She kept the hotel key

Slipped it in her purse

I guess it makes her think of me

And that night we left our hearts on our sleeves

And the clothes all over the floor

We both know we can't open that door no more

But she kept the hotel key

-Old Dominion

Hotel Key

Chapter 1

RickyJo backed her jeep up carefully, watching the small trailer that was hitched to the rear and making sure it didn't go too far into the soggy grass. She shifted the vehicle into drive but kept her foot pressed down on the brake. Letting out a loud sigh, she leaned over and retrieved her phone from the glove box. RickyJo plugged the horrid little device into the charger and powered it on. Then she tossed it into the passenger seat and shifted her jeep into gear.

She planned to hide out at her grandfather's cabin much longer. Maybe even for the rest of the summer. But after six straight days of rain, camping alone finally lost its appeal. She couldn't hunt. She couldn't fish. The place stunk of mildew and the racoon she evicted when she arrived. She was hungry and dirty and tired. And she supposed today was as good a day as any to return to the real world and face the consequences of her extended absence.

Her phone sung her it's silly little power on song first. There was a brief pause. And then the notifications started coming through. Every missed call. Missed texts. Missed emails. The stupid thing was beeping and dancing and making noises RickyJo was quite sure she never heard it make before in her life. For a moment she was hopeful that her phone might just overload and die, never to work again. At least then she would have an excuse not to read through what was sure to be a mountain of upset and angry messages from everyone she knew. The beeping went on so long that RickyJo started to laugh as she steered her jeep down the mountain trail and onto the main road. She glanced at the screen, which was showing over two hundred missed calls. Plus about double that amount of unread texts. RickJo felt a little spark of hope take flame inside her. With that many missed calls, a few of them had to be from Daryl. When it finally stopped beeping and shaking all over the seat, her phone immediately started ringing. RickyJo glanced at the screen and groaned.

"Hi Merle," she chirped into the phone.

"WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YA BEEN?!" His voice came roaring in through the speaker. RickyJo cringed and held the phone further away from her ear. She listened to the barrage of curses and foul words coming out of her phone for another minute. Then she swiped her finger across the screen and ended the call, hanging up on him. It took him longer than she expected to call her back. RickyJo chuckled a little, assuming that Merle must have carried on for quite some time with his screaming and cursing before he realized that no one was listening. She took a deep breath and answered the call.

"If you cuss me again I'm hangin' up!," RickyJo hollered into the phone before he had the chance to start back up again. She was willing to take a little more shit from Merle than usual. Because ditching him like she did was actually sort of a shitty thing to do and she knew he had the right to be upset about it. But he already used up his free pass screaming at her the first time she answered the phone.

"Where the hell are you?," he asked. RickyJo opened her mouth to answer. But before she could get a word out, Merle immediately started hollering into the phone, airing out his complaints about her behavior. "WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DITCHIN' ME LIKE THAT? YOU GODDAMN SNEAKY ASS FUCKIN' LITTLE BITCH!"

"Goodbye Merle," she hollered back, not waiting to hear any more before she ended the call. He called back more quickly this time. But she sent him straight to voicemail. Then did the same five more times. "Take a hint asshole," she grumbled to herself.

Her drive took her about another hour, during which her phone thankfully did not ring again. RickyJo pushed the gate closed behind her. The moment she pulled up outside her grandmother's house, her nieces were flying at her out the front door. She smiled, swinging the younger of the two girls up into her arms.

"Well look what the cat drug in," her grandmother teased from the doorway. The woman had a big smile on her face. And a hug for RickyJo once Cassie and Desiree were done jumping all over her. "We were gettin' worried about ya," the woman chided. Truthfully, she was only a little worried. It wasn't unheard of for RickyJo to disappear when she was upset. She just usually didn't stay gone so long. And when she did disappear, RickyJo always still kept in contact with the college where she worked. And since Jessica knew all her passwords and got into her email, they knew she hadn't even been doing that. That's what made her grandmother worry. But lecturing RickyJo never did any good. Her grandmother just led her into the kitchen and made her a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich. And after she devoured it in only a few bites, she made her a second one.

RickyJo slowly cleared out her phone notifications as she stuffed down the second sandwich. The majority of the texts were from Laney. She scanned through them quickly, without much interest in what the woman had to say. There were a few texts from Jessica. Some from work. And even a few from Merle, who usually never sent texts. They were full of profanity and looked like they had been sent when he was deep in a bottle of jack. When she finally cleared them out, RickyJo scanned down until she found Daryl's name. Her heart sunk when she clicked on it. He didn't call or message her. She was missing for three weeks and he didn't try to contact her. Not even once. The last message from him was one she received in Mexico, asking her what time they were going to dinner because he was hungry. She shut her screen off and put the phone face down on the table. Resting her chin on her palm, she let out a long tired sigh. Despite the weather, she was tempted to head right back to the dingy stinky broken down cabin she was hiding in. And this time she wasn't ever coming back.

"Why don't you just call him," her gran suggested, rubbing her hand over RickyJo's back. RickyJo shook her head. Not hearing from Daryl was bad enough. It was like a knife to her heart. Having him actually tell her how much he hated her would be even worse. She felt like it might actually kill her.

