Wild Chase - Storm V (books for new readers txt) 📗

check it out?” Ian asked in a sweet pleading tone.

 

The man gave us a once-over, took the keys from the holder and beckoned us to follow him. Both the boys smiled with pride and followed him.

 

“Guys?” I called and waited for them to come back. “Why are we going to check it out?” I asked once they turned to me.

 

“Claire.” Ian replied and looked at me like I was the brainless one.

 

“If she was there the room would have been booked. No one’s going to kidnap a girl and put her in an available hotel room.” I said. I was losing it with these two. This was common sense. Either they weren’t thinking properly or this was the limit of their intelligence.

 

“I knew that.”Alex scoffed when Ian went to apologize to the fat receptionist.

 

“I know,” I assured him softly and looked at my feet. I saw him smiling from the corner of my eye and I couldn’t help but smile too.

 

We walked out around the town looking for the next Plaza. According Ian’s phone it was only a ten minute walk from the one we were at. As we walked down a busy road, I thought about where Claire could have been. If these ruthless prison women were going to murder her, I had no idea why though, they would want to do it in a noisy place so that could no one could hear her scream. But that’s only if she was going to be murdered by ruthless prison women. I was only thinking it was ruthless prison women because I honestly couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Claire. Wait. Alex was in the same friend circle as Claire. “Hey Alex?” I called as I caught up with them.

 

“Yes?” He asked back with a big smile on his face.

 

“Why are you so excited?” I asked confused.

 

“You started this conversation.” He replied, still with that goofy smile.

 

“I started the very small one in the car as well.” I pointed out and he shrugged in response. “Anyway, you and Claire are friends right?” I asked.

 

“Yup,” he answered popping the ‘p’.

 

“So who do you think would want to do whatever they’re going to do to her?” I asked and shoved my hands into my pant pockets. It had suddenly become colder and I didn’t have jacket.

“No one at school. Everyone loves her.” He said and smiled.

 

“Oh there it is!” Ian exclaimed pointing at a very lit up Plaza. It was a four storey brick building that had a light bordering every window and right in the middle The Plaza was writing in a cursive yellow light. “Let me do the talking this time, okay?” Ian asked and walked ahead without an answer.

 

I shook my head and followed him. I was bored of arguing with him and it was of no use because he always got his way. Plus, it’s not like I was the one who was going to do the talking. Once we entered I realised that there was no way Claire would be there. Unless, the ruthless prison women who kidnapped her liked keeping all their hostages at strip clubs. 

Chapter 3

 “So are you sure she won’t be here?” Ian asked trying to look past the curtain that separated the lobby from the actual strip club.

 

“Yes. Now, let’s leave.” I said and tried dragging him out.

 

“Hold on,” Alex said as he walked up to the black wooden desk that was near the curtain.

 

“What?” Ian asked and was instantly by his side. Boys will always be boys and it was really annoying at that time. We were on a mission and they had to concentrate on saving poor Claire Brent.

 

“We don’t have time for this.” I said with all the anger I could muster.

 

“I think there’s a hotel upstairs.” Alex explained and hit the tiny bell on the table. Ian was grinning from ear to ear the whole time they spoke to the pretty lady who came to the call. I stood a few feet away totally uncomfortable and waited for them to finish.

 

“So?” I asked and rubbed my arms. The air conditioning in there was unnecessary and the fact that I was wearing shorts didn’t help.

 

“So there isn’t a hotel, it’s more of renting sort of thing going on.” Alex said softly.

 

“And?” I probed with equally quiet voice.

 

“Some brown-haired girl paid for Room 7 a week ago. She paid for two weeks but never came back till this morning.” Alex answered with an evil smile.

 

“Can we go check it out?” I asked suddenly excited. If we did find Claire strapped and tapped to a chair our mission would be over. We would have rescued a kidnapped girl and become famous. I could feel the adrenalin flowing through me and I had the urge to jump up and down but I stopped myself. Thank god for that.

 

“No she isn’t letting us.” Ian said, obviously in a bad mood.

 

“But she can convinced,” Alex replied in a hopeful voice.

 

“What do you plan on doing?” I asked suddenly suspicious. I didn’t know Alex really well that means I didn’t know how he worked. How he thought. I certainly didn’t know what he was thinking of doing right then.

