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I showered, and slipped on my clean jeans, since the pair I’d worn the previous day was still coated with dust. Topping the outfit off with a pale-gray off-the-shoulder sweatshirt, I made my way down to the lobby to convene with the rest of the group for breakfast.
Cade didn’t join us, and it was probably for the best because I doubted I could school my features well enough to keep the others from guessing what had happened.
Sunny already seemed to be wearing a knowing smirk, but there was no way she could imagine the full breadth of my night with Cade. Her mind seemed to stop at kissing. She’d asked me about Prescott once, many years earlier, and in awed tones had said, “Did you kiss him?”
Uh, yeah. I kissed him on the penis a little.
She’d been so shocked by kissing I hadn’t had the heart to tell her what had really happened. I think Sunny still believed I was as temple pure as she was, and if that’s how she chose to imagine me, all the power to her. At least someone thought I was innocent.
I didn’t want to ruin the illusion by telling her just how far off the path I had strayed.
Sawyer was bouncing out of her skin to talk to me. “What happened?”
“Car bomb,” I said.
“Duh, I saw the news. I mean what happened to you?”
I pointed to my stitches. “It’s not that bad. It doesn’t even hurt anymore. I got hit by some glass, that’s all.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Indeed.”
Sunny looked as if she wanted to poke at my wound a little more, but restrained herself, thank the gods. We ordered our food and ate in silence. It was only when I was on my second cup of coffee that I realized I had no idea what the plan was for the day.
“Are they moving the remaining convention events?” I asked.
Leo and Sunny shared an uneasy glance, then Leo said, “You didn’t watch the news last night?”
I shook my head, setting down my k
nife and fork. “I got back from the hospital and got right into bed.” This wasn’t a lie. I did go straight to bed. I just happened to have a fair amount of very steamy sex in that bed before I slept.
At no point had I considered turning on the news.
“The convention staff and the hotel are writing it off as an ‘unfortunate’ incident designed to upset the flow of events. They’re claiming that because no one was seriously injured, it was just to distract from the convention and throw things off course before the big public addresses today.” Sunny tried to smile hopefully, but it looked almost pained.
“What does that mean?” I demanded.
Leo cleared his throat. “It means they spent all night cleaning up the Luxor and replacing the front doors. It means they’re planning to go ahead with today’s events as if nothing happened.”
No, that couldn’t be right. I know Imelda had balked at the idea of canceling the convention, but surely she was smart enough to know we couldn’t continue as if everything was okay.
What would they have done if someone had been killed? Would they charge ahead pretending it was hunky-dory?
Actually, knowing Imelda, I imagined that was precisely what she would do. Nothing to see here, folks, please ignore the dismembered bodies and step this way.
Nothing could make the gods seem weak.
The convention would go on because it needed to appear as if we hadn’t flinched.
I couldn’t begin to imagine how pissed off that would make the killer. I had to believe he thought the previous day’s explosion would be enough to make his point. He probably thought he’d get a bigger bang for his buck, take at least a couple clerics out, and shut down the convention.
Instead, we were laughing in his face, erasing any sign of what he’d done, and carrying on like it was business as usual.
Why was I the only person who saw how dangerous this was?
“They’ve tripled security,” Sunny offered. “And I heard someone saying the local police would have a perimeter around the hotel. Everyone will be checked before entering. I think it’s safe.”
