Page 67 of The Twilight Theft

“They all belong.” I stepped closer to Jayce, sliding my hand across her abdomen and around her side, sinking deeper into the cover. It placed my mouth next to her earpiece, so I could talk directly to her team. “Is Brie running facial recognition?”

“She is.”

“Finding anyone who doesn’t belong?”

She pulled in a slow breath. “She’s been checking everyone as they come in from the patio. Everyone’s on the guest list.”

“No one from our caution list?”

She put her hand on my arm, pinning it against her. “Not yet.”

The faintest scent of vanilla clung to her hair. In her line of work, she must have avoided anything that could give her away by lingering in the air. But I was close enough to catch a whiff.

I could have stood like that all night.Get a fucking grip, Drew.I pressed the button on my earpiece. “Craig, how are we doing with the schedule?”

Unlike the rest of us, he would communicate with Gideon through the evening. “Liana said she’d flutter the cover a few times before they reveal it. Looks like that’s her signal.”

“The cover’s coming off soon.” I continued talking into her ear for her team’s sake, although they’d be able to hear me if I didn’t—so maybe it was for my sake. “So long as the chip’s still under there, the job starts when it’s out in the open.”

“Let’s grab a snack.” As though sensing food, she turned and began walking toward one of the masked male servers.

“Wait now.” I gripped her upper arm before she reached her quarry. “Facial recognition isn’t working on them, is it?”

She stopped, looking between two servers. “Get Craig to have security check them.”

I tapped the piece in my ear and repeated the request.

Craig responded that he’d have the servers verified, but then Wyatt piped up over the comms. “I want to see what’s under that cover. Rav and I are taking over in the banquet room.”

I tapped my earpiece. “You are not. Scarlett is coordinating when we switch.”

Had he and Jayce shared something at the restaurant last night? Or before that? He was acting like a child whose favorite toy had been taken away, not a man who’d lost his opportunity to flirt with her.

Jayce nodded slowly, shifting so she was facing me, her mouth and words blocked from the outside world by my shoulder. “Brie, check the guy who accosted me earlier, too.”

“Someone accosted you?” I gripped her arm tighter, like an angry, vengeful boyfriend.

She shook her head this time. “I was taking some pictures of the food. He made me delete them.”

“Security?” I shifted my hold on her arm, rubbing up and down where I’d held her too tightly.

“I didn’t recognize him.”

Hopefully, he was simply an overzealous rule follower.

The more time that passed, the more everyone in the crowd shifted. They were no longer the wealthy and influential of Washington—they were suspects. It felt like the old me, traveling through Eastern Europe, searching for people who had secrets I could take. In this case, I was searching for people who had secrets and wanted to take something from someone else.

Why had Craig accepted this job? This was so far outside our area of expertise.

Not that it was Craig’s decision. He put me in charge and I was the one who opted for all of us to attend.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” came Zaria’s lightly accented voice over the comms. “Emmett and I have arrived and will be mingling on the patio.”

My first instinct was to tell her where we were and what was going on, but if she had just arrived and was now in communication with the Bishop team, that meant she’d visited Craig. She would have reviewed the cameras, gotten an update on Wyatt’s behavior, and was doing whatever was required. If I knew her, she’d hang off Emmett’s arm while flirting with every man in sight.

My second instinct was to tell Jayce they’d arrived, but her team’s communication was far faster than mine. She would have heard from Emmett when he was at least ten or fifteen minutes out.

The spotlights around the perimeter of the room dimmed slightly, while the ones over the VIP items brightened.

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