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Nash reads the message with me, then looks toward the service entrance Taylor used. “So Alina came through the front door and made sure everyone saw her while Adrian came in dressed as an employee.”

“That appears to be what they did.”

“Which means they never planned on him being seen with her.”

That makes more sense than Adrian coming all the way to Philadelphia only to stay somewhere else while Alina attends the gala alone. Whatever his part is tonight, he needed to get inside without anyone connecting them.

I keep Nash beside me while we move through the auction displays rather than standing in one place. Alina is still near the stage, and when I look in her direction again, she’s talking to two members of the charity board as though nothing about her evening has changed. If she knows Adrian made it inside, there’s no visible acknowledgment between them.

Taylor returns several minutes later and joins us near one of the displays. He keeps his voice low enough that no one passing nearby can hear him. “Hotel security confirmed Dare. He entered through staff access wearing catering clothes, went through an area without camera coverage, and came out in a dark suit. We lost him near the west corridor about twelve minutes ago. My people are checking that side of the hotel now.”

Nash looks toward the west side of the ballroom but doesn’t turn enough to make it obvious. “Changing clothes means he needed to go somewhere the uniform would make him stand out.”

“That’s what I’m assuming,” Taylor says. “There are too many people moving between this floor and the auction areas for us to lock anything down without him realizing we found him.”

“Then don’t,” I tell him. “Keep looking and let Alina believe everything is going the way she expected.”

Taylor gives me a small nod before moving away, blending back into the crowd within seconds.

Nash shifts closer as we continue toward the next display. “If Adrian thinks no one saw him come in, that helps us.”

“It does, as long as we don’t give him a reason to think otherwise.”

For the next several minutes, I divide my attention between the people around us and Alina. After Taylor walks away, she starts checking the west side of the ballroom. The first time, I could dismiss it as nothing more than looking around the room. The second time comes less than a minute later, and this time her attention stays there long enough for Nash to notice too.

“She’s looking toward the corridor where they lost him.” Nash doesn’t turn toward her again. “Do you think she knows he’s there?”

“Probably. She’s trying too hard to be subtle.”

That’s enough for me. I don’t need to know exactly what Adrian intends to do before letting him try. Taylor knows he’s inside, his people are looking for him, and Alina still believes we’re standing exactly where she expected us to be.

I slide my hand across Nash’s lower back and bring him a little closer as another group moves past us toward the stage. He glances up at me but doesn’t comment on it this time, his attention staying on the room around us while the auctioneer begins introducing the next item.

The lights go out before he finishes.

The sudden darkness sends a wave of voices through the ballroom as chairs scrape against the floor and people start moving. Emergency lighting comes on along the base of the walls almost immediately, but it barely reaches above the tables, leaving hundreds of people trying to see while others push toward the exits.

My hand moves across the space beside me, expecting to find Nash where he was standing seconds ago, but there’s nothing there. I turn and catch sight of Kieran pulling Alessia close while Declan reaches for Xavier and Conor moves toward Jaxon, but the crowd surging between us blocks everything beyond them.

“Nash!”

I push through the people moving in the opposite direction, trying to see past shoulders and bodies in the dim light. Then Nash shouts my name from somewhere ahead of me.

“Duncan!”

Chapter 40 Nash

Someone slams into me from behind just as the ballroom goes dark, knocking me sideways and breaking Duncan’s hold on me. My hip catches the edge of a table hard enough to send glasses crashing to the floor, and by the time I get my balance, people are already pushing past me in every direction. I turn toward Duncan, but someone grabs my arm and twists it behind my back before I can get to him.

At first, I assume it’s one of Taylor’s men trying to move me out of the crowd. Then the emergency lights come on along the floor, giving me enough light to see the man holding me.

Adrian Dare.

His hair is shorter than it was in the pictures Zee found, and he’s wearing the dark suit Taylor said he changed into after entering the hotel, but I recognize him immediately. He forces me toward the west side of the ballroom with my arm pinned behind me, using the crowd and the darkness to keep Duncan from seeing what he’s doing. The door ahead of us leads into the same corridor Alina kept watching before the lights went out, and there’s no fucking way I’m letting him get me through it.

I dig my heels into the floor as his forearm comes across my throat. “Duncan!”

“Move and this will be easier.”