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“Where’s Julius?” I murmured.
“He’s keeping watch from below, just in case we’re made. Do you have a good enough view?”
“With the binoculars, no problem.”
I swept my amplified gaze over the audience, from the back to the stage and then in reverse, pausing just long enough here and there to fully absorb each group of figures. People sat in their seats, chatting amongst themselves and waiting for Malik, who I knew would be out soon.
I squirmed forward on my belly to lean my elbows over the edge, and Talon set a hand on my back as if to confirm my balance. There was nothing provocative about the touch, but it sent a pulse of warmth over my skin all the same. I glanced back at him. “Thanks. I’m okay.”
He nodded at me with the briefest hint of a smile, which was practically a manic grin where Talon was concerned. “Of course you are.” And all at once I was sure that even if he wasn’t the type to want to hash out his intimate encounters after the fact, he didn’t feel any regrets about what we’d shared either.
I couldn’t dwell on that enjoyable realization. From the growing enthusiasm in the voices traveling up to us, Malik should be arriving at any moment. He might simply be waiting for whatever notes he’d asked his aides to go back to his room to grab for him. When he showed up, the lights would probably dim over everything but the stage, and I’d hardly be able to make out anyone.
I continued my scan as quickly as I reasonably could. The seconds ticked by. Then, just before I tilted the binoculars onward, my attention snagged on a face that’d turned to the side, on the far side of the auditorium near the back. I zoomed in with the binoculars as far as I could go, and certainty reverberated through my chest.
“Talon,” I whispered. “There’s a man here who was talking with Noelle in one of the other photographs Blaze found with his search.”
At the same moment, the lights near us blinked out. Only a spotlight on the stage remained. The spot where the man had sat was swallowed in darkness.
Talon grunted and motioned to me. “We’d better get out of here. You’ll be able to point the guy you saw out in that picture?”
“Definitely.” I could already see the image in my mind’s eye, with the man walking just ahead of Noelle in a city park.
A cheer rose up, drowning out any other answer I might have given. Damien Malik had just walked on stage, his arm raised and his face beaming with a smile that could have lit the room all over again. My heart skipped a beat.
Was I looking at another of the household’s targets… or the very man who’d orchestrated my kidnapping for a secret dark agenda of his own?
* * *
To be more discreet, we left the convention in two cars, me with Julius and Talon, and Garrison and Blaze on their own. I hoped they wouldn’t end up biting each other’s heads off before they made it home, but at least Blaze had the search for the new mystery man to keep him busy. He was already analyzing the convention records when we left.
Julius turned on a classic rock station at a low volume, and those tunes filled the car as he drove. I leaned my head against the window and tried not to wonder too much about the politician I’d just watched greet his audience. Speculation wasn’t going to lead me anywhere. If there was evidence to tie Malik to the household or to me, Blaze would find it.
We’d been on the road only half an hour or so when Talon’s phone rang. He answered it on speaker. “What’s up, Garrison?”
“We have a problem,” he replied in a flat, terse tone that had my spine jerking straight. Whatever the issue was, it was serious.
“Are you and Blaze okay?” Julius asked.
“For now. But I just got a call from our client from the household job. I think it’s best if I just play it for you.”
“We’re ready.”
I wasn’t sure if I was, but I braced myself in my seat. It took a moment and a few clicks before a rough voice spilled through the phone, taut with anger.
“You might think you can play us for fools, but this isn’t a fucking game of Candyland, no matter what you seem to think. We know you have a young woman from the job site in your possession, and you need to turn her in before you’re in even worse violation of your contract. Otherwise, expect that she’ll be retrieved by whatever means necessary.”
