Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
FRIDAY SHOULD HAVE BEEN boring and routine.
At least that was the goal when he took this job with the Silvers, and Elvis had built most of his adult life around making sure days like this stayed quiet—no alarms, no gunfire, no unexplained, or even explained, bodies, no surprises.
The day should have been simply filled with standing in hallways, staring at cameras, and doing badge checks with crowds that behaved themselves.
Instead, Friday arrived with Delaney Rhodes in his peripheral vision and Julia Moretti living rent-free in his skull. And they were the same damn woman, regardless of the different names, the different lives. Regardless of her denial.
He couldn’t believe she looked him dead in the eyes yesterday and told him he was wrong before turning and walking off as if he were crazy.
He adjusted the earpiece in his right ear as he paced the perimeter of the conference wing, posture relaxed, senses tuned sharp beneath his casual stride.
He passed a cluster of summit attendees arguing about encryption protocols like it was religion, nodded at one of the Silvers posted near the elevators, then slowed near a mirrored wall long enough to check his reflection, taking in his dark blond hair, which luckily was still behaving.
His jacket hung straight, and his badge was visible.
Anyone looking at him would see professional Elvis. Or rather Robert Jenkins.
Inside, however, he was chewing glass that sliced at his gut, tearing holes in his heart on the way down.
He replayed the moment over and over, growing more and more frustrated with each replay.
Again he saw her expression when he’d said it was her and then demanded she not deny it, not play him for a fool.
Not shock, really, nor even recognition.
Oh, no. She played it cool, wearing a mask she must have practiced as if training herself for that particular moment.
And the denials.
“I think you have me confused with someone else.”
“Look, as I said, I’m not sure who you think I am, but I promise you, I’m not that person.”
Bullshit. It was all bullshit, and he knew it.
He’d know her anywhere, the tilt of her mouth when she was trying not to smile.
The way she carried tension in her shoulders.
The faint scar near her left eyebrow from when she’d tripped on the football bleachers her sophomore year.
That wasn’t something time erased, no matter how much of it had passed.
He made another circuit past the main ballroom and resisted the urge to scan the crowd for her. He already knew it was a useless endeavor, having already done it on each of his previous passes.
She wasn’t there. She hadn’t been there all day. At least nowhere where he could spot her. It was beginning to feel intentional.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, breaking into his thoughts. He pulled it out, glancing at the screen. Blaze.
Bout time.
He swiped the phone to answer it. “What did you find?” He only hoped it was more than when he went searching for information on Julia.
“Still pulling data,” Blaze said. “She’s locked down tighter than Fort Knox, but I’m making progress. Just wanted to give you an update before you drove yourself crazy.”
Elvis sighed. Not what he had wanted to hear. “Just tell me when you’ve got something real.”
He ended the call and blew out a breath through his nose.
More waiting. He hated waiting. The not knowing something he desperately wanted to know always drove him bonkers.
And he hated that part of him; the reckless, impulsive bastard who used to jump first and think later, was clawing at the inside of his ribs.
The summit rolled forward like a well-oiled machine.
Badge scans. More VIP arrivals. It was controlled chaos, which was the best they could hope for.
Levi ran his team like clockwork; Colin handled cyber coordination, Barrett floated between floor posts, and Hawk stayed close to Elvis’s shadow, quiet and watchful, while Taylor remained close to the front doors.
Everything was smooth.
Which somehow made Elvis even more uneasy. There was always a calm before all hell broke loose.
Late afternoon finally brought Blaze’s call.
“Find something?” he asked as he answered the phone. He stepped into a service alcove near the loading corridor, away from the foot traffic.
“Delaney Mae Rhodes is the founder and principal consultant at Obsidian Analytics. Company is based out of a small town in Oregon. She’s a cyber risk specialist, and from everything I read, she’s damn good at her job.”
“Mae? Her middle name is Mae?”
“Yeah. Mean anything to you?”
He closed his eyes. Mae. “Her middle name had been Marie.” It was just close enough to hurt. “What else did you find?”
