Chapter 53
“Piper is really good at this,” Aiden said, staring at himself in the bathroom mirror of their hotel suite.
Leah and Piper were in the living room, talking with Jasper on the phone. He was on speaker, giving them last-minute instructions of what to do if certain things went wrong. Jasper was nothing if not an excellent planner.
“Correction, Piper is great at this,” Jamie said. He couldn’t believe it. He stared at the two of them in the mirror. They looked like complete strangers. Instead of their light brown and sandy blond hair that they both needed to trim, Jamie’s hair was now a deep auburn and artfully wavy while Aiden’s short hair was nearly black. Jamie’s complexion was paler than usual, while Aiden’s disguised skin was more olive toned than his normal fair hue. Piper’s magic enabled them to look and sound like entirely different people. He moved closer to Aiden and sniffed behind his ear.
Aiden huffed a laugh. “What’re you doing?”
“She’s a genius. Your scent is totally different, too.”
“C’mere,” Aiden said. “Let me see if you taste different, too.” He kissed Jamie on the lips. Jamie relaxed and enjoyed the deep, drugging kisses. Nerves had kept him up last night, but Aiden had done his best to keep him distracted all morning by going over the fake identities Jasper had created for them. Hopefully, no one would bother them, but they’d have some answers if anyone insisted on talking to them before the awards ceremony started.
Aiden pulled back with a smirk. “Thankfully, you taste the same.” Aiden bent closer to Jamie but was interrupted by a cough from the doorway.
“I never even thought of that,” a smiling Piper said.
Jamie chuckled. “It’s OK. No one’s going to be doing any tasting of either one of us.” He studied her. She was disguised as well. A short blond bob and bright green eyes replaced her long brunette hair and deep brown eyes. “Wow, you look great, too.”
Piper smiled and gave him an exaggerated bow. “Why, thank you.”
“How much time before we should head down?” Aiden asked.
Leah looked at her phone. “You should leave the room in twenty minutes to make it down to the second floor and over the bridge to the convention center. The ballroom you’re headed to is close to the entrance. The room is huge with plenty of seats. Just find a few in the back.”
Leah was going to stay in the suite on call to teleport them back to Grey Lake if anything went wrong. Jamie just had to telepathically call her for help, and she’d appear. Obviously, that was a last-resort type of scenario, but Jamie did feel a little better knowing she was close.
“Hey.”
Jamie turned to Aiden. “Yeah?”
Aiden grabbed Jamie’s right hand and squeezed it. “We’ve got this. We’ll sit down, watch the bastard get his award while you give him a brain scan, then we’ll get lost in the crowd as soon as they disperse. In and out.” He kissed Jamie.
Jamie nodded. He took a deep breath in and blew it out slowly. “In and out. Got it.”
“And remember,” Aiden added, “if you need my help, just grab my hand. Use my power if you need it. It’s yours. Everything is yours.”
Jamie grinned and nodded.
Mercifully, they made it down the elevator and over to the large ballroom without anyone speaking to them. It helped that Piper kept up a steady stream of nonsense that made them appear to be too busy for BS’ing. She carried a thick armful of papers and kept asking them questions about different imaginary meetings on their fake calendars.
They entered with a large crowd before they made their way to a trio of seats in the second to the last row. Jamie didn’t have to see Williamson to know he was close. He could smell him. He prayed Piper’s magic protected them from detection.
“Sir, after you,” Piper said, yanking him from his fretful thoughts.
He’d stopped at the end of the row of seats that Aiden had already moved down. He quickly followed and took the seat to Aiden’s immediate left. Piper sat on his left.
“Sir, could you take a final look at the planned agenda for tomorrow?” Piper thrust a paper at him.
He forced himself to grab the paper. He held it like a lifeline in both hands, lowering it to lay on the leather folder he’d placed on his lap. He pretended to study the document while letting his mind wander.