 

“I was going to tell her the truth.” He responded with a shrug.

 

“Oh,” was all I could come up with because I had never thought of that. I was thinking along the lines of something utterly and I partly blamed our surroundings for that.

 

“Actually you should do it.” Alex proposed. “You know? Because of the womanly trust thing.” He said when he looked at my questioning face.

 

I narrowed my eyes, “Womanly trust thing?”

 

“Yeah!” Ian backed him up. “She isn’t your enemy or anything so you guys will get along.” He finished a smile on his face and two thumbs-up.

 

I continued looking at them with narrowed eyes. Were they out of their minds? Maybe, after all, we were at a strip club looking for a kidnapped girl. But I don’t talk to people I don’t know, Ian knew that! Alex did too, to some degree. I hated talking to strangers and I would make a fool of myself rather than convince her to show us the room. So I continued looking at them and kept thinking of a way to get out of this. “What exactly did she tell you?” I asked even though I had no clue as to what I was trying to achieve.

 

“She said the room was booked by a brunette a week ago. She paid for two weeks. She wasn’t seen here again till this morning.” Ian said quickly.

 

“Claire isn’t here. If she was the lady would have said two girls came in this morning.” I said and folded my arms across my chest. I was proud of myself from getting myself out of that one and I did find out something helpful.

 

“Right. Once again you think of something we didn’t. How are you doing that? I’m supposed to be the quick one.” Ian asked with his hand on his hips. He wasn’t enjoying this and the fact that he wasn’t made me like it even more.

 

“But it isn’t midnight yet, they could bring her here anytime.” Alex pointed out as he stroked his non-existent beard. My lips twitched with a smile.

 

“Just leave one of our numbers here and tell her to give us a call is she sees Claire.” Ian said and pointed the pretty lady at the desk.

 

“That was a quick one.” I said and patted him on his shoulder to make him feel better.

 

“It was a simple one.” He replied blatantly.

 

I shrugged and motioned for them to give them one of our numbers so we could get out of there. It was getting so cold that I could feel my toes going numb in my shoes. They were supposed to be warm and protected in my shoes but they weren’t. Guess my shoes were useless.

 

“So where’s the next one?” I asked as we made our way back to Alex’s car.

 

Ian pulled out his phone and took his time figuring out where were going next. “The rest of them are in the city.” He finally said.

 

“How far away are we from the city?” I asked and moved closer to Ian. I needed a jacket. Or longer pants. It was awfully cold and my lack of covering was making it worse. We walked a couple of feet further with me stuck to Ian for his body warmth till Ian suddenly stopped.

 

“You need a jacket.” Ian said and walked into one of the stores. He came out a minute later with a thick, soft woolly one and handed it to me. “You owe me.”

 

I owed him as ice cream nothing else. It was a system, if I did him a favour which involved me spending money; he owed me one of those giant Toblerones that are only usually available at Duty Free at the airport and this other shop that only he knows of. If he did me a favour in which I spent money I repaid him with a cone of Baskin Robins. That was it.

 

“So how far is the city?” I asked again.

 

“An hour.” Alex replied.

 

“That would leave us,” I looked at my watch and calculated, “about three hours in the city.”

 

“Okay Ian order up all The Plazas so that we won’t waste time later deciding which one to go to.” Ian said and started speed-walking towards the car. Ian was quick to follow and kept up with such ease. But I couldn’t do that because the sports gene had skipped me and it really wasn’t fair. I walked the fastest I could and managed to be right behind them, which was good enough.

 

By the time we arrived where we had parked the car, the boys were talking about something that had nothing to do with The Plazas or Claire. And there was no way I could but into the conversation so I just went into the back seat of the car and lay down for a small nap. Looking for a Room 7 at a Plaza was not how I planned to spend my Saturday night.

Chapter 4

 I woke up to yelling and bangs. I sat up startled because I had no idea where I was. I was in a car. Why was I in a car? Suddenly everything came back to me and I looked straight and saw Alex and Ian arguing about Pokémon or something. Alex kept yelling, “No!” and Ian was jumping in his seat. Boys will always be boys.

 

“Both of