Chapter 18 #2
She did pull the giant lever. While on the max bet.
Because he didn’t think she understood how to change the amount she was betting.
She pulled the lever, let out a gasp of actual delight even though they were on a mission that should have terrified her, and, for that brief moment, as she scooted back and her body brushed against his, as she grabbed his hand and they watched the screen spin on that massive machine, Nash felt normal.
Like, it was all real. They were honeymooning, and Delaney was happy.
She was holding his hand, and she was his again.
A loud alarm blared, cutting through the entire casino. The lights weren’t a pale white at the top of the big machine any longer. They were rolling in a bright red, continuous wave.
And…
Holy hell.
All eyes were on them because the machine was going wild. Wild because Delaney had just won.
“What is happening?” Delaney bounced. “Did we win? We did, didn’t we? How much did we win?”
His jaw was on the floor.
She hugged him. “We won!” Delaney waved to the people who were rushing to gather around them. A whole lot of people. “We won!” Delaney hugged Nash again. Her body pressed tightly to him.
Over her shoulder, he surveyed the crowd. She’d won. As impossible as it should have been, Delaney had just won big, and she’d certainly succeeded in attracting everyone’s attention.
His arms curled around her as he lifted her up against him. More of her delighted laughter spilled from her. It was beautiful and warm, and it filled the cold, empty places that had been inside of him for far too long.
“Sir.” An insistent tapping on his shoulder. “Sir, you will need to come with me.”
Keeping his hold on Delaney, Nash looked over his shoulder.
Two men stood behind him. Both dressed in black suits. Both with earpieces.
“Casino security, sir,” the man to the right said. A blond. “Gonna need you both to come with us.”
The people around them were offering congratulations. But these two men…
“Now,” the blond added, in a tone that brooked no argument.
As battle-ready tension hummed through him, Nash realized that Delaney had caught more than just the crowd’s attention. She might have put them dead center for their target’s attention, too.
He lowered Delaney to the floor. Nash wrapped an arm around Delaney, kept her close at his side, and ordered, “Lead the way,” to the blond. As they exited the casino and headed upstairs, toward the private office area, Nash got ready for the fight that he knew was coming.
“Nash?” A faint hitch in his name as they ascended a spiral staircase.
He winked at her.
She shivered.
“How the hell did she just do that?” Jezebel demanded as she watched the security footage.
It had been an easy enough matter for her team to hack into the security feeds at the casino.
Child’s play for the techs who worked under her supervision.
So, thanks to that hacking and the video feeds that she could watch on the screens before her, she’d had a perfect view of Delaney and her big win.
“I think she was lucky,” the hacker to her right said.
Thin, balding, with gold hoops in his ears.
A guy who did not see field work but spent the majority of his time with his fingers poised over a keyboard and ready to steal every secret that the tech world possessed.
Dominic “Dom” Blay might not look intimidating, but that was part of his appeal. The man was a CIS master.
“I don’t believe in luck.” She also didn’t believe in giant slot machines. But…
Her players were on the move. Heading up to the big offices upstairs. And they were being escorted by two security men. Men currently being run through facial recognition software courtesy of Dom.
Her phone rang. She kept her eyes on the screen—screens—in front of her even as she put the phone to her ear. “This had better be good.”
“I’m out of the hospital,” Ryan Quinn informed her. “Real dick move trying to bench me. Not cool.”
Jezebel grunted. “You were shot. That means you’re staying benched.”
“I am never benched.” He seemed insulted. Probably because he was. Typical Ryan. “I am still in the field, very usefully so, might I add. Because I’m the one calling you about a scene I just left.”
What? “I thought you’d just left the hospital.”
“Um.”
Um was very noncommittal. That was why it was one of her favorite responses. Ryan had picked up her habit of using that lovely noncommittal sound. “Ryan…”
“So, thought you’d like to know that a dead body was just found in a limo about two miles away from the Love Heart Chapel.”
Her back went ramrod straight. “You have my attention.”
“Thought I might. The poor driver had a knife lodged in his throat. Cops haven’t traced down the owner of the vehicle yet because they’re a wee bit overwhelmed here in Sin City, but I’ve got the tag info and you’ve got the insane access that you have, so let’s see what magic you can uncover, shall we? ” He rattled off the tag number.
With Dom’s help, she got the match in moments. “That limo traces back to Kurt Wellington. Wellington Enterprises.” Seriously sloppy work. Which meant…A wide smile curved her lips. “He’s losing control.”
“Uh, Jez, he just killed a man. Because from what I saw—don’t ask me how, you don’t want to know, let’s just say I charmed and got up-close access—the blood spatter was all over the steering wheel and the dash.
The attack came from behind, as in, the person in the back of the limo decided to kill his driver.
Don’t know how long the vic was dead before someone actually approached the vehicle and discovered him.
Windows were tinted so it could have been moments or it could have been hours. ”
Which meant that Kurt Wellington could currently be anywhere in Vegas. “Give me the location. I want to try and access street cams.”
He gave her the location. She had him on speaker by then, so Dom instantly went to work accessing the info. She held her breath.
“It’s going to take a while to work through the footage,” Dom warned her. “Especially if we are talking hours and not minutes since the killing.”
Fine, yes, she understood that. But excitement fired her blood.
