“Right. In and out.”
The conference was the biggest academic social gathering in the UTA. It usually involved copious drinking, rowdiness, and hook-ups between panels. It would be weird for her to not show up for happy hour or go to breakfast with her colleagues, but then again, it was weird for her to miss the first few days of the conference like she had. It was even weirder for her to be almost completely MIA leading up to it.
If anyone asked where she’d been, she would just have to say that she was finalizing their presentation and going over the data one last time. They might think she was a buzzkill, but they’d also understand.
Besides, she’d always been a bit of a buzzkill. There weren’t many people who felt comfortable cutting loose around a priestess. It was no great loss.
“Who’s coming with me to sign in?”
“Me.” Kaz stood up from his crouch. Bracing a hand against the wall beside her seat, he leaned back to peer out the windshield. “We’re pulling up to the safehouse now. Sloane and Arjun are covering the entrance. Vesta, Johanna, and Cesare are going to follow us inside.”
Atria glanced around the caravan. “Um… Won’t people notice our armed guards?”
From the kitchenette’s booth, Johanna’s robotic, modulated voice replied, “You let us worry about that, Doctor.”
* * *
The Natural Phenomena and Development Conferencewas a damn deathtrap. Kaz thought he was prepared for a bunch of academics wearing lanyards in a hotel. He wasn’t expectingthousandsof them. Scientists of every size, color, nationality, and specialty swarmed the sidewalks around the hotel and the sprawling United Washington Hall across the street. LCD screens flashed across the sides of buildings, welcoming the attendees with bright colors and pithy slogans aboutforging the future.
He was right about the lanyards, at least.
Every single attendee wore one, sometimes multiple, in a wide array of colors. They were weighed down by badges, cutesy buttons, and ribbons declaring their status as a presenter, journalist, or attendee.
It wasn’t even noon but half the academics crammed into the lobby of the hotel were drunk. The other half were wide-eyed and obviously jet-lagged.
The only reason Kaz had any breathing space at all was because most people, drunk or not, took one look at him and scrambled to make space. That was the only thing stopping him from clotheslining the next person who dared to step in their path.
He thought it was impossible to protect her in the airport, but that experience had nothing on the conference.
There were too many people in too tight a space. They moved against one another, everyone rushing, twisting around to greet a colleague, walking in circles as they attempted to find the check-in desk, then the welcome table, then the conference registration at the entrance of the show floor. Everyone was talking at once as they either made plans to meet up for dinner, swapped presentation schedules, or desperately attempted to figure out whether they needed to be at the conference hall or the hotel or both.
In short, it was a bodyguard’s worst nightmare.
“What thefuck,”he muttered, barely audible over the din of excited chatter and piped in instrumental music. “I thought nerds were quiet.”
Atria, who was tucked securely under his arm and hurrying to keep up with his long strides, managed a snort. “Big guy, have you ever really hung out with a group of nerds before? We’renotquiet.”
“You’re pretty quiet.” He scowled at a dragon who dared to get too close to Atria. One look at his face and the polo-wearing fire-breather hurried ahead, his tail coiled protectively around his ankle and his wings tucked close to his spine.
“You haven’t seen me get drunk and debate the Fermi Paradox with an astrobiologist.”
“What the fuck is an astrobiologist?”
“It’s a scientist who studies potential extraterrestrial— Oh, there’s the registration table!”
“Shit, hold on.” Kaz pivoted on his heel and extended his arm, using it to part the sea of people as he moved against the flow of traffic toward the show floor. Atria hollered apologies to the people he pushed aside but otherwise didn’t complain as she hurried with him, her sandals slapping against the marble floor.
By the time they made it to the table of harried conference workers, he’d nearly trampled several people, kicked aside the rolling suitcases of a few others, and one elderly scientist had turned tail and run when he opened his mouth to scold Kaz for bumping into him.
His mate was pink-cheeked with exertion and embarrassment when he pulled her to a stop in front of the table. Clearly trying to ignore the glowering mate standing protectively at her back, she hurriedly signed herself in with the tablet provided by the wide-eyed worker.
“Hold these, please. My pants don’t have pockets.” He looked down in time to see Atria stuffing a fistful of lanyards into the left pocket of his leather jacket. That done, she turned back around to grab the laminated badge the worker handed her across the table.
“Thank you!” Atria offered a small, quick smile as she tucked that into his pocket, too.Smart,he thought, giving the back of her head an appreciative look. She’d need the badges and name tag to give her presentation, but there was no reason to wear them now, when they’d just advertise her to anyone on the hunt for her bounty.
Giving his chest a brisk pat, she said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Fucking finally.
