“Bombs?” Leo said. “At the Olympus Royale? During the Gala?”
“During our announcement,” Ares confirmed. “Maximum casualties. Make it look like a structural failure or terrorism. I heard them planning it. That’s why they tried to kill me—I know too much.”
“Then we cancel,” I said immediately. “We evacuate the hotel, call the police, call the bomb squad?—”
“No.” Ares’s voice was firm. “If we cancel, they’ll know I’m alive. They’ll know I told you. They’ll just try again another day, another way. We have to catch them in the act.”
“You want to use ourselves as bait?” Orion said incredulously.
“I want to end this.” Ares looked at each of us. “Tomorrow night. No more running. No more threats. We find the bombs, we catch Marcus, and we finish this conspiracy once and for all.”
“You can barely stand,” I pointed out.
“I can stand well enough.” He managed a ghost of his usual confident smile. “Besides, I’ve got three people to fight for now. That’s pretty good motivation.”
Orion studied his brother for a long moment, then nodded. “Then we do it together.”
Leo pulled out his phone. “I’ll text Neville that we’re dealing with a security issue. We have until tomorrow night to find the bombs.”
“And if they aren’t planted yet?” Orion asked.
Ares was firm. “We keep doing security sweeps. Quietly. Without causing panic.”
“How?” Orion demanded. “How do we search an entire hotel with hundreds of guests without anyone noticing?”
“Neville can handle it. Give me your phone so I can call him to coordinate the sweeps,” Ares said.
“You’re sure about this?” I asked. “We could just evacuate?—”
“And let Marcus escape?” Ares interrupted. “Let him try next week, next month. Or we end it tonight. Your choice. All we have is suspicion, not proof. If we need to pull the fire alarms to evacuate, we will. “
I looked at Orion and Leo. Saw the same determination in their faces that I felt building in my chest.
Ares started toward the Mercedes, moving stiffly but steadily. “Come on. We’ve got a conspiracy to stop.”
Chapter 26
Orion
The morning meetingfelt wrong without Ares—and, I realized, without Tashi too.
I sat at the head of the conference table in our executive suite, coffee growing cold in front of me, watching Leo scroll through his phone with that distracted look that meant he was already solving three problems at once. He and I had been up most of the night making sure the guests didn’t notice anything amiss, while an ordnance crew Neville brought in searched the hotel. Either of us was ready to pull the fire alarm if we thought the guests were in danger.
“Where’s Ares?” I asked, checking my watch. Seven a.m. We always met at seven.
“Remember? You sent him to rest after his fourth painful groan. He’s with Tashi.” Leo didn’t look up from his screen. “She was worried about him after his beating and insisted he sleep with her last night to make sure he was okay.”
“Oh, did she?” The words came out sharper than I intended.
Leo’s eyes flicked up, one eyebrow raised. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
“No.”
Leo gave me a pointed glance.
“Yes,” I admitted. “Fine. Yes.”
“Brother, we don’t have room for jealousy here.” Leo set down his phone, his expression serious now. “You know that. We agreed?—”
