She smiled brighter. “The restroom. There are so many people down there.”
Slowly, still watching her with those sullen, angry eyes, he stepped aside.
She moved past him, and although she tried to avoid contact, her arm brushed his as he shifted.
Flash, flash, flash.
Excitement . . . new girl coming . . . can’t touch . . . fuck, what fun is that . . .
Stupid bitch—
An image of her, with him kneeling over her, his hands around her neck.
Followed by another image. Him, on the ground. Legs broken. Hands and arms broken. And that alligator.
She stumbled a bit, caught herself on one of the lovely antique tables in the hallway, a few feet away from her suite of rooms. Just before he would have touched her . . . deepened that connection. He couldn’t touch her. Not ever. She thought it would drive her insane.
No. No, I won’t let that happen.
She wouldn’t get sick, damn it.
She’d find out who in the hell this new girl was.
Carefully, without looking back, she eased away from the table and carefully walked to her room. Opened the door and slipped inside. Without looking back at Morris, she shut the door.
That wanker.
Both of them. All of them.
As the flash pieced together, bit by bit, Dru set her shoulders.
She was done playing around.
Nobody else.
Nobody. Else.
NINETEEN
"HMM. I guess I should have mentioned it was black-tie.”
Joss gave Patrick a narrow look and then glanced down at the khakis and polo he’d unearthed. He’d thrown a sport coat over it and wasn’t overly surprised when he was checked for weapons at the door. He’d surrendered them, because they hadn’t found most of his weapons. Whitmore’s men weren’t as good as they’d like to be.
Plus, Joss also had a very powerful weapon crammed inside his brain—his hijacked psychic skills.
“Well, I left the tux back in storage,” he drawled, shrugging. “Don’t worry. I can’t stay. Work to do and all of that.”
“But you did so well on this one. You can take the evening off.” Patrick guided him over to the side, an inquisitive look on his face. “Perhaps you have images . . .”
Rage bristled Joss. “I can e-mail some if you want. I took a few.”
“No.”
You prick. Can’t take the bait that easy, huh?
Shrugging, Joss tugged out his phone and pulled up the photo album. “I figured you’d want to see, so I snapped a few on my phone, but I’ll be deleting them soon.”
He displayed one of the pictures he’d taken of Vaughnne in the mall. “I met her at the food court. She’s here on vacation. Was supposed to come with a friend, and the friend had to cancel. Nobody will be looking for her for the next ten days.” He smiled and let some of the dark, ugly anger he felt seep into that smile, knowing the menace would show. “And better yet, she’s in between jobs . . . needs to go for a training thing in a few weeks, but you know how that goes. If she doesn’t show . . .”
“Perfect . . .” Patrick murmured. He swiped a finger across the phone, studying the next picture. “She looks like the girl next door. Family ties?”
“Estranged mother. They maybe talk at Christmas, if she can’t get out of it. No boyfriend. Some friends she sees back home, but it doesn’t sound like there’s anybody who’d raise an alarm for a while when she doesn’t come back.”
Patrick nodded. “Was there a car?”
“Yep.” Joss slid him a sidelong smile. “We took her car. It’s en route to the Everglades. I traded a favor.”
“A favor.” Patrick studied him.
Joss lifted a hand. “Hey, I know my business, trust me. This sort of thing will go smoother if they are looking for her elsewhere. Her car will be there, along with maps and shit. Like she was going on a day hike.”
“And nobody can place you with her?” Patrick continued to watch him, those flat blue eyes icy, dead as a shark’s.
Joss sighed, shaking his head. “Look, do you think I started doing this line of work yesterday?” He deleted the pictures of Vaughnne, tried not to think about how she was doing. The woman had promised she’d reach out to him if she was in imminent danger. He could keep a tenuous link established with her, although keeping up with everything was straining his brain to the breaking point already and he’d just gotten started.
Keeping his face blank, he met Patrick’s stare dead on.