Page 24 of Known By You
We’d made it a few hours down the road, stopped once for a bathroom break and to stretch, and we’d be arriving in Vegas to spend the night. Looking at Evie as she arched her back and searched for some relief from the roundness of her belly… it must’ve felt so unearthly and strange to carry a human inside you. I couldn’t imagine it, and in so many ways, it seemed like her experience of life was like we lived on different planets.
I abruptly turned to my coffee, and a few minutes later, we were back on the road. We didn’t talk, and less than an hour into the next leg, Jack had headphones in, and Evie appeared to be sleeping.
Kenny made a call to the hotel where we’d be staying, letting them know we were less than thirty minutes out. We’d enter through a less conspicuous door than the front grand entrance of the resort, which should save us fromanyone recognizing Jack. I wasn’t sure whether Evie was avoiding people seeing the bruises or her face altogether, but she’d definitely kept her head ducked, a hat pulled low, and her hair practically in her eyes whenever we weren’t in the car with its dark tinted windows.
“All set,” Kenny confirmed as he set his phone down.
“Good work.”
His low chuckle had me glancing at him. The flash of straight white teeth and those charming creases in his cheeks were lethal.
“I appreciate the positive reinforcement, thank you.”
The way he said it almost sounded flirtatious. But he’d stayed away from anything like that, so I wouldn’t interpret it as such.
“Happy to provide it.”
“I’ll be sure to return the sentiments whenever possible, which based on what I’ve seen thus far will be often.”
I did not look at him again. His voice had taken on a silken tone that an innate warning system in me recognized as something dangerous. Not to anyone but me, of course, but still, the way his sentence felt like a caress was just…
Evidence I needed to get out of this car. Simple as that.
I never responded, which didn’t seem to bother him, and a few minutes later, we were pulling up to the curb. Jack gently roused Evie in a way that was both tender and brotherly, and Kenny grabbed the bags while I stood guard. My work in the agency wasn’t typically focused on personal security, but I had acted in that capacity more than once and wasn’t about to shirk my duties now.
We moved as a group led by hotel staff to the VIP elevator, then far above the lobby level, shuffled out and I waited with Jack and Evie while Kenny checked the rooms. He held the door for us as the hotel representative literallybowed to Jack and reiterated for the fifteenth time to let her know if he needed anything, and finally, we closed the door behind us and that leg, at the very least, was done.
The presidential suite was lavish as all get-out. A ten-person dining table, an opulent living room with a gigantic television, a full bar and kitchen, and what I imagined were the bedrooms. This had to be the doing of Mr. Grenier.
Jack walked Evie to a room, then excused himself to another.
That left one.
“We’ll take turns on watch tonight,” Kenny said, each of us delivering our own small bags to the third room where two queen beds waited.
It didn’t matter that we would be sleeping at different times and in different beds. I still couldn’t ignore the way my stomach flipped and dropped entering a hotel bedroom with Kenny Carmichael.
It wasn’t even a thing. Nothing to worry about or feel this stupid dip like I was staring down a loop the loop.
Semi-sharing a room with this sweet, sunny, and lethally hot man was absolutely not a problem.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kenny
Instead of dining at the gigantic glass dining table that looked about as comfortable as sitting on a, well, a chair made of glass, we opted to sprawl out in theis this really a hotel room?living area.
“This is delicious,” I said, diving into my chicken sandwich with enthusiasm. I’d eaten minimal road snacks and something about a trip like this made me hungry.
“Mine, too,” Liz said, tucking an errant piece of lettuce back into her sandwich—also a spicy chicken—before taking another bite.
Evie’s head nodded up and down. She had a truly gigantic order of shoestring fries and a Caesar salad with blackened salmon. Her eyes had been wide, taking in every detail of the space when she emerged from her room a while ago.
“This place always has decent food. I like to dine out but figured that’s not a great idea this time.”
Jack gave us all a look I thought might be… guilty?
Huh.
