Page 96 of When He Plays

The elevator opened. They’d reached the lobby of his hotel. He took Charlotte’s arm. Led her through the crowd. Aware with every step that he might be leading the woman he loved to danger.

They exited the hotel. Barney waited, with the rear door of the limo open.

“Sir.” Barney frowned at him. “Where are we headed?”

Logan rattled off the name of Pierre’s hotel. Jezebel wanted him to stop Pierre from boarding a flight to Paris, so Logan would stop the other man.

Just how would he do that? Simple. He’d get Pierre to attack him. Or, maybe, even better…

Logan turned his head and saw Sebastian Shay burst out of the hotel.

Maybe he’d convince Pierre that he needed to attack a US marshal.

Logan waved to Sebastian. “Sorry, but the limo is full.” