Page 72 of The Devil's Daughter

If the twins are already in the rotunda, it shouldn’t be a big deal to leave Elle, not with her brothers all in attendance. As I pass by Miles’ table, I catch his eye. He gives me a nod and a smile that’s just a little too wicked to be merely polite. I may be reading too much into it though. It must be his resemblance to Dad that I see. I wonder if he even realizes my security team just caught whoever he hired to try to assassinate me.

Reaching Karl, I ask, “How did the team miss this asshole?”

“There are mannequins in several of the aircraft made to look like pilots. No one questioned the astronaut suit sitting in the thing. For all we knew, it was just another dummy. Fucker must’ve snuck in sometime yesterday when the museum was still open and has been biding his time ever since. One of our guys caught him as he was climbing out.”

“Any idea who he is?”

“He didn’t give a name, but he’s not exactly being cooperative. I hope you’ll have some idea.”

He pushes open the door to the rotunda and points toward the side where the old Apollo 9 module rests on a pedestal. Rounding the large metal craft, I see two other members of the security staff dressed in tuxedos waiting to one side, and neither of them are the twins. I don’t see anyone else.

Confused, I start to turn to Karl. As I do, a dark blur comes toward me from the corner of my eye, followed by a sudden, sharp pain to the back of my skull, and then everything goes dark.

37

Baz

When I get backto the upstairs conference room we geared up in earlier, I head to the counter where I left my laptop case, but when I open it, my laptop is gone. My heart drops into my gut. This gives me the answer to our question without even needing to search, and it’s so fucking clear now I feel like banging my head on the wall.

Apart from Ben and myself, only one other man had keys to this room tonight: Karl Thomas.

I dig through my memory for any red flags, but he covered his tracks well, and over half the men on our staff are ex-military, which means they’re only as trustworthy as the size of their paychecks. Drake pays well, but that doesn’t mean someone else didn’t come along and offer a better deal.

I rush back down to find Ben, and when I enter the pavilion, a voice more familiar than my own drifts over from just behind the decoratively lit planter near the stage. I jog around it to see that Mom has Ben pinned once again, unable to escape. I move in to rescue him when I catch sight of Drake’s table. His chair is empty, and a quick scan of the room doesn’t place him anywhere in it.

“Brother, where’s Drake?” I ask, sure Ben will have the answer, but when he shoots a panicked look toward the table, he just curses.

“Mom, I’m sorry, but we’ll have to finish this conversation later.”

I give our mother an apologetic shrug, then follow my brother to the table. “I thought you were keeping an eye on him.”

“I was. He was on stage not two minutes ago, then headed back to the table. I turned my back for a second. Where the fuck would he go? Heknowsit’s probably someone on our security staff.”

“Restroom?” I ask, knowing the answer.

Ben shakes his head. “Not without me—I made him promise. Does this mean you found something?”

“Didn’t have a chance to look. Someone stole my laptop.”

He frowns. “We locked up when we left. Are you sure?” But then he comes to the same conclusion I did and lets out a string of vile curses. “Fucking hell.”

We both roll up on Elle, deep in conversation with her sisters. She looks up in surprise, her face immediately drawing tight with worry. “What is it?”

“Did Drake say where he was going?” I ask.

“Karl came and said they caught the guy. Shouldn’t the two of you be with him?”

“If that were the truth, we should,” Ben grits.

“It’s only been a couple minutes,” Mason says.

“Which way did he go?” I ask.

My question spurs the brothers into motion. “He headed for the rotunda,” Maddox says, tossing down his napkin and standing. “If your second is compromised, you have to assume more of your team is too. They can’t have gotten far, though. We’ll spread out. Mase, you go out the back—check outside and text me if you see anything. Meet up in the rotunda.”

Elle grabs my hand just before we rush off. “Please make sure he’s okay,” she says, eyes wide with fear.

“Will you be okay without us in here?” I ask.

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