Kelsey and Khloe watched as the triplets chattered away at the older woman, walking her out of the clinic and across the road to her side of the street.
“Okay. Out with it. How did you convince those three to walk with an old woman every morning at seven?” smiled Khloe.
“Easy. It got them out of certain chores with their parents. Sadie was more than happy to have them gone from the island mansion early. She loves those kids, but the girls are seriously hormonal right now, driving poor Cole mad, who ends up driving his mother mad.”
“Well,” laughed Khloe, “hopefully, they’ll keep her busy, or we’re going to lose her.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine. Come on. The diner sent over lunch for us. We can take a break and eat, then finish up with a few more patients this afternoon.”
“I’m starving!” said Khloe.
“All that sex will do that to you,” smirked Kelsey. Khloe blushed, shaking her head. “Don’t be embarrassed. Believe me, once Noa and I got together, we never stopped. That man is, well, he’s something else.”
“I think they’re all something else from what I’ve seen and heard,” smirked Khloe. “I have a feeling that Charlie has been using each one of them as inspiration for her books and protected them by giving them other names.”
“What do you mean?” frowned Kelsey as she took a seat and pulled the salad toward her.
“I mean, look at the last book,Wolf Triplets.”
“I read it,” smiled Kelsey. “It was fantastic!”
“Oh, I agree,” she laughed. “But you can’t tell me that those triplets didn’t remind you of the Wolfkill triplets. East, Eazee, and Rett. Their descriptions were identical to them, their bodies, well, I haven’t seen those in their entirety yet, but…”
“Oh, they damn sure matched their bodies,” said Gabi, grabbing a grilled chicken sandwich. Kelsey and Khloe stared at her. “What? Come on. You know I promised not to be as graphic any longer. All I can say is that everything in that book pretty much matched the real thing.”
“My goodness,” blushed Khloe. “How am I ever going to keep a professional demeanor around them knowing all that?”
“Don’t worry about it,” laughed Kelsey. “They’re pretty much used to Gabi. Anything you would say would be a walk in the park.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“Archie destroyed his phone, and we think he’s bought another,” said Carl as the men traveled west toward Nashville. “There’s been no activity, no pinging, nothing. He obviously suspected that we’d follow him with the phone.”
“So, we’re going in blind,” frowned Jonas.
“Maybe not,” said Dan. “We know that he likes higher-end hotels, nice restaurants, and according to the detectives in Lexington, he’s cut his hair and shaved. The video footage from the hotel seems to confirm that.”
“There must be dozens of nice hotels in Nashville,” said Jonas. “How are we going to find the one that he might be at?”
“We wait,” said Jak. “The team back home has been following traffic cam footage to see if we can get a good idea of where he headed or stopped. So far, they’ve been able to track him all the way through Bowling Green, Kentucky. He’s definitely headed to Nashville.”
The drive was slow and tedious, with snow falling at a progressively bothersome rate. They were in specially fitted SUVs with snow tires and other equipment. If they were going slow, Archie could have pulled over anywhere and decided to spend the night. The longer they were battling the elements, the more they thought it might be a good idea to do just that, pull over.
“We can’t help anyone if we’re all dead from sliding off the road,” frowned Carl.
“There’s a small hotel chain up ahead,” said U-Jin. “It’s not top-tier, but it’s clean, safe, and has a small restaurant.”
“That’s the place we go,” said Carl.
By the time they pulled into the parking lot, the snow was coming down even harder. With fifteen men, they needed at least seven rooms with two beds each. They crossed their fingers, hoping that it was available.
“You’re in luck,” said the older man at the desk. “We’ve had a lot of cancellations because of weather. I’ve got seven doubles, but one of them has a pull-out sofa bed. I’ll give you fellas a ten percent discount considering the conditions.”
“That’s perfect,” said Carl. “We’ll take them all.”
As the man got their key cards ready, the rest of the men grabbed their bags and secured the vehicles.
“Is it supposed to be like this all night?” asked Jonas.
