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“And look over there! Is that person holding a cat dressed up as a LynxQuester? I need to get closer. Holy crap! Holy crap, it is. We are so bringing Rodrigo next year. Omigod, hiiii!” he cooed, making a beeline for the cat and his owner. “Can I pet him? Would he mind? Oh, wow. Hi, sweet baby! What a ferocious LynxQuester you are! I need someone like you to guard my jam cellar from looters. You busy later?” The cat purred, his owner preened, and Kev laughed delightedly, chatting animatedly for several moments before dragging me off toward the sales booths.
Two foam gourd hats, one tin sword, a souvenir program, and thirteen HOG friend requests later, I finally forced Kev away from the crowd toward the check-in desk to collect the keys to the suite HOG Corporate had sprung for, and I came to a hugely important realization.
There wasn’t a single awkward or shy thing about Kevin Rogers. He’d simply needed to find his people, like we all did, and once he had, he shone.
“Mmmpfh,” Kev moaned as I pushed him up against the mirrored wall of the elevator. “Dear God, Huxley, what’s gotten into you? Is it my Sword of Enchantment? It is, isn’t it? You’re a fan of the sword—”
“It’s you, Kevin,” I breathed against his lips. “Just you. But give me ten seconds and imma show you my sword of enchantment.”
Unfortunately, when we got to the suite, Kev was all business. And not sexy business.
“That’s weird,” he said, clicking the keyboard of his laptop while I put in an order for a room service lunch. “Did we know Vince was going to be here? He didn’t qualify. At least, according to my research.”
My head snapped up from where I’d been double-checking my options on the menu. “What? Vince is here?”
“Yeah. The data only shows that his Horn is here in the hotel. I can’t even figure out what floor he’s on or anything.”
After confirming our room service order, I hung up and called Champ to give him an update.
“Can you hack into the reservations system and find out where he’s staying?” Champ asked through speakerphone. “Or tap into the cameras in the hallways and monitor him?”
Kev laughed.
I cautioned Champ that it wasn’t that easy. “It’s easier to hack most government systems than to tap into the security operations center at a Vegas casino. Even social engineering is far from a sure thing. We’re gonna have to do this low-tech. Getting eyes on him and following him. Dropping a tracker into his pocket, if we can get someone here that Vince won’t recognize. Kev and I will brainstorm.”
Champ updated me on their op before asking if I was sure I was okay without backup until they arrived tomorrow.
“We’re good. Just doing surveillance until you get here. Kev has a meet and greet tonight and an early information session in the morning. By the time game play begins, you should be here with the team.”
I’d already kitted Kev out with a tracking chip in his pocket and a tiny button camera and mic set in his shirt to pick up on any conversations he had with our targets. He’d rolled his eyes at me, but I could see affectionate understanding in those eyes too.
When the call with Champ ended, I joined Kev in tracking down the current Horn locations for all the targets on our list. Everyone was where we expected, with the exception of Vince and Camila Dacosta. Vince’s shouldn’t have been here but was. Camila’s was supposed to be here but was somewhere in Arizona.
I wasn’t going to worry about her, though, while we were in the middle of targeting our two final Horns and trying to keep Vince off our tail.
“Did you find anything interesting in the data we got off Vince’s Horn?” Kev asked after the room service attendant had delivered our food. He shoved a french fry into his mouth before taking a sip of ice water.
“Nah. We’ve been so busy, I haven’t had a chance to do a deep dive with it yet. I added the data to our offline storage and downloaded a copy to my laptop to look through later tonight.”
“While I’m at the meet and greet?”
“Mmm,” I said noncommittally. Leaving him alone to attend the meet and greet along with several known cartel operatives wasn’t on my agenda. I’d have to tackle Vince’s Horn data after we got back to the suite later.
Kev pinned me with a look. “I can read your mind, you know.”
I imagined fucking him from behind over the back of the suite’s sofa with the hot lights of the strip visible through the large bank of windows.
“Don’t think so,” I said in a rough voice.
Kev’s eyes heated. “Not that.” He hesitated. “Although, put a pin in that one for later. Go back to the other thing. The one you’re trying hard not to think about anymore.” He leaned into my space, grabbed a fry off my plate, and waved it in my face pointedly. “You’re not tailing me to the meet and greet.”
