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“Give Kev a chance,” I told Champ roughly. “Trust him. He hasn’t said our code word. He’s asking us to hold off. He… he wants to do this.”
More than that, I thought he needed to do this. To have this chance to prove something to himself. After all I’d taken from him over the past few months—fuck, all that I’d taken from him today—I wouldn’t let him lose one more thing if I could help it, even if my worry for him was tearing my heart to ribbons.
And, I supposed, this was how people in love managed to live their lives, despite the fear and vulnerability. Because holding back or caging their beloved, even when trying to protect them, would smother them. And you couldn’t do that to someone you truly loved.
“Who is it?” Linus demanded through the door.
“Bobby! Come out with usss! We have ticketsss to the shhhow!” a slurring voice called from the hallway. “Kelly s-said to come get you. Come on!”
Kev kept his eyes on his screen and counted us down. Four fingers, then three, then two, and just as the computer in front of me beeped to signal the completed transfer, Kev closed his hand into a fist.
“Got it!” the agent at the table called excitedly. “Emailing it to the judge. Procuring the warrant.”
Kev quickly whipped the dongle back into his pocket and laid the Horn next to him on the bed so it didn’t even look like he was all that interested in it. He stood and took a step toward the door while Linus shifted his body to hide his weapon. “We should tell them they have the wrong room.”
Linus looked annoyed. “No Bobby here!”
“Yo, Bobbyyyyyyy!” another drunken voice called again, again accompanied by knocking so loud the door vibrated in its frame.
Kev laughed nervously. “Maybe open it up so they can see we’re not Bobby and go away? I don’t know about you, but it’s kinda killing my romantic vibe.”
I forced myself to take a deep breath. It was almost over. We had the data, and any second, Linus would open the door. Kev would make an excuse and escape to safety… which was when my other mission would begin. The one where I explained to Kev why I’d lied to him, and begged him not to hate me.
All around me in the suite, agents bustled here and there, talking to the judge, to the person waiting at the judge’s office, to the agents in the hallway outside of Linus’s room.
Meanwhile, Laurel’s eyes ate up the data on the agent’s screen. “There. Location coordinates. That’s Gustavo’s username. Yesss. We have the location of the meeting, people!”
I didn’t care about any of it. My eyes never left the screen, tracking Kev’s gorgeous face… and the weapon in Linus’s hand. Which was why I was the first person to notice when Linus turned away from the door and faced Kev instead.
Gone was the smarmy, seductive expression he’d worn when he was impersonating a man in love. Instead, his eyes were hard and his jaw set.
“Tell me what Champ knows, Kevin.”
“Oh, fuck,” I breathed.
It took a minute for the people in the suite around me to realize what was happening.
“What?” Kev squeaked. “Who?”
“No,” I said, shoving back from the table. “He’s been made. I think Linus knows we’re onto him.”
“Christ,” Champ said. To Laurel, he added, “Get your people in there now.” He grabbed two earwigs from the table and thrust one into my hand. “Let’s go.”
We were both armed, but the FBI SAIC had threatened us to within an inch of our lives not to draw down unless mortally threatened.
I wasn’t sure about Champ, but I felt mortally threatened. My heart was beating out of my chest.
“Stay on surveillance and relay intel,” Champ barked at Riggs. “Hux! With me.”
Later, I would remember to be grateful to Champ for what he’d done in that moment. It wasn’t like him to misassign roles, and by rights, it should have been Riggs who went in with guns blazing while I stayed behind with the techs and data. But ever since Champ had fallen for Quinn Taffet, the wedding planner who’d gotten under his skin and kept him up at night, he’d been a changed man.
One who knew I wasn’t staying in that suite for anything.
We raced to the end of the hallway and threw ourselves down the stairs. All the while, Riggs kept a running stream of chatter in our ears. “Warrant here in less than five minutes. Try to wait.”
“What’s he doing now?” I begged, hoping that Linus had put his gun away. Christ, I’d watch a video of them kissing a billion times on repeat if it meant Kev would be safe and whole and—
“Impressing the hell out of us,” Riggs replied before putting his mic up to the surveillance speakers.
