Eryn fought back. “What are you doing? The security guys are coming from that direction.” She knew that from the map that had hung on the wall and showed all the hotel’s hallways. “I know.”
“You want them to see us?”
“If we look like we’re heading away from the security team when they arrive, they’ll assume—” He stopped speaking as the mustached man appeared in the hallway ahead of him. Three security guards flanked him.
Without a word, Callan reached around Eryn and pulled him close to her as if they were a couple. Eryn only thought about resisting, then realized what he was doing. She leaned into him, feeling that rock-hard body moving against her. The contact drove her senses wild and she felt her heart involuntarily speed up. Her breath caught at the back of her throat. She didn’t know if that was a result of her proximity to Callan or because of the situation.
The security team stared at them for a long moment as they neared, then focused on the security room. Eryn took a deep breath as the men passed, and the clean scent of Callan went straight to her head. He didn’t use a lot of product and the smell was all virile male. She had to make herself pull away from him as they turned the corner.
“What now?” She folded her arms to make sure she didn’t reach out to touch him again. “We’re leaving.”
“My car is in the parking garage.”
“Leave it. Security and the police will be all over the garage.”
Mentally chiding herself for not realizing that, Eryn kept moving. “You expect to just walk out of here?”
“I’m not stopping.”
From his unflinching tone, Eryn knew he meant it, but there was also a lot of risk. “The guy back there recognized you.”
“He was looking at footage while I was standing right next to him.”
At the entrance to the main lobby, Eryn spotted a large television spewing live news coverage. Behind the African-American anchor, footage of the bachelor party rolled. It was followed almost immediately by video that had obviously been shot by someone with a camera phone. The new video showed Callan dragging Eryn in her skimpy costume out into the lobby.
Putting a hand on Callan’s broad shoulder, Eryn stopped him and nodded at the television. “Everybody’s going to be looking watching that footage for the next few minutes.”
Callan growled with displeasure. “How did they get that?”
“Everybody’s got a camera phone.”
“I don’t.”
“Yeah, you do. I saw your phone.” Eryn gazed at him with wonder. “Don’t you even know the phone you’re carrying?”
“I just got it a few days ago when I got back stateside. My sister wanted a way to get hold of me.”
“How did she get hold of you before?”
“She didn’t.” Callan didn’t elaborate and Eryn knew she wasn’t going to get any further details.
Spotting a gift shop, Eryn started over for it. “C’mon.”
Callan looked like he was going to argue, but she’d already walked away. And she had the thumb drive. He trailed after her, but the hard set of his face—she watched him in the reflection of the gift’s shop’s windows—let her know he wasn’t happy.
Inside the shop, Eryn walked to one of the walls filled with items designed for tourists—shot glasses, key chains, decks of cards and other items. She selected a baseball cap with I [heart] Las Vegas across the front, then a pair of knockoff sunglasses with amber lenses.
Callan grimaced.
“Buy them. They’ll break up the planes of your face. The hat provides an identifier most people will see and never look at you. Think of it as urban camouflage. I’ll be okay, most people will only remember my outfit.”
Without comment, he took the items to the counter. A young saleswoman with a hard body and daring cleavage turned on a high-wattage smile when Callan stopped in front of her.
“Can I help you with anything? Give you a tour?”
“Thanks, but I’m not going to be in town very long.”
The salesclerk flashed him a mock sad smile that didn’t look completely false. Eryn wanted to go over and point out that Callan hadn’t entered the gift shop alone. She refrained, but she crossed her arms and stared at the younger woman with disapproval.
Without missing a beat, the salesclerk took a card from the counter, flipped it over and scratched a pen across the back hurriedly. When she was finished, she presented the card to Callan. “That’s my personal number. In case your plans change. Or if you get a chance for a day trip.”
“Sure.” Callan took the card, flashed the young woman a smile that the clerk instantly bought into and walked toward the door.
Eryn fell into stride with him. She was concerned about their chances of walking through the lobby unnoticed. Callan wasn’t a guy who escaped attention, but she couldn’t get her mind off what had just happened. The clerk’s nerve of coming on to him even after she’d seen Eryn practically lead him into the shop was annoying. She ground her teeth, trying to figure out why she was taking the disrespect she’d just been shown more personally than she’d taken being shot at and almost abducted. Tonight was the strangest mix of feelings she’d ever experienced.
“What?” Callan spoke without looking at her.
“What?”
“You’re upset.”
“I’m not upset.”
Callan shrugged. His head swiveled smoothly as he watched the pedestrian traffic through the lobby.
Eryn took in a breath and let it out. They were almost to the door, but she couldn’t let it go. He was supposed to do something, but she didn’t know what it was he was supposed to do. She spoke before she knew she was going to. “I’m not upset.”
Brows furrowed, Callan gazed at her.
“About anything.”
“Okay.”
Eryn tried to keep her mouth shut, but she couldn’t. “I just wanted you to know.”
“Sure.”
Two police officers and two plainclothes detectives cycled through the lobby. Handy-talkers crackled with radio static.
