Careful not to move, he waited, listening, but the room didn’t feel… safe #SciFiRomance #PlotTwist #MFRWhooks

In this scene from Her Crystal Clear Truth, Joe has returned to his hotel and is getting ready for bed.

An intuitive sense of trouble kicked in

As Joe prepared to shower, some innate sense of trouble made him go back, pick up his mother's diary, and tuck it beneath the couch cushions. After he'd cleaned up and dressed in sleep pants, he wandered back into his room, yawning. Out of boredom, he picked up the diary again.

He retrieved a beer from the mini-bar, plopped onto the couch and put his feet up. He opened the chilled drink and took a tentative sip. Not as good as what he had back home, but it would do. He set the drink on a small table beside the couch and opened the book.

Meeting Shohn Lexius had eased his mind about involving idBot. The moment he'd learned she was a Kin, he'd considered forgetting the entire thing. He'd dealt with enough Kin females to know they viewed a male with a brain as an amusing oddity. He hadn't expected a Kin female without a hook knife at her side, or beads in her hair. And she'd talked about gender equality. For humans, that was an obvious thing, but on the Kin homeworld? Revolutionary. The kicker, however? She treated their Kin server with respect and was his mentor. Now that was putting actions to words.

Could she still be imperious and commanding? Of that, he had no doubt. Yet she'd related to him throughout dinner as an equal, and never once treated him with condescension.

Had to admire anyone going against cultural mores to right a wrong. Plus, only a fool would deny Shohn Lexius was one beautiful female. People had called him many things, but never a fool.

He tucked the diary between himself and the back of the couch, pulled out his tablet and read through the notes he'd made about finding his birth mother. After a few notations, he sent them to Shohn.

He opened a new reference book on fluid mechanics, but before long, his eyes kept closing. At some point, while still on the couch, he drifted off, and woke with a start.

He kept still a moment, unsure what had jerked him awake. But then that intuitive sense he'd learned not to ignore swam to the surface.

Careful not to move, he waited, listening.

No sound.

Still, the room didn't feel right.

Didn't feel safe.

He'd never been able to explain it, but he knew when someone felt a certain way, or what they would do. When someone he knew sent a text, he'd pick up on their mood. Both curse and gift.

He'd long since given up trying to explain and just trusted his gut.

What was different here?

No smell.

No breeze.

Just a dead, skin-tingling silence that felt...wrong.

Joe lifted his head.

The door to the hallway had the usual safety hologram, his not glowing. His travel preferences would have overridden the glow. He couldn't sleep with lights on.

On his left, the bed had been turned down but not slept in. His travel bag sat on the end, as it had earlier.

On the right, the back of the couch hid most of the door to the bathroom, but it stood open.

All the lights had gone out, but that was the room's AI sensing he slept. Nothing unusual there. He hadn't moved enough to trigger them.

When he pushed himself up, it changed his angle of view on the oversized framed mirror across the room.

In the reflection, a man in black looked back.