Part 21 (1/2)

Carlo, the concierge I'd spoken to earlier, was still there, and after listening to the men talk, he glanced up at me, and his expression seemed to be saying the same thing as my hollering intuitive voice. Go! Leave!

The men must have caught his look. They jerked their heads over their shoulders and looked right at me. Then one of them raised his arm and pointed through the lobby, right to me.

31.

I grabbed Theo, pulling him by the hand. ”Get up,” I said to Maggie and Bernard. ”We're getting out of here.”

”What's wrong?” Maggie hissed as I half pushed them toward the back of the bar, where a white-banistered staircase went up and away. To where I didn't know, except that it was away from those two guys.

I had no idea who they were. I had no idea what made me run from them, other than the yelling in my head and Carlo's fearful expression.

Theo clearly thought I was losing it. ”Uh...” he said. ”What are we doing?”

”Just take your bag and go upstairs, please. There's something wrong with those guys, the ones who just came into the hotel. I don't know why, but I feel like we've got to get away from them.”

I looked back and saw them. They looked directly at us, walked directly toward us. They glanced around like animals sizing up territory, then looked back, at me.

Bernard, climbing the stairs, saw them, too. ”Izzy, if you're scared of those guys, Theo and I can handle them.”

Theo stopped and glanced over my shoulder. ”h.e.l.l, yeah, we can.” Why did he sound sort of gleeful about it, as if he'd like to get in a fight with them? Such a twenty-two-year-old.

”Just get up the stairs. Please!”

They did as I asked-Maggie, then Bernard, then me and Theo. When Bernard and Maggie were about to the top, I heard Theo say, ”Whoa.”

I looked back at the guys. They were moving toward us. And I saw then that they were both reaching into their jackets and holding guns.

”Move,” Theo said. Apparently, his gleeful thoughts of a fun-filled rumble had ended at the site of weaponry.

But if that moment was scary, it was even worse when we saw one guy extract the gun from his jacket and aim it at us.

”Keep moving!” I yelled at Maggie and Bernard.

Maggie stopped at the top of the stairs, her hand on her hip. ”What is going on?”

”Go, go, go!” Theo bellowed. When he added, ”They've got guns,” Maggie spun and took off running, Bernard right behind her. I'd never seen a big man move as fast as he did.

At the top of the stairs, there was another restaurant/bar. But it was closed. I remembered the meeting rooms where Carlo had taken me on the other side of the same floor.

”Come on, you guys.” I pushed the doors and hurried into the empty restaurant, headed for the other side of the hotel. I gestured for the group to follow me.

”What's going on?” Maggie said again.

”Don't ask, just run.” Bernard said. I liked the guy more and more all the time.

We ran around tables and through a door.

”d.a.m.n,” Theo said.

We were in a kitchen.

”We're trapped,” Maggie said.

From the restaurant, we heard footsteps and the sound of tables being shoved aside.

”There.” Theo pointed to a door next to shelving that held bowls, mixers, pots and plates.

He tried it. The door swung open into the other side of the hotel where the meeting rooms were. We went through it.

”Elevators,” I said, pointing, hoping the guys following us didn't know the hotel, that maybe it would take them a moment to find that back door from the kitchen.

Bernard banged on the elevator b.u.t.ton. ”What floor?”

”Six,” Maggie said. She turned to me. ”What is happening, Iz?”

”I think we should get our stuff from the room, and I think we should get out of here.”

”Who are those guys?” Theo said.

I looked at him and all I could say was, ”I'm so sorry I got you into this. I'll explain.”

He shrugged a little. The kid could roll with anything.

But why wasn't the elevator coming? Bernard punched a meaty finger at the b.u.t.ton again.

We heard the sound of footsteps. ”It's them,” Bernard said.

The elevator opened then and Bernard shoved us all in. I hit the b.u.t.ton for the fourth floor.

”Six!” Maggie said.

”We'll go to four and take the stairs, so they don't know what floor we're going to.”

”Good idea.”

”Let's just get out of here fast.”

”Are you sure?” Maggie said. ”I mean, did they really have...”

”They really had guns,” Theo said, ”and we're really getting the heck out of here.”

Maggie frowned and looked at Bernard, who nodded at her.

Once in our room, Maggie and I grabbed our suitcases and shoved everything in them.