In Room 27, Nathan headed straight to the bathroom sink and hummed to himself as he tested the water and found that it was draining slow. It took him just a half-hour to bring in some boiling water and run it through until the pipes had cleared. When he was done, he mopped up the water he’d spilled on the floor, made sure everything was immaculate for the new guests and that he’d left no boot prints on the carpet, and made his way out again.
As he headed downstairs, nodding at passing guests and rambunctious children, he got a strange feeling. It felt like an itch he couldn’t scratch as if something new had just wormed its way into his head. It wasn’t a bad feeling necessarily, almost like a dizzying kind of buzz. The spark of instinct, Connor would say.
He couldn’t tell what the feeling meant as he reached the bottom of the stairs and walked into the sprawling front lobby with its burgundy carpet and wide oak counter where a huge man in a grey sweater was checking in alongside a young woman who looked like she’d been run through the wringer. They were both bear shifters. Nathan could smell it on them quickly and he flushed at the scent of a lady bear shifter. Just the scent of vaguely attractive women bear shifters always aroused him a little. He ducked his head and walked around the counter behind Eric, who was checking them in, keeping his hands busy as he wiped them on a rag from his back pocket.
There shouldn’t have been anything unusual about the two guests, except that the young woman, who stood with her head bowed so that he couldn’t see her face, had lank and greasy brown hair and Nathan spotted a couple of twigs sticking out of it. She had a faint bruise on her jaw and her clothes were dirty. She stood stiffly, her arms crossed, and strangest of all, she carried no baggage. At a cheap roadside motel, it might have seemed normal. But it seemed odd to see a character like that at Black Bear Lodge, especially since the man with her looked so well put-together.
“Welcome to the lodge,” Nathan said, stopping for a moment to greet the two guests.
It wasn’t a habit of his. But he had the strangest urge to get a closer look.
The man glared at him and said, “Yeah. Thanks.”
The woman ducked her head and didn’t say a thing.
Something seemed just a little bit off about it all and it bothered him. But he had work to do and Connor’s #1 rule at the lodge as he’d said several times was do not get involved with the lodge’s guests!
He was usually shouting when he said it.
Nathan ignored the strange feeling, headed down the hall behind the lobby, and snuck into the kitchen to scare himself up some lunch. Minutes later, Nathan was halfway through a turkey sandwich when his phone buzzed. The task app he used for work order notifications told him the bathroom sink up in 27 was still backed up.
Goddammit.
He wrapped his sandwich in some Saran wrap and shoved the plate back in a fridge even as Cody appeared to purse his lips and glare at him.
“Don’t just leave that in the big fridge—”
“I’ll be right back!” Nathan said, still chewing. He swallowed and clapped his brother on the back.
Cody was just as broad and muscular as Nathan. To new people, he always looked a little goofy in his apron and chef’s hat, like a bodybuilder playing dress-up. He growled under his breath at Nathan. “I swear!”
He should have double-checked, he thought now. He should have gone into the pipes and checked for a blockage. It didn’t happen often, but on occasion, guests could get some pretty crazy stuff into the pipes that clogged them up for a while and running scalding water usually worked, especially in winter. But for tough clogs, it was always deceptive.
Nathan went back to his maintenance room and grabbed a snake and a bucket.
Upstairs, he wrapped softly on the door which was opened by the unamused heavy in the grey sweater. Nathan had that weird feeling in his head again and it fizzed and boiled over when he saw the girl who sat still in a chair at the dining table in the living room, her hands folded in front of her, her head bowed.
The pair seemed weirdly unhappy to be staying at a luxurious ski lodge, especially the girl.
“Sorry about the clog, sir,” Nathan said dutifully. “Fix ya right up. For your trouble, I have a gift card you can use down at—”
“Sure, sure,” the guy said, waving a hand. “Whatever. I generally expect when I get to a hotel room that shit will work but go ahead and fix it.”
Nathan smiled tightly. The guy narrowed his eyes and swiped the gift card from Nathan’s hand as if taking back something that had belonged to him in the first place. Nathan wasn’t quick to anger (that was Cody’s job). He only nodded and said, “Will do.”
Nobody who visited Black Bear Lodge ever expected that the place’s handyman owned a quarter share in the place. They certainly never assumed that the guy unclogging their toilets could buy and sell them fifty times over. But sometimes that knowledge got Nathan through the day when a guest was being a real douchebag, and judging by this guy’s rip-off Rolex, he wasn’t as well to do as he was trying to pretend he was.
“I’ll be out of your way in two shakes,” Nathan said as he passed the girl.
She was pretty up close, even looking dirty and unkempt.
But she didn’t look up.
Nathan figured she was waiting for him to be done fixing up their bathroom so she could take a much-needed shower. He hoped she took advantage of the jacuzzi bathtub too. The girl looked like she needed to relax.
Nathan headed to the bathroom, but he couldn’t help noticing the way the man and woman really didn’t acknowledge each other. They didn’t give off “couple vibes” at all. The man sat down on the plush couch in the living room with a heavy sigh and looked at his phone, and for the first time, Nathan noticed that the girl didn’t seem to have one. She was waiting for him to fix the sink but she had no phone to look at…odd.
As a hater of so much technology, Nathan resented how most people stared at their phones as soon as they’d been still for two seconds without talking to someone.
The bad feeling wouldn’t leave his head, but he went to work on the bathroom pipes with his snake and bucket. It was smelly, dirty work. There was a clog and he inwardly kicked himself for not catching it before. He wore gloves and picked out the mass of slimy tangled hair and the rag holding up the pipes. God knew how the rag had even got there, but when he was done, he ran the snake all the way through. All clear.
Thank God.
“Almost done!” He called out for the couple’s benefit.
They did not answer.
Nathan triple-checked his work, running water through the pipes as thoroughly as he could before he cleaned up after himself and sprayed some deodorizer around the bathroom for good measure. When he came out, he noticed the girl at the dining room table with her head down on her arms, her limp brown hair splayed out around her. His instinct was to ask her if she was alright and he even took a step in her direction when the guy staying with her took a step in his direction.
“You done here?” the guy said, a clear threat in his voice.
“Yep.” Nathan nodded curtly and looked the guy up and down. He was rather brute-shaped for sure, but Nathan had a lot more muscle and was broader. He never doubted his own bear in a fight.
I could take this asshole no problem, Nathan thought. The thought was enough. He made his way out with all his tools in hand.