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Ryder opened the window for the camera that was positioned across from the one Gunner had just left to check. In it appeared Nita, leaning on the railing and looking down. She looked naked until she moved and the tiny costume she wore glittered in the light.
“Fuck,” he murmured, rubbing a hand over his mouth.
After a minute, Gunner appeared in the frame, startling Nita. Her hand flew to her chest, then she relaxed as she laughed. Gunner held his hands up and said something, likely an apology. Then, instead of going about his job, took a few steps toward Nita.
“What the fuck are you doing, buddy?” he muttered, and clicked to unmute the camera directly below them. Unfortunately, the hiss of the misting equipment drowned out what they were saying.
Nita had turned toward him, smiling. Gunner motioned to the floor below, his stoic demeanor melting into a smile.
“Let’s focus on the event, Gunner,” he said into his mic, and watched as the man on the screen touched his ear. He shrugged at Nita, then returned to the end of the railing and knelt out of sight.
Nita turned to face the railing, then leaned on it to peer over.
He shouldn’t, but he zoomed the camera in, training it on the swell of her tits over the skimpy cups of her top.
“Jesus,” he grunted, and zoomed out.
Seconds later, Gunner re-entered the room. Ryder had already minimized Nita’s camera, focusing instead on the people entering the ballroom.
“Done,” Gunner said, sliding into his seat and making the camera in question the largest on his monitor. “Clear as crystal. I can’t believe their own cameras were so shitty. I’m glad you had us rig up our own.”
Ryder nodded, his gaze shifting from the screens to Gunner. He debated asking what he had to say to Nita. It obviously had something to do with the engagement from his gesture.
Jesus Christ, why do I care?he wondered.
“I can’t imagine what all this costs. All those costumes, and the decoration. That doesn’t just look like sand, it looks exactly like what the Sahara would look like,” Gunner exclaimed, leaning in to peer at one of the ballroom’s cameras. “I asked that little hottie about it, and she said they had three different kinds of sand they use.”
“I’m not surprised,” Ryder replied through clenched teeth.
“I don’t think any job we’ve been on has been quite like this. Not even when we did security for that porn star.”
Ryder forced a laugh. “No shit,” he agreed.
He let Gunner continue to monitor the surveillance cameras while he started the rotation of checking in with every member of his team. He and Gunner were in the operations room, Phoenix was at the front gate, Boz and Skull at the villa’s front entrance, while one Watson brother drove the guests from the gate to the property and the other brother roamed the villa’s perimeter. Other than the smudged lens, everything had been quiet and on track.
“Jesus, look at that,” Gunner murmured, then leaned to look at Ryder’s monitor. “Camera four.”
Ryder watched a man with an oversized turban and a fake mustache stroll inside, an enormous belly pushing out the white robe. Scurrying up to meet him was a voluptuous woman in a sheer, gold caftan. The man looked startled, then pleased as the woman slipped her arm through his.
“That’s, uh,” Gunner murmured, as he flipped through the paperwork. “Christ, that’s a co-owner of Man U’s soccer team.”
“Tonight, his name is Malachite,” Ryder replied, flipping open his own sheath of paperwork. “And his consultant’s codename is Mink. Only code names during the engagement.”
Gunner set the papers down and peered back at the screen.
“I gotta say, I love the codename idea. I’ve always wanted one.”
“Gunner is already a pretty cool name,” he replied, thinking of how he’d used Mitchell as a code name when he first met Nita.
Bitch Mitch,he mused, thinking back to that Fuck Book.
“I’d use Taurus,” Gunner said, then shook his head at the screen. “I can’t believe this Cavendish place gets away with being a sex club. Did you know there’s part of an actual medieval castle on the property?”
“How about we focus on the job? We’ve got four more hours to go,” Ryder advised, satisfied when Gunner got his professional demeanor back into place.
“Sorry, boss.”
Ryder nodded, but his attention wavered something flashed. Nita half turned, and something in her hair sparkled in the light.
