Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel

conjuring trick,” he said. “Now you see him. Now you don’t. Remember, there are two guards in there with him. They’ll open the door, and your job is to make sure it stays open. I’ll come in and do the rest.”
    “You couldn’t just break the door down?”
    “And have security here in two minutes? I don’t think that would be a good plan.”
    “I’m not sure this is, either. But okay .”
    I marched down the hall and knocked on the door of 507 with the knuckles of my left hand, managing this by kind of wedging the tray into the corner formed by the door and its frame. I smiled big at the peephole and took a deep breath to let my chest do its thing. I sensed the appreciation through the door. I counted the heads inside the room: three, as Bill had told me.
    The tray was not getting any lighter, and I was conscious of a definite relief when the door opened. I could hear Bill’s footsteps coming up behind me.
    “All right, come on in,” said a bored voice.
    Of course, both of the guards were human. They would have to be on duty during the day, too.
    “Where you want this?” I asked.
    “Over there on the coffee table’ll be fine.” He was very tall, pretty heavy, with very short gray hair. I smiled at him and bore the laden tray over to the low table. I squatted and slid it into place. The other guard was with Colton in the bathroom, waiting until I left to emerge; I read that right from his brain.
    The room door was still open, but the guard was standing close to it. After a second’s anxious search I spotted the plastic folder containing the check and handed it to the hulk without getting closer to him. He made a little face but moved nearer, his hand extended, the door he’d released beginning to swing shut. But in slid Bill, moving smoothly and silently at the man’s back. While I kept my eyes fixed on the folder, Bill reached up and around to hit the man in the temple. The guard dropped like a sack of wet oatmeal.
    I grabbed a napkin from the tray and wiped my fingerprints off the tray and the folder while Bill shut the room door.
    “Dewey?” said the man in the bathroom. “She gone yet?”
    “Uh-huh,” Bill said, deepening his voice.
    The second guard must have sensed something was up, because he had a gun in his hand when he opened the bathroom door. He might have been prepared with weaponry, but he wasn’t mentally prepared, because at the sight of two strangers he froze, his eyes widening. It was just for a second, but that was all it took for Bill to leap onto him and sock him in the same place he’d hit the hulk. I kicked the gun under the couch when it fell from the guard’s hand.
    Bill hurried to pull the unconscious man out of the way whileI darted into the bathroom to untie Colton. It was like we’d done this a dozen times! I confess I felt pretty proud at the way it was going.
    I looked Colton over while I began working on the duct tape across his mouth. He was not in great shape. Colton had worked for Felipe in Reno and then followed Victor to Louisiana, where he’d been employed at Vampire’s Kiss. His apparent devotion hadn’t stemmed from affection but from a thirst for vengeance; Colton’s mother had died as a result of Victor’s teaching a lesson to Colton’s half brother. Carelessly, Victor had never dug deep enough to get the connection, and as a result, Colton had been a great help to the Shreveport plan to eradicate Victor. His lover Audrina had taken part in the fight and paid for her devotion with her life. I hadn’t seen Colton since that night, but I’d known he’d stayed in the area and even kept his job at Vampire’s Kiss.
    Colton’s gray eyes were full of tears after I yanked the duct tape off. His first words were a stream of profanity.
    “Bill, we need a handcuff key,” I said, and as Bill began rummaging in the guards’ pockets to track it down, I cut the tape around Colton’s ankles. Bill threw the key to me, and I unlocked the cuffs. Once I tossed them aside, Colton didn’t know what he wanted to do first: rub his wrists or massage his stinging face. Instead, he flung his arms around me and said, “God bless you.”
    I was startled and touched. I said, “This was Bill’s plan, and now we’ve got to skedaddle before anyone comes looking. Those guys will come to eventually.” Bill had reused the handcuffs on the hulk and was using Second Guard’s own belt to secure his arms. The roll of duct tape they’d used on Colton was also