“Well, she keeps her digital footprint minimal,” Blaze continued.
“The picture of her on her company’s site isn’t her.
It’s some stock image from a model's portfolio. A generic corporate placeholder, so to speak. Your girl doesn’t put herself in the public eye from what I can tell.
Every press mention routes to her partner Roman Calloway or project managers, leaving her behind the curtain. ”
That was not the Julia he knew. She loved putting herself out there, taking chances, going on adventures that made people turn their heads. She wasn’t an attention-seeker by any means, but she didn’t run from it either, especially when she had earned it.
“What else?” Elvis asked.
“She went to college on the West Coast, graduated high school in Oregon, although there’s nothing before her junior year.”
Elvis swallowed hard. “That’s when Julia disappeared.” He leaned his shoulder against the wall, pulse ticking louder in his ears. “Anything else?”
“I’m still looking, but I thought you’d want to know what I found so far.”
“Thanks,” Elvis said after a moment. “Keep digging.”
“Already on it.”
Elvis ended the call, shoving the phone back into his pocket. He stood there a little longer than necessary, staring at the scuffed concrete floor while fifteen years collapsed into a tight knot in his chest.
He’d gone to her house that morning ready to pick her up for school, bouncing in his seat, visions of the future dancing in his mind.
However, when he got there, he’d found an empty house with no explanation.
And now she was there, in the casino where he was working.
He pushed away from the wall and went back to work with a sigh. This day couldn’t get over with fast enough. As it was, it passed without incident.
It also passed with no sightings of Delaney.
No accidental run-ins. Nothing. It was obvious she was avoiding him, and he couldn’t really blame her.
He hadn’t exactly given her a chance to ease into whatever she was hiding.
He had merely confronted her and demanded answers. Not his best moment, he knew.
With the day over, the Silvers forced him to join them at the bar, not giving him a chance to escape to his room this time, and Hawk was no help at all.
“You hid in that room all night last night,” Hawk said, giving Elvis’s shoulder a shove toward the bar. “You’re not doing it tonight. So, let’s go.”
Elvis growled, but he allowed himself to be shoved.
If he were honest with himself, he probably needed the distraction.
Last night all he did was sit in his room and mope, going down memory lane and cussing at the woman pretending she didn’t know him.
He didn’t need another night of that if he could help it.
Levi ordered whiskey like he owned the place, buying a round for their small group.
Colin, however, stuck to beer, nursing it slow like he was budgeting brain cells for later.
Barrett immediately found a waitress with a crooked smile and leaned into her personal space with practiced charm, earning himself a polite laugh and absolutely nothing else.
Hawk claimed a corner stool with his back against the wall and clear sightlines to every exit and reflective surface, posture relaxed but eyes constantly moving.
Elvis downed his first drink too fast and ordered another.
Levi noticed, one brow cocked. “Easy, Jenkins. That’s not water. And I need you functional tomorrow.”
Elvis looked at the fresh drink as the server set it in front of him. “Feels more medicinal at the moment. And I’ll be fine tomorrow. Don’t you worry.”
Colin snorted. “That’s not how medicine works.”
Barrett glanced over his shoulder. “Depends on what you’re trying to cure.”
Elvis said nothing as he took another sip of his second drink, but he didn’t down it as fast. Levi was right, and he needed to keep his wits about him just in case there was another confrontation.
A few minutes later, the bar filled with summit attendees shedding badges and pretending they weren’t still talking shop.
Someone queued up karaoke in the back corner, and the bass from the speaker thumped low through the floor.
Hawk glanced at Elvis with one brow cocked, but Elvis simply shook his head. Not tonight.
Ten minutes in, a woman slid onto the stool beside him, a seductive smile on her lips.
She was pretty, with dark hair and even darker eyeliner, possessing curves that knew exactly what they were doing.
She smelled like vanilla and a hint of jasmine and leaned in close enough that her knee brushed his.
“You look like you could use some company,” she said, almost purring.
Old Elvis would’ve smiled at her.
