All Through the Night: A Troubleshooter Christmas Read Free Page A

we huddle together for warmth in the train station, breathing through our mouths to avoid the persistent and incomparable stench of urine.”
    â€œLaronda’s got nothing,” Jules said as he came toward them, smiling a warm greeting at Mrs. H., despite his obvious frustration, disappointment and fatigue.
    Robin looked at Mrs. H. and briefly put his finger on his lips. She nodded, wide-eyed, but then shrugged apologetically, shaking her head. She still couldn’t help him, regardless of how much she wanted to.
    â€œLaronda is Jules’s boss’s administrative assistant,” Robin explained to the hotel manager. “She’s, like, the queen of his office. If there was a room in Boston, she would have gotten it for us.” He knew Laronda well. Some days he spoke to her on the phone more often than he spoke to Jules.
    â€œSometimes the…organization has a hotel room on reserve, but not tonight,” Jules explained, obviously not wanting to say
the Bureau
or
the FBI
in front of Mrs. H. He was clearly tired and even slightly pale. What he needed, Robin knew, was about eighteen hours in bed.
    Robin needed that, too, but not because he was tired.
    â€œLaronda also told me there’s a run on rental cars,” Jules continued. “Apparently a semi went off a bridge onto Amtrak’s main tracks to New York. Trains are shut down. She couldn’t even rent us a moped. I was thinking we could drive up to Manchester, or out to Hartford if we could get a car.”
    â€œWe have sister hotels in both Manchester and Hartford,” Mrs. H. said helpfully. She went tappy-tap on her computer. “There are rooms available in each.”
    â€œBut no cars to get there,” Robin reiterated.
    More tapping and…
    â€œNone available from this hotel,” Mrs. H. confirmed. “I’m sorry. Maybe there’s a car service that could…?”
    â€œI already tried that,” Jules told Robin quietly, shaking his head as Mrs. H. bustled back into her office to answer a phone call. “But everything’s booked. I was trying to think outside the box. A limo. You know, at the very least take a lengthy ride around the city.”
    Robin had to laugh, in part at Jules’s subtle yet suggestive eyebrow waggle. The first time they’d hooked up, they’d been in a limo, privacy shield up and radio blasting. But apparently
that
wasn’t even an option today.
    â€œI completely screwed us,” Robin whispered. “Didn’t I?” Jules had left him a voicemail saying that he was coming. If he’d taken the time to go through the twenty-something messages that had cluttered up his cell phone, and if he’d done it
before
he’d packed his bags and checked out of the hotel…He and Jules would’ve been up in his room, right now, exchanging long, slow, deep kisses…
    â€œActually,” Jules pointed out
sotto voce,
laughing at the absurdity of their situation. “I’m feeling extremely unscrewed.”
    It was hard not to laugh, too, when Jules was laughing. Still, Robin shook his head. “Maybe we could catch the shuttle to New York, get a room down there—”
    â€œAnd wake up at three thirty to get back to Boston in time for you to get to work?” Jules countered.
    â€œI’ll get up at three thirty,” Robin said. “You can sleep in, catch a later flight.” Jesus, Jules looked so tired.
    But he was shaking his head, no. “I wanted to go with you to the studio,” he said. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.”
    Robin’s heart flip-flopped. It was amazing. His relationship with Jules had lasted longer than any other relationship he’d ever had, yet the man could still make him feel like a giddy kid with a crush. “Really?”
    â€œIf it’s okay,” Jules said again. He touched Robin’s hand, interlacing their fingers. It was a daring public show of