Mitchell stays silent again, and I can practically hear him grinding his teeth.
“How about this, Mitch?” I catch a grunt of frustration at the nickname and can’t help my grin. “I’ll throw in an extra hundred thousand just for you if you get Bryce to do this. I won’t say anything to him about it, and you can still take your cut from the five-hundred-thousand.”
Still he doesn’t say anything. I wait. Seconds tick by.
I gotta get him over the edge on this. “Okay, fine,” I say. I let a little frustration leak into my tone. I glance around at the silent room around me. Agent Porter nods at me to try one more thing. “Tell Bryce to release his proof that Baylee was in on this. I definitely won’t be giving him anything once he does that. Too bad you’re not getting anything either now, Mitch.”
I hit the button to hang up, and we all hold our breath.
A full minute goes by before I get a text.
Mitchell
I’ll talk to Bryce.
Caleb and the rest of Agent Porter’s team stay on top of Mitchell’s phone and the one that Caleb already identified as Bryce’s. Mitchell starts sending texts as soon as we hang up, relaying to Bryce the conversation he had with me. They go undelivered for a while. Long enough that I leave to take a walk and call Libby. She’ll want an update about what’s going on, and to be honest, I want to hear her voice. I wish I could have given in and told her to come with me, but after that kiss earlier today, I think we both need a little space.
Just not too much space.
I’m not going to let anything like that happen again until Libby is ready for it—a lot more ready than the bewildered but kiss-drunk expression she gave me when I pulled away. But I’m also not giving up on us.
I want to see her face, so I make a video call. Her eyes are bright with excitement when she answers. “Jordan!”
I love the joy in her voice, like we’ve been apart for days and not just hours. “Hey there. You’re at Ellie’s?” I ask, noting the room around her as she gets up to move somewhere more private.
“Our apartment was too lonely.” She grimaces as she says it.
“I miss you too.”
She flops down onto the couch in the guest room that I shared with her when we stayed there. “Are you coming home soon?” she asks.
I tell her about my conversation with Mitchell. “Waiting now to hear if Bryce is going to go for it.”
“If he wants the money as desperately as the FBI thinks, he will,” she says confidently.
We chat about the hockey team and the fact that she has to filmBeing Libby Bennetwithout me tomorrow and her worry about what people will think.
She chews on her lip and then tells me, “Ellie says it’s clear in our faces how we feel about each other and no one will question me saying a family emergency took you away for a few days. She’s sure the new viewers will be too busy being ecstatic about us being married and running off the way we did.”
“Is it clear?” I can’t help asking. My face definitely says it every time I look at her. Does hers?
“I want to talk when you get home. Really talk.” She nods at me with firmness, and my heart rate doubles like it used to right before I hit the ice at a game. The light in her eyes says this will be a good talk.
“I can’t wait.” My voice comes out husky.
“That kiss…” Libby says, and pink rises to her cheeks. I wish I could reach through the phone and run a finger over them. “That kiss made some things really clear to me?—”
“Jordan?” Caleb pokes his head into the hallway. “Sorry to interrupt. We have a location on Bryce.”
I nod and hold up a finger. “I have to go,” I tell Libby reluctantly. “Pray that we get Bryce tonight so I can come home ASAP.”
“Done,” she says. She blows a kiss at the screen, then laughs at herself and hangs up.
I’m so tempted to tell the pilot of the Bennets’ jet to keep the engine running. As soon as the FBI has Bryce, I’m out of here.
I head back into the room. A couple agents from the team have already left, off to check the location they have from when Bryce texted Mitchell a couple minutes ago.
“Downtown,” Caleb tells me. “Near the Hyatt.”