Old Elvis would’ve bought her a drink and asked what she liked to sing.
Old Elvis would’ve made poor decisions with enthusiasm, ready to drink the night away and wake up in her room in the morning, wondering what her name was.
But now?
Now all he saw was Julia’s eyes when she’d told him he had the wrong woman.
He didn’t even turn his head., his gaze focused on the drink between his hands. “I’m good. Thanks.”
She blinked, her brow furrowed. “Seriously?”
He gave a slow bob of his head, still not looking at her. “Yeah. Seriously. I wouldn’t be good company. Trust me.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her studying him like he was a defective product, and then she gave a small shrug and slid off the stool.
Her attention immediately landed on Colin. “Well, you look friendlier than your friend. Tell me that’s the case.”
Colin lifted his beer in salute. “Definitely friendlier. And I dance, too. Poorly, but I do it with enthusiasm. I even offer to kiss your toes better afterward.”
Her mouth curved. “Sold. I love my toes kissed.” She winked at him as she took his hand and tugged him toward the dance floor.
Colin shot Elvis a look over his shoulder. “Your loss, man.”
Barrett hooted as the woman led his brother away. “That’s the most action you’ve gotten all year, Colin!”
Colin flipped him off without breaking stride.
Hawk watched the entire exchange with a bored interest, then glanced back at Elvis. “You all right?”
Elvis tipped his glass back and swallowed hard. “Living the dream.”
Hawk made a soft sound that might’ve been a laugh if he’d ever done that. Elvis couldn’t tell. Gideon ‘Hawk’ Raines was the stoic of the group, more so than Anders or even Callen.
Levi leaned back in his chair, eyes narrowing slightly. “You just turned down what looked like a fun ending to the night in a casino bar. From what my sister tells me, that’s not really your style. You sure you’re all right?”
Elvis shrugged. “Guess I’m growing.”
Barrett snorted. “Sage will be shocked.”
“That woman had the same intentions you usually have,” Hawk deadpanned. “Growing, my ass.”
Elvis smirked despite himself. “I’m sure she did. I’m just not in the mood for it tonight.”
Levi studied him for a moment through narrowed eyes. “This about her?”
Elvis didn’t answer, which was answer enough.
Barrett followed Levi’s gaze. “Damn. He’s got it bad.”
Hawk took a slow sip of his drink. “Please. He gets it bad once a night.”
Elvis rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the weight pressing between his ribs. “Y’all done diagnosing me?”
Taylor grinned. “Just making sure you’re still your playful, adorable self.”
Elvis glanced toward the dance floor, where Colin was absolutely murdering rhythm while the woman laughed and tried to teach him something resembling timing. Colin was laughing as well and doing everything ass backward.
“Yeah,” Elvis whispered. “I’m still me.”
But this ‘me’ wasn’t Elvis, playful, flirtatious, badass in all ways. This ‘me’ was Robert ‘Bobby’ Jenkins, the one who had lost everything that had ever meant something to him.
“I’m turning in,” he said as he downed the rest of his vodka, and in a contradiction of who he had been for the past fifteen years, he went to bed alone.
Sleep came in fragments as dreams of high school hallways and prom nights filled his slumber. Julia’s head on his shoulder during old Elvis Presley movies while his mom dozed in the recliner nearby, sick but smiling as she told them to turn the volume up because she loved that one.
“Elvis, wake up,” Hawk said, tossing a pillow at him. “We need to go.”
“Go where? What time is it?”
Squinting at the window, all he saw was darkness outside. “It’s not even daylight yet. I’m not doing this again. Go back to sleep.”
“We’ve got a problem,” Hawk said. “Now get out of bed.”
“What problem?” He rolled back over, pulling the covers back up to his shoulders. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. I’m sure Levi can handle it.”
“Nope. You need to drag your ass out of bed. We got to join Levi and the others.”
Elvis growled, still not opening his eyes. “Why?”
“Blaze called. Someone’s been digging into your girl.”
Elvis shot into a sitting position. “What? Who?”