The Taken by Vicki Pettersson

Author:Vicki Pettersson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Harper Collins, Inc.
Published: 2012-06-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Grif and Kit remained at the ball despite a sudden and clear non-grata status, a state made more apparent when the waitresses ceased offering them drinks. But Kit redeemed herself by participating in the auction, doing brief battle with another woman before winning a spa package for two to some chichi Strip resort, earning an acknowledging nod from Chambers.

There was something about the man, Grif thought, studying Chambers’s demeanor as he moved, too smooth, through the room. Ignore the monkey suit, the moneyed air, the constant ass-kissing that Chambers had to practically swivel to avoid. Forget that they’d just met. Grif knew this guy. He reminded him of a fighter who’d once sucker-punched Grif in the ring. Neither the largest nor the strongest, the man had a meanness to his eye that Grif had been on the lookout for ever since. Chambers had it, too.

Grif was so focused on him that Kit’s low whisper didn’t register at first, though her body heat did. “I think we’re going to have to split up.”

“Not a chance.”

“Look around, Grif. There’s something else going on here. For example, have you noticed a distinct whiteness to this crowd?”

“Mormon,” Grif pointed out.

“This isn’t a Mormon function,” she returned. “And even the servers are all white.”

Not to mention female. At some point the male waiters had all been dismissed, and only the hostesses remained behind.

“And did you notice that the men are disappearing in clumps? Most aren’t heading back to the tram, either.”

He had noticed. There’d been a slow, intermittent exodus to a doorway tucked beneath the split-V staircase, clearly guarded by a man with an earpiece and battle guns for forearms.

Kit bit her wide bottom lip and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Something else is going on, and I think it’s behind that door. But I don’t think I can get there.”

“Well, I’m not leaving you.” Grif had seen the look Chambers had given her. It had him looking for plasma. And for Schmidt.

“Look, I’m too well-known for anything to happen to me here. Besides, we haven’t even seen Schmidt. So what do you say I stay here and you go storm the castle.”

He eyed her coolly. “You’ll stay here?”

“We need to know what’s going on behind those doors, and I can’t do it.”

Grif wasn’t even sure he could. But five minutes later, when Chambers completed his final round with the remaining guests, the man’s implacable smile slipped as he nodded at the door’s guard, and Grif had to watch, frustrated, while he disappeared inside.

“Stay in plain sight,” Grif ordered Kit. “I mean it.”

Kit saluted as he headed across the ballroom. “You’re the alpha angel.”

Smart-ass. That’s why he was already scowling when he approached the guard.

“Your ticket, sir?” the man said, before Grif had even come to a stop.

“I gave it to the girl out front,” Grif said, taking a step forward.

As expected, the guard intercepted. “I mean the other ticket, sir.”

Grif had no idea what that meant. “Guess I misplaced it.”

“Well, I hope you find it soon.

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