She popped a fried shrimp into her mouth, her stomach churning so much that she knew she wouldn’t be able to eat much. Bobby Jenkins was there—in the casino—with her. She couldn’t believe it. And he looked fucking amazing.
And there was nothing she could do to let him know she had always loved him and never anyone else.
She sighed as she grabbed another piece of shrimp.Fuck my life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
FRIDAY SHOULD HAVE BEEN boring and routine. At least that was the goal when he took this job with the Silvers, and Elvis had built most of his adult life around making sure days like this stayed quiet—no alarms, no gunfire, no unexplained, or even explained, bodies, no surprises. The day should have been simply filled with standing in hallways, staring at cameras, and doing badge checks with crowds that behaved themselves.
Instead, Friday arrived with Delaney Rhodes in his peripheral vision and Julia Moretti living rent-free in his skull. And they were the same damn woman, regardless of the different names, the different lives. Regardless of her denial.
He couldn’t believe she looked him dead in the eyes yesterday and told him he was wrong before turning and walking off as if he were crazy.
He adjusted the earpiece in his right ear as he paced the perimeter of the conference wing, posture relaxed, senses tuned sharp beneath his casual stride. He passed a cluster of summit attendees arguing about encryption protocols like it was religion, nodded at one of the Silvers posted near the elevators, then slowed near a mirrored wall long enough to check his reflection, taking in his dark blond hair, which luckily was stillbehaving. His jacket hung straight, and his badge was visible. Anyone looking at him would see professional Elvis. Or rather Robert Jenkins.
Inside, however, he was chewing glass that sliced at his gut, tearing holes in his heart on the way down.
He replayed the moment over and over, growing more and more frustrated with each replay. Again he saw her expression when he’d said it was her and then demanded she not deny it, not play him for a fool. Not shock, really, nor even recognition. Oh, no. She played it cool, wearing a mask she must have practiced as if training herself for that particular moment.
And the denials.
“I think you have me confused with someone else.”
“Look, as I said, I’m not sure who you think I am, but I promise you, I’m not that person.”
Bullshit. It was all bullshit, and he knew it.
He’d know her anywhere, the tilt of her mouth when she was trying not to smile. The way she carried tension in her shoulders. The faint scar near her left eyebrow from when she’d tripped on the football bleachers her sophomore year. That wasn’t something time erased, no matter how much of it had passed.
He made another circuit past the main ballroom and resisted the urge to scan the crowd for her. He already knew it was a useless endeavor, having already done it on each of his previous passes.
She wasn’t there. She hadn’t been there all day. At least nowhere where he could spot her. It was beginning to feel intentional.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, breaking into his thoughts. He pulled it out, glancing at the screen. Blaze.
Bout time.
He swiped the phone to answer it. “What did you find?” He only hoped it was more than when he went searching for information on Julia.
“Still pulling data,” Blaze said. “She’s locked down tighter than Fort Knox, but I’m making progress. Just wanted to give you an update before you drove yourself crazy.”
Elvis sighed. Not what he had wanted to hear. “Just tell me when you’ve got something real.”
He ended the call and blew out a breath through his nose. More waiting. He hated waiting. The not knowing something he desperately wanted to know always drove him bonkers. And he hated that part of him; the reckless, impulsive bastard who used to jump first and think later, was clawing at the inside of his ribs.
The summit rolled forward like a well-oiled machine. Badge scans. More VIP arrivals. It was controlled chaos, which was the best they could hope for. Levi ran his team like clockwork; Colin handled cyber coordination, Barrett floated between floor posts, and Hawk stayed close to Elvis’s shadow, quiet and watchful, while Taylor remained close to the front doors.
Everything was smooth.
Which somehow made Elvis even more uneasy. There was always a calm before all hell broke loose.
Late afternoon finally brought Blaze’s call.
“Find something?” he asked as he answered the phone. He stepped into a service alcove near the loading corridor, away from the foot traffic.
“Delaney Mae Rhodes is the founder and principal consultant at Obsidian Analytics. Company is based out of a small town in Oregon. She’s a cyber risk specialist, and from everything I read, she’s damn good at her job.”
“Mae? Her middle name is Mae?”
