Page 81 of Unexpected Complication

“I’ll hold you to that.”

I kissed her gently. “You do that.”

She pulled me back, her mouth open, and I succumbed to her easily. I kissed her back deeply, pushing all the passion and love I felt for her into that kiss.

It took everything I had in me to walk away from her.

I arrived back at the club, shocked when I found Sean waiting for me in the restroom.

“What’s going on?”

“Something’s up.”

Every muscle in my body tensed. “What happened?”

He paced the small room, pulling his hands through his hair. “I don’t know. Orson got a call while we were playing cards. He left the room, and when he came back, something was off. He was edgy, almost twitching.”

“That’s how we want him. The edgier he is, the more mistakes he’ll make.”

Sean stopped pacing. “No. This wasn’t the tense, I-don’t-know-what’s-going-on vibe. He was almost…smug. Like he had just figured out a puzzle and couldn’t wait to fit in the last piece.” He exhaled hard. “Not long after, he left the card game. With money on the table. He just got up and left.”

My mind raced. Orson never left when there was money on the table. He played to win—always. “Any ideas? Could one of the teams have moved too fast?”

“No. This was personal. I could feel it.”

“What do we do?”

“Is everything set? She’ll go?”

“Yes.”

“I want to move it ahead. I can change everything to first thing in the morning. I don’t want to wait until later in the day.”

“You really think we need to do that?”

“Everything in me is screaming that something major has changed. I don’t know if Orson suspects something is about to happen or what, but we can move faster than he can. I can block his moves for a short while. We might not get a hundred percent, but we can get most of it. He’ll still see his empire is gone before you take him down.”

I nodded. “Do it.”

“We need to stay close.”

“I know.”

“Your head is clear? You in this?”

“One hundred percent.”

“Okay. Let’s take him down.”

Orson wasn’t at breakfast. Neither was Rex. His office door remained shut, with no response to my knocks. I had heard lots of commotion in the early hours, but when I investigated, I found nothing. The guards told me it was some good-humored scuffling between them. I didn’t buy it for a second. Sean was pale, barely moving from his laptop, his fingers at times a blur as he typed.

We had arrived back at the compound separately, but no one had even batted an eye, which made me suspicious. Orson had always made a big deal about when we came and went. Why the sudden change? It was as if he didn’t care. Was Sean right? Did Orson know his empire was about to crumble? Was he planning on escaping? Was he locked in his office, trying to skim as much as he could before fleeing? I wanted to break down the door and stop him, but Sean only shook his head, silently telling me to stay where I was and remain calm.

The only comfort I had was he told me Frank planned on having Skylar with him by dawn, so I knew by now she’d be safely on her way to Julia. I’d see her in a few weeks—faster, if at all possible. I wanted to check and make sure she was okay, but until this was over and the place was crawling with law enforcement, we were maintaining silence. I did wonder if Skylar would give Frank a hard time. I rather hoped she would.

A heavy knock at the door startled me, and I glanced at Sean, who nodded, closing his laptop and sliding it under the sofa cushion. I yanked open the door, glaring at Rex. “What?”

“Orson wants to see you.”