Her dark eyes flashed with amused scorn. “I know better than to get caught. You two hang out here — this shouldn’t take me more than ten, fifteen minutes tops.”
After delivering that reassurance, she headed out of the bar and into the casino proper. Once she was gone, Ty sent Caleb an annoyed glance.
“We shouldn’t be letting her do this.”
Funny how he thought they were “letting” Pru Nelson do anything. “She’s a big girl,” Caleb said, then drank some of his Coke. Mostly, he avoided soda, but today he thought he could use the extra jolt all the sugar provided. “It sounds like she knows what she’s doing. Besides, do you have a better idea? Can you just magic one of those key cards off one of the employees so Pru doesn’t have to stoop to petty larceny?”
“Different types of intervention have different…consequences,” Ty said, his expression a mixture of annoyance and concern. “Bypassing technology is one thing. Taking something directly from a person crosses another line entirely.”
“Right,” Caleb said. “Wouldn’t want you to break your angelic code of honor.”
Rather than respond, Ty only looked away, his gaze scanning the bar as though he feared someone might be paying particular attention to them. As far as Caleb could tell, though, everyone there appeared to be occupied with their own pursuits, drinking and laughing and having a nosh, since it was right around lunchtime.
If they’d been here for a happier reason, he might have ordered a plate of nachos. However, he had a feeling such a suggestion wouldn’t get a very positive response. Also, they’d all had a big room service breakfast before they headed out to Kohl’s earlier, since they hadn’t known what they might be facing and had thought it would be better to lay down a good base just in case they wouldn’t be eating again for a while.
“Relax,” Caleb said in a murmur. “No one here could give two shits about us.”
“That you know of,” Ty returned in an equal undertone.
“Do you sense any demons?”
The half angel paused for a moment, as if performing a scan of the room, and then he shook his head. “No, everyone here seems to be exactly as they appear.”
“Well, then.”
Caleb relaxed against the back of his chair, although he, too, was more conscious of time passing than he would have liked. What if Pru got caught? Sure, he had plenty of money to bail her out, but he had to believe that if she was arrested for petty larceny, her private detective license might be in danger. He didn’t want her to get into that kind of trouble, even if she was trying to help them bust Delia out of her hidden prison.
He and Ty lapsed into an uneasy silence, each of them sipping at their drinks and trying to act as if all this was perfectly normal.
Before Caleb’s tension could ratchet up to levels where he’d start to regret all the caffeine and sugar he was consuming, Pru reappeared. Since she was wearing a big shit-eating grin, he had to believe she’d been successful in her errand.
“Got it,” she said as she slid into the booth. “Took a little longer than I thought — I guess a bunch of people must have melted away for lunch or something. Also, I specifically wanted to lift the thing off someone who looked as if they were headed out of the building for a while. That way, we’ll have more time before they realize it’s missing.”
It seemed as if she’d tried to cover all the angles.
“Perfect,” Caleb said. “What’s next?”
“Well, I pulled up some blueprints of the building while we were driving over here,” she replied. “The corporate offices are all up on the twentieth floor, so at least Sellers should be pretty far away from the scene of the crime. From what I was able to tell, it looks as if there’s a bunch of storerooms on the third sublevel, which I’m guessing is where they must have stashed Delia. We just have to figure out which storeroom they hid her in.”
“That does narrow it down,” Ty said. “Good work, Pru.”
A tinge of color might have touched her cheeks. “Just doing my job,” she said lightly. “Anyway, because it’s lunchtime, there are probably fewer people roaming around down there. The main thing I’m worried about is the security cameras. They’re all over the place on the public levels, and I have to believe they’ve got the lower floors covered, too.”
“That’s fine,” Ty responded at once. “I can take care of those.”
Caleb raised an eyebrow. “And that won’t mess with your code of conduct or anything?”
The half angel’s eyes might have narrowed just the slightest bit. “I’m doing this to keep us safe,” he said. “I’m not breaking any laws by making sure we’re blurred out of any footage that might capture us.”
Pru’s mouth pursed, but she must have decided to leave it alone, since she only commented, “Then it sounds as if we have all the bases covered. Let’s do this thing.”
They all got up from the booth, and Caleb laid a twenty-dollar bill down on the table even though their entire tab had only been a little more than half that. Still, they’d been taking up a prime seat while they conducted their business, and he thought it only fair to leave a little thank-you for the wait staff.
After all, it wasn’t their fault they worked for an organization that apparently was headed by a demon in disguise.
Since Pru appeared to have memorized the layout of the casino, they let her take the lead. She guided them to a regular elevator and descended one level, and then gestured for them to follow her through a door at the end of a corridor that appeared to have some restroom facilities but nothing else.
As they went — after pausing so she could tap her stolen key card against the lock next to the door — she sent a significant glance up at a reflective half-globe on the ceiling, a covering that obviously concealed a camera. Ty gave her a nod in return, seeming to indicate that he was taking care of the hotel’s surveillance.
