Over her shoulder, he surveyed the crowd. She’d won. As impossible as it should have been, Delaney had just won big, and she’d certainly succeeded in attracting everyone’s attention.
His arms curled around her as he lifted her up against him. More of her delighted laughter spilled from her. It was beautiful and warm, and it filled the cold, empty places that had been inside of him for far too long.
“Sir.” An insistent tapping on his shoulder. “Sir, you will need to come with me.”
Keeping his hold on Delaney, Nash looked over his shoulder.
Two men stood behind him. Both dressed in black suits. Both with earpieces.
“Casino security, sir,” the man to the right said. A blond. “Gonna need you both to come with us.”
The people around them were offering congratulations. But these two men…
“Now,” the blond added, in a tone that brooked no argument.
As battle-ready tension hummed through him, Nash realized that Delaney had caught more than just the crowd’s attention. She might have put them dead center for their target’s attention, too.
He lowered Delaney to the floor. Nash wrapped an arm around Delaney, kept her close at his side, and ordered, “Lead the way,” to the blond. As they exited the casino and headed upstairs, toward the private office area, Nash got ready for the fight that he knew was coming.
“Nash?” A faint hitch in his name as they ascended a spiral staircase.
He winked at her.
She shivered.
“How the hell did she just do that?” Jezebel demanded as she watched the security footage. It had been an easy enough matter for her team to hack into the security feeds at the casino. Child’s play for the techs who worked under her supervision. So, thanks to that hacking and the video feeds that she could watch on the screens before her, she’d had a perfect view of Delaney and her big win.
“I think she was lucky,” the hacker to her right said. Thin, balding, with gold hoops in his ears. A guy who did not see field work but spent the majority of his time with his fingers poised over a keyboard and ready to steal every secret that the tech world possessed. Dominic “Dom” Blay might not look intimidating, but that was part of his appeal. The man was a CIS master.
“I don’t believe in luck.” She also didn’t believe in giant slot machines. But…
Her players were on the move. Heading up to the big offices upstairs. And they were being escorted by two security men. Men currently being run through facial recognition software courtesy of Dom.
Her phone rang. She kept her eyes on the screen—screens—in front of her even as she put the phone to her ear. “This had better be good.”
“I’m out of the hospital,” Ryan Quinn informed her. “Real dick move trying to bench me. Not cool.”
Jezebel grunted. “You were shot. That means you’re staying benched.”
“I am never benched.” He seemed insulted. Probably because he was. Typical Ryan. “I am still in the field, very usefully so, might I add. Because I’m the one calling you about a scene I just left.”
What? “I thought you’d just left the hospital.”
“Um.”
Um was very noncommittal. That was why it was one of her favorite responses. Ryan had picked up her habit of using that lovely noncommittal sound. “Ryan…”
“So, thought you’d like to know that a dead body was just found in a limo about two miles away from the Love Heart Chapel.”
Her back went ramrod straight. “You have my attention.”
“Thought I might. The poor driver had a knife lodged in his throat. Cops haven’t traced down the owner of the vehicle yet because they’re a wee bit overwhelmed here in Sin City, but I’ve got the tag info and you’ve got the insane access that you have, so let’s see what magic you can uncover, shall we?” He rattled off the tag number.
With Dom’s help, she got the match in moments. “That limo traces back to Kurt Wellington. Wellington Enterprises.” Seriously sloppy work. Which meant…A wide smile curved her lips. “He’s losing control.”
“Uh, Jez, he just killed a man. Because from what I saw—don’t ask me how, you don’t want to know, let’s just say I charmed and got up-close access—the blood spatter was all over the steering wheel and the dash. The attack came from behind, as in, the person in the back of the limo decided to kill his driver. Don’t know how long the vic was dead before someone actually approached the vehicle and discovered him. Windows were tinted so it could have been moments or it could have been hours.”
Which meant that Kurt Wellington could currently be anywhere in Vegas. “Give me the location. I want to try and access street cams.”
