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Twenty-Four
Max was still tryingto think of a way to get Abby to return to the house when Nico opened the door to the suite at the Bellagio. He’d tried being subtle in a nod to Carlos’s presence, but Abby had seen right throughit.
“We’re not going to do this again, are we?” she’d asked, arms folded across herchest.
Max had glanced at Carlos, maintaining an admirably blank expression, before sighing inresignation.
He knew it was pointless — Abby was intent on being involved on some level — but he couldn’t help hoping for a miracle as Nico greeted the three of them and led the way into the suite’s livingroom.
Farrell was already there, along with Locke Montgomery, all of them nursing cocktails except for Locke, who had his hand around aCorona.
Max’s appreciation for the man nudged upward. He had nothing against a good cocktail, but sometimes a beer was just what the doctor ordered, a sentiment that didn’t seem to be shared by Nico orFarrell.
Greetings were made all around while Nico ducked into the suite’s fridge to get beers for Max and Abby. Max unrolled the building plans on the coffee table and anchored the corners while the other men made small talk with each other andAbby.
“Here you are,” Nico said, handing bottles to Max andAbby.
“Thank you,” Abbysaid.
“Let me know if there’s anything else I can get you,” Nicosaid.
If he was uncomfortable with Abby’s presence, he was doing a good job hiding it, as were the other men. Max had a vague memory of one of them saying something about the Syndicate’s men being no stranger to stubborn women. He wondered how many times in the past one of them had been involved in Syndicatebusiness.
“Did you go over the surveillance?” Max askedNico.
“We reviewed it last night. It was helpful.” He looked at Abby. “Thankyou.”
“I’m glad it helped,” Abbysaid.
The plan to plant an extra person on the cleaning team for Jason’s suite had mostly gone off without a hitch. Locke himself had walked into the Tangier’s laundry, swiped two cleaning staff uniforms, and pretended to be a lost guest when someone asked what he was doingthere.
Max hadn’t been surprised when the Tangier’s staff hadn’t batted an eye. If any of them could pull off the lost tourist act, it wasLocke.
In the meantime, Damian’s cyberlab in New York had gotten into the maintenance department’s software system. According to Farrell, it had taken surprisingly little effort, backing up Abby’s guess that security on nonessential systems waslimited.
Damian’s people had planted the names of two new employees and had sent them in the next day fortraining.
There had been only two close calls — once when the manager of the cleaning staff went to the system to double-check the new hires he hadn’t expected, and once when Carmella, the women assigned to train their person in the Presidential suite, had seemed like she wasn’t going to leave their trainee alone long enough to plant any of thedevices.
The Syndicate’s woman, Monique, had acted fast by clogging the toilet while Carmella cleaned the sink with her back turned. The mess had been enough for Carmella to let loose an angry rant in Spanish, basically telling their mole to get the fuck out and clean somethingelse.
It had bought Monique enough time to plant devices in the living and bedroom areas. It hadn’t netted them the plethora of information they’d hoped for, but it had given them enough visibility to scope out the inside of thesuite.
“I got a good look at the roof,” Locke said, pulling Max from histhoughts.
“The drones worked?” Maxasked.
“I had them back on the ground in under ten minutes,” Locke said. “If anyone saw them in the air, they didn’t have time to do anything aboutit.”
Max had been both surprised and worried about Locke’s plans to use drones to take a look at the roof. It was an option he wouldn’t have considered, and while it was a good idea, Max had worried the drones might be picked up on radar from the nearbyairport.
“Glad to hear it,” Maxsaid.
“Let’s take this a step at a time,” Nico said, setting down his drink, “starting with our wayin.”
“There’s only one way in that doesn’t have us walking past a hundred cameras,” Locke said. “Which means only one way in that doesn’t announce our presence to Jason and his guards, not to mention the hotel’s securitystaff.”
“Care to fill us in?” Farrellasked.
