Page 106 of Thief of Night
He met her gaze with the hollows of his smoking eyes. Despite everything, she felt her heart jolt with a kick of animal fear.
Then, she leaned forward to kiss him. He kissed her back with an intensity that felt at least partly like relief. Maybe he was nervous too. The thought made her bold. Her fingers tangled in his hair and she gave it a short tug.
He made a sound against her mouth.
“You like that?” A whole year she’d lived with him and hadn’t known.
He drew back, looking down at her with a wild intensity. “I—yes.” He swallowed whatever else he had been about to say.
“I am going,” she told him, sliding her hands over his skin, letting her nails scratch him lightly as she went, “to spend the rest of tonight figuring out everything you like.”
The conference wasn’t supposed to start until nine, but according to the schedule, check-in started at seven thirty in the morning. That was when Charlie showed up, Malhar and Posey in tow. Red hung back, waiting for his cue.
“Act like you’re in charge,” she reminded Malhar just before he opened the door. He wore the suit jacket from the night before over a t-shirt and jeans as though he was a bro from Silicon Valley.
In jeans and a black sweater with an onyx knife hidden in her borrowed Prada boots, Charlie worried she was overdressed. She needed to appear as though she was a member of Mr. Punch’s staff.
Inside the room, a woman with short gray hair and wearing a dark blue pantsuit set more gift bags out on an already loaded table. Vera, the overworked assistant. Badges were being spit out of a small printer, beside a pile of lanyards. She hadn’t assembled all of it yet, which was perfect.
The game was simple. Charlie needed Vera away from the computer long enough to officially enter her and Red into the attendees registry. Simple, but not exactly easy. But Charlie had one thing going for her—no one would suspect the mysterious guest of honor of wanting that level of petty interference.
“Good morning,” Malhar said.
“Mr. Punch!” Vera looked distressed to see him. “Is something the matter? Didn’t you get your materials? They were supposed to be sent to your room this morning and you should have received an email—”
“It’s not that,” Malhar said. “One of the hotel staff had some questions about the breakfast menu, but I couldn’t find Archie.”
“Oh.” She looked around at her piles. “Well, you can tell him Archie won’t be long.”
“I’m afraid I may have promised thatyouwould speak with him, since I heard you were in charge of logistics. My apologies.” This was what they’d practiced, and Malhar was doing a good job of selling it.
“No, that’s fine.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I’ll talk with the hotel. I just have to lock this room up—and find a way to put up a sign on the door in case someone comes looking for their badge.”
“We can help,” Charlie said. “We just move bags to that table and stuff these lanyards? That won’t be a problem.”
“I can’t let you do that.” Her smile stiffened.
“It’s no trouble at all.” Charlie moved over to where the bags sat. “And if someone comes, we’ll tell them you’ll be right back.”
“You’re not worried about us being in here, are you?” Malhar delivered his most important line. Archie would have cautioned his assistant not to offend the Cabal leader.
“I’ve just got my system is all,” Vera demurred.
Charlie gave her a smile, trying to project clueless innocence. “What if we guard the room until you get back, but promise not to touch anything? If anyone comes in, we’ll direct them to wait.”
Charlie could see Vera debating. What she wanted to do was lock the room up, but that would involve kicking them out and she would get in a lot of trouble if Mr. Punch was offended.
“That would be wonderful,” she said, finally, caving.
“He said he would be in the main office,” Malhar told her, as though just remembering.
“Did you get his name?” Vera asked.
“Afraid not.” Malhar made a face.
Vera was going on a fruitless errand. But it would stop her from going out to reception and coming immediately back. The walk to the main office, the frustration at finding it closed, and then returning would give Charlie an admittedly small window, but one she could work with.
“And you won’t touch anything?” Vera asked, looking as though she thought one of them could possibly push a big, red button and have the whole retreat come down around their heads.