"I can't," she said. RickyJo expected her gran to push the issue. But she kept quiet. Instead of speaking, she leaned down and wrapped her arms around her granddaughter. Her heart broke for the girl. It always did. What RickyJo survived as a child would have killed most grown adults. More than anyone, she deserved to find some happiness in life.

"You stayin' fer dinner?," Gran asked hopefully. But RickyJo shook her head again. She had to go back to Atlanta. Back to her apartment. Back to her life. The longer she stayed gone, the harder it was going to be when she went back. She decided she better just do it now, while she had momentum.

RickyJo unpacked her camping gear and unhitched the small trailer from her jeep. She gave her grandmother and nieces a few more hugs before she climbed back into her jeep and headed for the city. When she arrived at her apartment, she was relieved to find it unoccupied. The kitchen was a mess. There were takeout food containers scattered all over the coffee table. Dirty towels and laundry were piled up in the hallway bathroom. But Daryl's things were still in his room. So at least he didn't move out after he turned the place into his peraonal pigsty. RickyJo felt a strange mix of excitement and trepidation at the thought of seeing him again. It had been over a month since they even spoke. Since the day they met, the longest she ever went without speaking to him before this was one day. RickyJo headed for her own bathroom, thinking about what she was going to say to Daryl when she finally saw him.

The hot water beat down on her sore muscles, easing some of the tension from her body. She scrubbed at the roots of her hair, thinking about how badly she needed the shower she was taking. Leaving conditioner to sit in her tangled mass of hair for a while, she shaved her legs and underarms. Then RickyJo ran the razor over her private area, wondering why she was even bothering since no one was going to see between her legs anyway. Before she could stop them, thoughts of the last person between her legs consumed her. And RickyJo put away her worries about her lack of future with the man for the moment, only thinking about how his facial hair tickled her thighs and the way it felt when Daryl finally pushed his hard length inside her. She reached up, grabbing the shower head and turning the water pressure to pulsate. Aiming the spray directly at her clit, she pressed her other hand against the tile to support herself. It didn't take long before she found her release. She tilted her head back, letting the spasms of pleasure ripple through her body.

With her needs at least partially met, RickyJo used the shower head to rinse out the conditioner in her hair and turned the water off. She rolled her shoulders as she toweled herself off. After pulling on her favorite robe, she set about the arduous task of combing the tangles out of her long blonde hair. She ripped through her hair a little more roughly than necessary, enjoying the tug at her scalp and the way it was keeping her from thinking too much. The material of her robe was thin and silky. It was clinging to her body in the spots where her skin was still damp. Heading back into her bedroom, she opened it and fanned her body with the fabric. She thought she was alone in her apartment. But suddenly the loud sound of someone clearing their throat cut through the silence. RickyJo squeaked as she yanked her robe shut. She grabbed a glass bottle of perfume off the top of her dresser and turned, ready to hurl it at whoever had invaded her personal space.

"Ugh," RickyJo groaned. She rolled her eyes and put her perfume back where she got it. Then she turned towards the man that entered her bedroom without an invitation.

Merle was leaning against her door frame, sipping on what was left of a bottle of expensive tequila. RickyJo was certain the bottle had been taken from her wine rack without permission. She sent a bunch of tequila back from Mexico while she was there, thinking at the time that she and Daryl could drink it later to reminisce about what she thought at the time was going to be the best vacation they ever took. But she decided to ignore the fact that Merle stole her alcohol for the moment. She cocked her hand up on her hip and regarded him with an irritated glance.

"Well?," he asked, "...Explain yerself!" RickyJo only narrowed her eyes at Merle as she tried to guess how much of her tequila he consumed while she was in the shower. He wasn't slurring his words. But being a harcore drinker, Merle had better control over his motor functions when he was drunk than most people did. Unfortunately, that didn't stop the alcohol from affecting his attitude. When he was drunk, he acted like an even bigger asshole than usual.

Merle took another long swig from the bottle before he twisted the cap back on and tossed it onto RickyJo's bed. He advanced on her, eying her like a cat might eye a mouse. One look at his face and she took a step back, her eyes darting towards the door. If she was going to run, RickyJo knew she was only going to get one chance to dodge around him. If he got his hands on her, she was done. RickyJo stepped to her right, hoping Merle would surge that way so she could dart to the left and run past him. But he was wise to her tricks, having seen the maneuver in action many times before. Merle grabbed her by the arm and leaned into her face. His breath smelled so strongly of tequila, her nose felt like it was burning.

"Ya betta have somethin' ta say ta me after the bullshit ya did!," he cursed. RickyJo yanked her arm, struggling against his grip and slapping at his chest. Merle's only reaction to her struggles was to adjust his grip on her. Instead of gripping her upper arm, he snatched her by the wrists so she wouldn't be able to swing at him again. His eyes roamed over her body, lingering on her hardened nipples and the way they were poking at the thin fabric of her robe.

"I'll tell you somethin," RickyJo finally hollered back, the anger rising in her at the rough way she was being treated. She knew Merle was upset. But he had some audacity, barging into her bedroom and grabbing at her like she was one of his crack whores. "Get the hell out of here!," she ordered. "...And I want my house key back!"

*If you read Gone for Good, some of the flashbacks in this story will be a repeat for you. I'm including them here as well, so that this story can be read independently without having to read the other one for the character background.**