Jameson Hotel - the Dark Suite Series: Parts One, Two & Three by Aven Jayce

crawl inside and pull the gun from my holster. “Fuck!”
    “Get the fuck
inside!” I yell into my watch.
    Recess is over. How
the hell did that bastard, Dayne , get a gun? He’s not
doing this shit to me. I’m coming for him. No one takes a shot at Mark Jameson
and lives.
    I run down my stairs
and out my front door, slowing to a hurried pace in the hall and setting my gun
back in its holster, not wanting to raise any suspicions from the guests.
    “Mr. Jameson?” The
voice of one of my security guards comes through my watch.
    “It’s okay,” I
answer.
    “Did you hear that?”
    “Let the guests know
it’s okay,” I repeat. “It was a kid setting off a firecracker out back.”
    I’m so not amused, Dayne . If you had shot at the figure holding the flashlight
from the dark suite instead of me... fuck, I can’t even go there in my head.
    I turn a corner and
pound twice on the dark suite’s door, waiting impatiently. Two knocks means an
emergency and this door better open.
    “What?” I hear a
voice through the steel.
    “What the fuck do
you mean, what? Open the freakin ’ door,” I say as
calmly and discreetly as possible. At least I think I did. Everything sounds
twenty times louder because I’m stoned. Plus my eyes are wavy and my heart’s
racing. I’m feeling paranoid. “Did you see what Dayne did? That’s like shooting a man in the back. It was a cheap shot.” I kick the
door in an unreasonable state. I’m not chill and I know it won’t be opened when
I’m like this. No one wants to deal with a pissed off madman.
    “I heard the shot.
Do you think he’s coming inside?”
    “Keep this suite
dark at all times and lock the back door. No one, you hear me, no one should be
coming in or out on that deck. Listen to me and you’ll be fine.”
    “I’m worried.”
    “Don’t, the fucker
will be dead soon.”
    There’s a faint
sigh. “I don’t want to hear that you’re a murderer.”
    “Fine, then a
Jameson will be dead soon.”
    “Jesus, Mark.”
    “One or the other. I
can’t be a savior without being a killer.” I look around the corner and down
the quiet hall where two guests are walking at a distance. “Open the door.”
    “Is it necessary?”
    “I’m itching to slap
someone upside the head. There shouldn’t be anyone on that back deck playing
around with a flashlight while Dayne’s in the area!”
    “You know you’d get your
ass kicked as soon as you raised your hand. The flashlight got your attention
and probably saved your life. Just be gracious and don’t think about slapping
anyone.”
    I laugh and shake my
head. “Give me the code so I can open your door in case there’s another
emergency.”
    “Fuck no. You said
it was safer for you not to have it.
No!”
    “Just a test,” I
whisper. “Remember to keep the lights out and the doors and windows shut. Don’t
do anything stupid, either, like ordering take-out. You should have plenty of food.”
I look down the hall again and see it’s empty. “It shouldn’t take much longer,”
I mumble. “If I could figure out where he’s staying it’d already be over and
done with.”
    “Who’s the woman?”
    “What woman?”
    “The one by the pool
who you looked heartbroken over.”
    “No one.”
    “Bullshit.”
    “This door-side
conversation has already lasted too long.”
    “You trust her?”
    “What?”
    “Mark. Do. You.
Trust. Her? It’s a simple question.”
    “I don’t have any
reason not to.”
    “I’ve never heard
you say such an asinine thing. You know full well those are the ones who’ll put
a knife in your back. ‘I don’t have any reason not to?’ Seriously? Why aren’t
you thinking straight?”
    “Fuck off.”
    “Yep, fuck off and
goodnight.”
    I exhale and linger
back to the opposite end of the hotel. Everything seems to be in need of repair
when I’m stoned. And I mean my life and this hotel. It’s not something I notice unless I leave the peaceful solitude
and dim lights of my suite.
    I