“Let him.” Vance smirked. “I still have plenty of connections in this town.”
I knew Vance was right about the plan, but I also knew what he’d told everyone on the plane was the frightening truth. He was pushing his luck. We needed to find Kyle. But it wasn’t happening fast enough, and every hour that we were all here was only increasing the risk that Kyle Abernathy would get to one or all of us.
And I wasn’t going to let that happen. “You need to take me to the lobby again.”
“Absolutely not.”
“If he sees me again, it’ll draw him out again. I know it will.” At least, I hoped it would.
Vance looked at me like I was a child. “Calm down and trust the plan. I know what I’m doing.”
Anger coiled around my throat and tingled in my limbs. “Maybe Adam was right. Maybe I should bring a whole AES team in instead of just you.”
Vance’s expression shut completely down, and he crossed his arms. “Yes, that’s a superb idea,” his flat tone mocked. “Bring in half of AES’s staff, have Adam pull the trigger on alerting Homeland Security, the local authorities and get the media involved. Let’s start a nationwide manhunt, and when we bring in Abernathy alive, he can tell everyone who will listen that your boyfriend killed his assistant, beat him into a psychological meltdown, his boss has been paying him off in annual payments for ten years, and the great Sanaa’s entire career was built on the pretense of covering it all up because Leo Amherst had a hard-on for a seventeen-year-old girl.”
Anger, guilt and powerlessness flushed my face red. “Stop it.”
“Stop what, pet? The truth that years of lawsuits won’t keep Ronan out of jail, your career intact, or Amherst from suing you for defamation just because he can? But it’ll all be worth it because Abernathy will be caught red-handed with his bombs, so problem solved. Is that it?”
“I hate you.” I glared at him.
“I know,” he replied impassively. “Are we done now? Can I get back to doing my job?”
I was so angry, at him, at myself, at the world, I couldn’t speak.
“Right then.” Vance snorted and turned toward the door. “I’ll be around if you need me to remind you again how to not fuck your life up further.”
When his hand hit the door handle, I found my voice. “Do you actually care about any of this? About what happens to your brother or me or even yourself?” He was so cold sometimes, I wasn’t sure he had a soul. Not one that loved or felt or did anything besides what was obligated, because for every pet name, every smile and every calculated sweet gesture, there was an equally dismissive, cold, cruel or dead look in his eye.
Glancing over his shoulder, Vance Conlon leveled me with a look that never would’ve crossed his brother’s face. “I stopped worrying about myself a long time ago. As for you and Ronan, I’m here, aren’t I?”
I asked him the question his brother had refused to answer. “Before that night, Ronan told me to never mistake you for him. Why did he say that, Vance?”
“You’d have to ask him.”
“I’m asking you.”
Vance stared at me, almost as if in challenge.
“Was I the first girl of his you kissed?” I knew Ronan’d had girlfriends before me, but he’d never spoken of them.
Vance didn’t even pretend to hesitate. A humorless smile spread across his face, and he raised a mocking eyebrow. “Kiss?” He chuckled. “Come now, love, you can drop the innocent girl-next-door routine. I think you’re mature enough to say fuck. Wouldn’t you agree?”
I sucked in a sharp breath of guilt that was immediately polluted with shame for both of us.
“Right.” Vance winked. “On second thought, keep that up. That act sells millions of records.”
He walked out.
Taking the elevator up one floor, I stepped into the lobby and pulled my cell out. Dialing, I scanned the hotel. People checking in, a couple heading to the bar, stragglers in the lounge, and the woman with the hat was sitting on a bench by the fountain, rubbing her feet.
Harm picked up on the first ring and gave me a sitrep before I could ask for it. “She’s in her suite. We’re all doing our patrols, but it’s still quiet.”
Something was wrong.
I could feel it.
I scanned the front where hotel security was posted, only allowing registered guests in after this morning’s meeting. “Any other activity?”