“Keep focused on the door.” Callan’s voice was a soft whisper in her ear. “Don’t look at them. Just think about walking out. We’re just two people going to try our luck at other tables.”
Eryn swallowed and hated the guilty way she felt. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but she felt criminal. That was an unaccustomed feeling for her. She was a straight-arrow person. Good in school, a good friend, a good employee.
Except she’d just assaulted a hotel security guard after gaining access to their headquarters through subterfuge. Every step she took toward the door, she kept expecting one of the police officers to confront her or one of the hotel security staff to arrest her.
Almost miraculously, Callan led her over the threshold and out of the hotel. Immediately, the clamor and artificially chilled air trapped inside the hotel faded away, replaced by the noise of the street and the fetid air of the desert at night. Carbon monoxide burned her nostrils and the back of her throat.
“When we get a cab, we need to go somewhere to regroup.” Callan spoke calmly, as though they were out for an evening stroll.
“If you go somewhere public, you’re taking a chance on being recognized.”
Callan shook his head. The aviator lenses glinted darkly, masking his eyes. “We go somewhere big enough that we get lost in the crowd.”
“Where do you plan on watching the video we download?”
Callan’s jaw worked. “I don’t know this city.”
“We can go to my apartment.” Eryn regretted the suggestion as soon as she had put it out there. She hoped that Callan would turn her down.
“Okay.” He didn’t sound happy about it and she didn’t know if she should take offense. “Don’t give the cab driver your address. Pick someplace public, a café, a convenience store, something like that. Some place nearby. I don’t want to leave a trail straight back to you.”
“There’s already a trail leading to me. My addr
ess is on file with the company I work with.”
“The people you work with might stall. The front office that has your paperwork should be closed.”
“It is.” Eryn hadn’t even thought about that.
“Then we can be off the grid for a few hours. Your driver’s license has your current address. The police can pull that, but it might take them a little while to get around to it. They’ll have their hands full with everything going on here. And Daniel’s family is going to throw a lot of weight into the middle of this.”
“My driver’s license doesn’t have my current address. Renee and I moved into a new apartment a few months ago. I haven’t gotten the address changed.” Eryn hadn’t relished waiting in line to get the change done. “I’ve got to renew my license in another month. I was going to take care of it then.”
“Even better. Gives us more time. Will your roommate be home?”
“No. Her son is sick and so is she. She went to her mother’s for the evening. That’s how I ended up in the cake. I was covering for her.”
“Gives us more time. Fewer people involved.”
Glancing at Callan, Eryn felt miffed at his casual acceptance that they would be at her apartment alone. She didn’t know whether to be worried about being there with him or look forward to it. Then she told herself she was being foolish for even thinking about that.
Thankfully there wasn’t a line waiting on the cabs. Police vehicles filled the immediate vicinity, though, and they had to walk to one of the outer booths where a hotel attendant stood waiting.
“Cab, sir?” The attendant was a Hispanic guy in his early twenties.
“Please.” Callan gave the guy a couple of folded bills.
The attendant stepped out and waved a white-gloved hand to a waiting cab. The cab pulled up smoothly and the attendant opened the door.
Eryn slid into the cab and Callan dropped in beside her. She asked the driver to take them to a bodega only a couple blocks from her apartment. The car got underway immediately, sliding into the heavy traffic along the Strip.
Twisting in the seat, Eryn glanced back at the hotel, not believing everything that had taken place in the past hour. Neon lights painted the Strip and Vegas seemed more otherworldly than ever.
When she turned back around, she noticed Callan staring at the streets, at the flickering signs and at the cars that filled the street. Beside them, a limousine sped by. Three men in their twenties stood in the opening of the sunroof. Bare chested, they held champagne bottles in their fists and howled at the sky.
Eryn thought she recognized one of the guys from a movie she’d seen recently, but she wasn’t certain. Maybe they were just scions of wealthy families. Or maybe they were simply three buddies who had pooled their money together for a few days of vacation to go crazy.
Callan snorted and shook his head.
Eryn cleared her throat. “I take it you disapprove.”
He looked at her. “Yeah, I do. I don’t see how anyone would want to live in a city like this.”
“You get out past the few streets that make up the Strip, you run right into desert. There aren’t many places to go outside the city where people can make enough money to live. Maybe you didn’t notice that on your way in from the airport.”
“I slept.”
“Not much of a sightseer?”
Callan was quiet for a moment. “I am when there’s something worth looking at.”
“What would that be?”
He hesitated. “Forest or jungle or plains. Somewhere green where the world is quiet and you don’t see people for miles. There’s a place I know where a waterfall plunges from the mountains into the river below. There aren’t any roads into that place. You have to hike three days to get there. It’s one of the more peaceful areas I know.”
“Where is it?”
“The Cape Floral Kingdom.”
“Where’s that?”
“The Western Cape of South Africa. In the Fynbos eco-region. The climate there is Mediterranean, not tropical.” He paused and a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “It’s beautiful there.”
“What were you doing in Africa?”
