Cooper didn’t like leaving them in the truck, but since he didn’t know what waited inside, he felt better knowing they could at least defend themselves with a shotgun in the parking lot. He scanned the lobby layout as he walked up to the reservations desk, noting the elevators and exits and possible ambush points before he even drew the attention of the attendant.

He pasted a smile on his face and put his ID and credit card on the counter. “Hi there. I need a room with two queen beds.”

The attendant, a young woman with striking blonde hair, widened her eyes in surprise when she got a good look at him, and immediately started clicking keys on her computer. “Of course. Let me see what we’ve got.”

Cooper knew they’d have to find a different hotel if that one didn’t have two beds available. He felt weird enough about sleeping in the same room with Francine as it was, but if the bed situation got more complicated, he’d feel like a total letch. He didn’t want to risk two rooms and have the wolves separate him from Jada and her cousin. If necessary, he’d sleep on the floor behind the door, just to make sure the girls could rest undisturbed. Of course, after the previous night’s low-budget mattress and sitting in a truck with cheap shocks the whole day, his back wasn’t too happy at the thought of curling up on a hotel room floor.

Though the desk clerk tried to flirt with him a little, Cooper just smiled blandly and asked for a few amenities for his wife and child, and her expression returned to neutral. He pulled out his phone and dialed Simon, getting the keys and his credit card back, and wandered deeper into the lobby to check out the steakhouse off to the side and a small breakfast cafe.

Pool, gym, sauna, business center... There would be plenty to keep Francine entertained, although he didn’t know if she brought a bathing suit with her. Except, come to think of it, she hadn’t brought anything. There wasn’t time to warn her of their impending departure, so she’d have to make do with Jada’s clothes. He rubbed the back of his neck and picked up a few brochures about local attractions, including a mall, from a stand near the concierge.

Before he could even consider the amusement park, Simon picked up. Cooper couldn’t hear anything he said over yelling and crashes and a baby crying. Cooper stuck a finger in his other ear and winced at the shrill screams. “Simon? What’s going on?”

“Ah, shit.” Simon growled at someone in the background, then a door slammed and the noise cut in half. “Cooper? Sorry, man, we’re having a family... disagreement. Tate’s going to get us all killed if he keeps picking on Zoe. How’s it going? Are you a married man?”

Another reason Cooper was glad to be out of town for a bit. Zoe occasionally lost her mind when it came to her first baby, and when the mama bear came out, no one was safe. Cooper rubbed the back of his neck as he moved into the most private part of the lobby, craning to keep an eye on the truck through one of the convex mirrors near the entrance. “I’m married. It’s... complicated. She’s young. And…we brought her cousin out of there as well. She’s even younger. Eleven or twelve, something like that. So can you guys get two rooms ready for them?”

“Two rooms?”

“One for Jada, one for Francine. They’ve never had their own rooms before, so I want them to have a place of their own.” Cooper pinched the bridge of his nose, bracing for the teasing, but it didn’t come.

“You want your wife next to your room? We can relocate that guest room, but that leaves the cousin on a different floor. We can move you all up to the third floor. There’s a quiet section near the back of the house, maybe we can rearrange it into a family apartment.”

Cooper frowned, checking his watch. “You’re shitting me, man. You’re going to remodel the house while Zoe gets pissed when you even slam the door?”

“Are you kidding? This is nesting again, Coop. She’ll get to pick out furniture and cutesy girl shit for the walls. Zoe will be over the moon. It’ll be like all the woodland critters she adopted when she was pregnant. I’m still finding raccoons and squirrels in closets. If she can focus on spoiling actual people, we’ll all be better off.” Simon groaned and shouted something that sounded like, “Yes dear, I’ll be right in.”

Cooper grinned, already feeling better about everything in the past two days. “Well, if it’ll help you out, I can send their clothing sizes and Zoe or SJ can go shopping. Jada only has a couple of bags, and Francine didn’t escape with anything at all. They’ll need a lot more of everything, and nicer stuff.”

“Escape?” Simon took a deep breath. “What aren’t you telling me, man?”

He didn’t want to stand in the lobby much longer, since the clerk darted glances in his direction once again—probably wondering why he didn’t want to go back out to where his wife and child presumably waited. “I can tell you more later, but everything I said about my family and the way they live—it’s worse. It’s gotten so much worse. They didn’t even let the girl go to school, man. Kids eat last. The second Jada turned eighteen, they called me to show up and sleep with her, and the moment that was done, they didn’t give a shit what happened to her. They didn’t care who I was or how I would treat her. The leopards just wanted the deal done, and her gone. That was it. So there’s a lot of careful, quiet work to do to make sure they’re both okay.”

Simon growled long and loud, and Cooper started walking back to the parking lot. He didn’t want for Simon to say anything, and instead added in the least concerning part, at least in his mind. “And we were attacked by fucking wolves on the road.”

“Wolves?” That brought the alpha bear back. “What do you mean, wolves? Did they have a claim on her?”

“No, they’re supposed to be mortal enemies for the leopards and bears. I don’t get it. Maybe they want to kill me, or her, or steal her away—I don’t fucking know.” He checked the parking lot before going through the doors, glad the sun was still up and there was enough of a breeze to scent out any hidden predators. “They’re following us, but I don’t know how long they’ll stick with it.”

Simon shouted at someone, then went on in a more reasonable voice. “Want us to head east and meet you somewhere in the middle, so we can deal with them once and for all? I’ll volunteer.”

Something else crashed and the sound of breaking glass followed Tate saying something about “momzilla” before Zoe’s unearthly shriek of rage had Cooper pulling the phone away from his ear. He almost missed Simon muttering, “I think we’ll all volunteer to head east. I’m just sayin’.”

Cooper snorted. “I’ll send you more details later, brother. Keep your head down and throw some chocolate in her direction to distract her. Or baby photos. Show her baby pictures.”

Whatever Simon said disappeared in Zoe shouting about her “asshole brother not waking the goddamn baby so she could finally take a fucking shower,” and Cooper hung up before he got dragged into another argument. He smiled when he saw Jada, though, and something tight in his chest eased. He hoped she liked the hotel. It wasn’t as fancy as he wanted to show her, but it would do for an upscale airport chain with good security and not much traffic through the lobby. Francine bounced into view and practically glowed with excitement and energy, and he chuckled. Maybe Jada could lock her in the gym until the kid worked out some of that energy, otherwise she’d be bouncing off the inside of the truck the whole next day.

He took a deep breath and gestured for them to get out while he grabbed the bags. Food, then sleep. Simple. Or so he hoped.