They always gave us the best, but it still didn’t make up for needing them in our lives. Or for the fact that we both didn’t understand what it took to love someone who wasn’t related to us. What society forgets is that you learn those things by watching the type of relationship your parents had. And since they were always gone, we had no fucking clue what love really was.
When my sister and Keegan first became a ‘couple’ it was rocky at best. Even though you could tell they both were obsessed with each other, the fact that my sister never had an example of a real relationship to watch growing up, she thought it was okay to be away and not check in from time to time. However, Keegan, having came from an amazing childhood family life, quickly made sure she understood that wasn’t the way things would be going for them. Now, well, you can’t separate them for anything, and the love they have for each other really shines through. After five years of marriage and now expecting their first child, you would think they would at least take a breather, but nope . . . where one is, the other is right there.
At times, I long to have the type of relationship they have with someone, but then I think it isn’t fucking worth it. Yeah, it would be nice to have a home to go to, and have someone to share it with, but I know my job would end up fucking it up. No woman is going to be okay with her husband maybe being home a week a month because he's traveling all over to catch stupid ass people who skip out of attending court.
I toss my phone on the bed next to the bag and take a look around. It isn’t much to write home about, that's for sure but everything seems to be brand new. Three paintings decorate the room's white walls, there's a table in the corner with two chairs, a dresser with a TV and microwave on it, a mini fridge and two queen beds take up the sleep area. There's a door toward the back of the room that I assume is the bathroom.
There isn’t a bucket for ice, but there's some glasses on top of the mini fridge. I make a mental note to stop by the office to grab one. The notification sound coming from the bed has me reaching for my phone and opening it to see a message from my sister.
Tonya: Really . . . Well you might not have a best friend when you return. Be safe.
I roll my eyes at the last sentence and head to the bathroom for a hot shower. She's such a mother hen at times. But then again, I can understand why. Being a bounty hunter isn’t as glamorous everyone thinks. Keegan and I decided after we got out of high school that we would become police officers. And we were fucking amazing at our job too. We loved serving our community, and keeping the streets as safe as we could. Until one afternoon changed everything.
There was a shootout that injured Keegan, and my sister begged us to leave the force. She couldn’t take worrying about our safety anymore. Of course, since she was his wife by then, and since I would do anything my sister ever asked me to, we quit and decided to open our own bounty hunting agency. It was the best decision we ever made. The only downside was, since I was the single one, I always was the one traveling, trying to capture those that skipped.
Finishing up in the shower, I quickly get dressed and decide that I should go and grab some breakfast. My phone displays a text from Keegan.
Keegan: You’re a fuckin’ asshole, she ended up eating my cake because of your fucking tattle tailing ass. Find someone and have sex while you're there. Maybe it will loosen you up a bit.
The thought of the last time I had sex enters my mind, and I cringe since it's been about a year. The one-night stands were getting old, and I decided to fucking take a break for a while. However, now that he mentions it, I should see about maybe getting laid soon. Maybe I'll hit a bar and find someone this week. But again, the thought of a one-night stand just isn’t appealing to me.
Fuck it, eat now. Sleep, then maybe a bar for a beer. With that semi plan in mind, I make my way out of the motel room.
*
THE SLAMMING OF A DOOR has me jumping up. After a moment, I remember where I am and glance at the clock on the dresser. Nine forty-five glows in red causing me to groan. I've slept for about four hours even, though it feels like it might have only been a fuckin’ ten-minute nap instead.
After breakfast this morning, which was fantastic, I decided to try to get to bed, but the coming and going of the other guests as they checked in ended up fucking with that plan. Finally, about five in the evening, it seemed to die down and I passed out. The thought of getting more sleep has my eyes closing until I hear a bang on the wall behind my headboard. Groaning, I get up out of bed and head to the bathroom to take a piss.
Washing up, my stomach decides to remind me that I haven’t eaten since this morning. I decide that maybe I should go and get some dinner before the diner closes. I also should stop by the office to get the ice bucket that's missing. Gathering up my phone and keys, I head out and hope that at least the guests will calm down when I get back, so I can finish getting some much needed sleep.