Neon colors stained Callan’s hard face as the cab wove through the traffic. The soft, colored lights blurred some of the firm lines of his features. “Same as now. Looking for people.”
“Saving them?”
“Some of them.” The answer was flat and cold. “Others were like the men that took Daniel. Most of those I left where I found them.”
The emotionless answer sent a shiver through Eryn, and she wondered who she had climbed into a cab with.
Callan’s phone buzzed. He reached into his pocket, took out the device, checked the view screen briefly and put it away.
“You need to talk to her. She’s going to be worried.”
Callan shook his head. “Daniel’s missing. In enemy hands. Talking to me isn’t going to help Jenny. She’s not going to be happy till Daniel’s safe.” He put the phone away.
Less than thirty minutes later, the cab wheeled into the convenience store. Callan paid the driver, added a tip and got out. The wind pushed against him and he hated the bright white light that streamed from the small supermarket.
“My apartment is that way.” Eryn pointed up the street that ran alongside the bodega.
“Okay, but first we’re going to get some things.” Callan hated putting off the chase, but he knew they had to make a few purchases. In order to take up the pursuit, they had to be ready.
Instantly suspicious, Eryn studied him. “What things?”
Callan touched her jawline just under a scrape there. “You need to get these scratches and abrasions taken care of before they get infected.” He looked at her and couldn’t help noticing how kissable her full lips were, then he cursed himself because he had no business noticing something like that. He couldn’t shake it, though. The woman was definitely pinging his radar.
“And I need some hair dye. Unless you have some at home.”
She looked angry enough to bite his finger off, and only then did he realize that he was still touching her face. “This color is natural.”
“Maybe your roommate colors her hair.”
“She does sometimes, but I don’t think you’d look good in orange, electric-blue or lime-green.”
Callan shook his head.
She smiled at him, taunting. “You could pull it off in this town.”
Without a word, Callan turned from her and headed into the bodega.
“Do you always growl like that?” She fell into step with him.
“I didn’t growl.” At least, Callan was pretty sure that he hadn’t growled. He wasn’t in the habit of growling, but the woman got under his skin in ways he’d never before experienced.
“See? There you go again.”
Inside the bodega, Callan moved swiftly. He knew time was working against them. The kidnappers were going to move fast, and he was sure that if Daniel was still alive—he’s alive!—he wouldn’t last more than a few minutes after the ransom was paid.
He moved through the aisles with Eryn at his side. She was a distraction. He couldn’t help but notice the way her pants hugged her ass when she walked ahead of him, or when he turned around to check on her. In some insane way, she seemed even more attractive now than she had in the devil costume, when the red handful of material had strained to cover what little it had covered.
While he shopped, his phone buzzed twice more. Both times it was Jenny. He knew she was worried, about Daniel and about him, and he felt guilty for not calling her. But he wasn’t ready to deal with that yet. When he did call her, he was going to need information, and he felt bad about that, but he needed to be able to distance himself from her pain and fear.
“I have food at the apartment.”
Callan ignored Eryn’s protests and put steaks into the plastic basket he’d gotten at the front of the bodega. “I don’t know what you have.”
“I could tell you.
”
“I don’t have time to play guessing games with your inventory.” Callan headed for the vegetables and picked out some potatoes. “Besides, you have a roommate. What you had this morning might not be there tonight.”
“I’m not cooking for you.”
“I know how to cook.”
“I thought you were in a hurry. Why do you suddenly have time to cook?”
“I was in a hurry to get of the hotel. Gearing up is going to take some time.”
“Gearing up?”
Callan ignored her question. He flicked a glance at the older woman standing at the counter with her arms folded. She looked tired and worn, but her focus was on the television against a nearby wall on a shelf. The program was about some kind of ghost hunters. Personally, Callan didn’t believe in ghosts, and even if they had existed, they wouldn’t have been as frightening as some of the men he’d faced over the years.
“What are you talking about?”
“I need equipment.”
That caused her to look down for a moment. Callan kept walking through the aisles, picking up items from his mental shopping list. The meal was going to be simple but filling. Once he got underway, he didn’t think—hoped—there would be anything to break his stride.
“That’s not a good idea.”
“Really? You think those guys busted in on the bachelor party, sprayed bullets and they’re just going to ignore the fact that they have those weapons?” Callan shook his head. “These guys are already facing serious penalties for kidnapping and for felony homicide. They’re not going to give themselves up, and anyone going up against them had better be able to defend himself.”
“Do you know how many laws you’re planning on breaking?”
“No more than necessary, but I’ll break every law I have to in order to get Daniel back.” Callan put two boxes of granola bars into his basket. “I’ve got a friend who can hook me up with what I need. But it’s going to take some time. In the meantime, we see what we can learn from the video footage you got.”
“The police and FBI might have Daniel back by then.”
Callan shrugged. “If they do, it won’t hurt my feelings. But I really don’t think that’s going to happen.” He searched through the small hand-tools section. When he found what he was looking for, he plucked it from the shelf.
Best Man for the Job Page 7