If they had just gotten Kurt Wellington at the scene of a murder, if they had footage that could tie him to the kill, it was like a prosecutor’s dream come true.
“He’s making mistakes.” Jezebel nodded. “This is exactly what I hoped would happen.” He’d just needed to be manipulated and pushed to the absolute edge.
In her experience, men were best manipulated when they were fighting jealousy and rage.
And hurt pride. Delaney hurt you, didn’t she?
You thought you were in control, but she ripped that control away from you. “He’s working on instinct. Emotions.”
“So his instinct is to kill and his emotion is rage.” Ryan’s voice was tight. “Uh, huh. Not what I want to hear when my brother is the one standing beside Wellington’s runaway bride.” Ryan was worried.
She was, too, but… “We have eyes on him.”
“Someone is a double agent.” Flat.
She did not deny the charge.
Dom’s fingers paused over the keyboard.
She cut a glance his way. “There a problem?”
“No, ma’am.” His fingers went back to flying.
She and Dom were the only ones in that Vegas hotel room. A hotel room one floor beneath the honeymoon suite that had been given to Nash and Delaney. Instead of bringing in normal luggage, she and Dom had made sure they were equipped with the best tech imaginable.
“You know someone is feeding intel to Wellington.” Ryan’s tone had turned considering. “Otherwise, the chapel would have been secure, and I wouldn’t be sporting a new bullet wound.”
“I have the situation under control,” she assured him. Ryan wasn’t normally the type to need reassurance. This was not a normal case. “Stand down,” she ordered him. “You are injured and are no longer part of this mission.”
“Nash is my family. I’m always part of a mission that concerns him.”
Nope. Not the way things worked. “Stand down,” she repeated. “I have the situation under control.”
Silence. Then, “If anything happens to my brother, I will fucking burn down the entire CIA to find the traitor.”
Sweat trickled down her back. With Ryan, there were never idle threats.
People at the Agency often thought Nash was the greater danger.
He was a bit bigger. More intense. While Ryan was the charmer.
The chameleon who could fit in easily with anyone, anywhere.
Nash never tried to blend. Didn’t socialize.
Ryan was always the life of the party. Fun. Flirtatious. Smiling and joking.
Only he’d still be smiling and joking, and he’d be fun when he killed you.
Ryan is more dangerous than Nash. Jezebel knew that truth. She’d always known it. Ryan had been born to be a predator. Nash had been forced to become one due to circumstances. In another life, Nash would never have been a killer.
But he’d had to change. Because of Delaney Daniels. Did the woman have any clue what Nash had sacrificed for her? Probably not. Jezebel suspected Nash would sooner cut out his own heart—which he’d done for the woman before—than cause more pain for Delaney.
“Your friend Grayson is on site,” she informed Ryan.
“Yeah, Gray’s on site because I told him to get his ass to the casino. He was already in the area. Man has his hands in every damn thing. I’ll seriously owe him, but I know Gray will have Nash’s back in a heartbeat.”
Now she bristled. The FBI always made her tense. “I have CIA operatives watching Nash.”
“And I trust Gray. His allegiance will one hundred percent be to my brother. See, when all the dust has settled, I want Wellington locked away. Just like you do. But I also want my brother to walk away. Do you hear what I am saying?”
“Nash’s safety is paramount.”
“No, Jez. I want him to walk away.”
Her heart thudded into her chest. She’d always wondered just how much Ryan truly understood about the situation with Nash. Brothers should tell each other everything, but Nash did enjoy his secrets.
“Stand down, Ryan,” she ordered again.
Dom typed steadily on the keyboard.
“Hey, look at it this way. At least you’ll still have me as a consolation prize.”
“Ryan, go rest. Recover from your gunshot injury.”
“Rest is boring. I like the action too much for that.” A little hum.
“You’re welcome about the tip on the limo.
Oh, and FYI, the Dodge Charger involved in that drive-by at the chapel?
A friendly cop just told me the vehicle was at impound.
Two dead bodies found inside. Hell of a busy time for the Vegas PD. ”
Her breath whispered out. “I was aware of the vehicle’s discovery.”
“And of the two dead bodies?”
She did not reply. But, yes, she’d known about them.
“Is my brother aware?” Ryan pushed. “Is he fully cognizant of the fact that Wellington has gone completely off the rails and is eliminating people left and right here in Vegas? Does my brother know that the danger on this case has just spiked one thousand percent?”
Her gaze remained on the surveillance screens. One of the guards who’d been escorting Nash and Delaney had just opened a black door. Nash and Delaney were crossing the threshold and heading inside an office.
“Goodbye, Ryan. Follow my orders.” She hung up. Motioned to the surveillance footage. “Do we have access to security cameras in that room?”
Dom squinted. The light hit his glasses. “I don’t think there are cameras in that room, boss.” His fingers tapped again on the black keyboard in front of him. “No, no, that’s the office of the casino’s owner. No access.”
Her expression remained the same, but her heart rate increased even more. “Get the other agents to pull in closer.”
The two guards followed Nash and Delaney inside the room. And right before the door shut, one of the guards pulled out his gun.
If anything happens to my brother, I will fucking burn down the entire CIA.
No, Ryan never made an idle threat. In her experience, he just made promises. She could almost smell the smoke.