He paused abruptly as he noticed her expression and then glanced to the men when they entered behind her. "What's up?"
"Nicholas called. We have to move," Decker announced, catching up to Dani and taking her arm to usher her to the door to the garage.
Justin nodded, all thoughts of food apparently driven from his mind as he fell into step behind them.
Dani thought Lucian would drive since it was his van, but he tossed the keys to Decker and then paused to open the passenger side door, gesturing for her to get in. "You can ride up front with Decker."
She didn't hesitate. By the time she'd fastened her seat belt, Decker and the others had climbed in. She watched Decker push the button on the remote to open the garage door and start the engine, and then turned in her seat to glance curiously into the back of the van. Her eyes moved over several custom-built cupboards and chests lining the side walls in the back. The men had no seats, but it didn't seem to bother them; they were busily flipping up chest lids and pulling open cupboard doors. At least Lucian and Justin were; Mortimer had stopped to pull out his cell phone and was making a phone call. Probably sending the other enforcers and volunteers to the hotel, Dani thought, her eyes sliding to the other two men as they began retrieving weapons. Lucian's van was a rolling arsenal, she saw with amazement... and wardrobe, she added as Lucian drew a long leather coat out of a cupboard and began to shrug it on.
"Isn't it kind of hot for that?" Justin asked, loading bullets into a gun. Dani had no idea what the gun was, but it certainly looked impressive.
"Yes," Lucian acknowledged. "But it will be less conspicuous. This coat hides a lot of sins."
Dani understood what he meant when she saw him shift to a chest to pull out a small one-handed crossbow that he then tucked into the inner left side of his coat. A quiver of arrows followed and was installed in the inner right-hand side. While Justin was going for guns, it seemed Lucian, like Nicholas, preferred the old-fashioned weapons.
Her gaze slid to the guns the other two men were tucking into their jeans out of sight. The crossbow wasn't really necessary this time. While Leonius had been resistant to the tranquilizer on the bullets, his sons hadn't been. The guns would do.
"What do you want in the way of weapons, Decker?" Mortimer asked, putting his phone away and glancing in their direction.
"My usual," he growled.
"Use silencers," Lucian ordered, and then the phone rang and an expectant silence filled the van.
Dani glanced down, automatically answering her phone and switching to speakerphone before saying, "Hello? Nicholas?"
"Yes." There was a pause, and then he apologized. "I'm sorry he got away with your sister at the airport, Dani. It's my fault. An enforcer SUV was one car behind me when we got off the ramp. Unfortunately, I thought they could handle it. I parked to watch what unfolded to be sure." His voice was angry as he added, "It was stupid of them to leave the girl behind. As enforcers they should have known better."
"The men who reached the airport first were volunteers, not enforcers," Lucian said, and then asked, "Did you take her?"
"Well, hello to you too, Uncle," he said dryly. "No I didn't take her. What were you thinking, Lucian? That I killed the security guard?"
"Did you?" Decker asked grimly.
"No." The word was short, and then he continued on topic, "Apparently the sixth rogue didn't go into the airport."
Dani immediately said, "Stephanie told the men that he jumped out as she turned into the parking garage."
Nicholas grunted. "That makes sense. They were out of my sight then too. He apparently picked a vehicle with an older woman in it. He must have taken control of her and then watched when your men arrived." Nicholas continued, "As soon as the enforcers left, Stephanie and the security guard walked to a car. I saw the girl get in the passenger side. The guard walked around to the driver's side and then he bent out of sight. A moment later the car backed out... There were three people inside, and I thought it was the girl, the guard, and Six, and knew he'd pulled a fast one. I started my engine to follow and saw the guard lying on the ground as I drove by.
"I followed them to the hotel in the city. He was three cars ahead of me when he turned in. He didn't bother to park, just left the car at the entrance. By the time I pulled in he was out and was ushering Stephanie and an older woman inside. When I hurried into the lobby he and the women were already on a packed elevator and the doors were closing." The frustration in his voice was palpable. "The damned thing stopped on eight floors. I couldn't search any of them without risking their being on one floor and slipping away while I searched another, so I've sat in the damned lobby watching that elevator ever since."
"Without blood?" Lucian asked.
"Oh, heck no, Uncle, I've been biting every mortal who's walked past," Nicholas said sarcastically. "That's what we rogues do for fun."
"You should have called me, I would have brought blood over for you," Decker said silkily.
"I just bet you would have, cousin." There was a dry chuckle, and then Nicholas said, "I was about to give up on watching this morning and try searching the floors the elevator had stopped at when the sixth rogue walked right past me and got on the elevator."
"He got past you to get out and then returned?" Lucian asked.
"Yeah. Though I don't know how. I didn't take my eyes off the damned elevator," Nicholas muttered with obvious irritation. "He had to have slipped out using the stairs."
All four men grunted at this suggestion.
"Fortunately there weren't many hotel guests around at that hour and there was only one person on the elevator with him and they went to the same floor; fourteen. I took the same elevator up when it came down. There was a maid setting up for the day in the hall. She'd seen him come up, and I managed to read her mind to get what room they're in."
"1413," Dani said, the number burned on her brain.