Chapter 31

“Well fuck,” muttered Zen, “but I can work with this.”

“Good luck. Looks like a tough crowd. I’m guessing you didn’t need to bring the girls to the party after all,” grinned Leila.

Both women shared a look before they walked deeper in the lobby with dingy, linoleum floors, dim lighting, and the smell of unchanged cat litter permeated the air. At least Leila thought the obnoxious odor was from cats, but there was the possibility it was human waste in nature drifting from the bathroom with an Employee’s only sign on the door. Some past its prime potpourri was in a glass bowl on the counter near a small display of local town attractions, which held about three brochures in total, boasting an outlet store, a pizza joint with a nineteen-fifties theme, and a bowling alley. Dust mites flitted through the air in the breeze from the open door, and possibly some cat fur, giving Leila more credence to her belief of a feline also living on the property.

The clerk gave an irritated glance in the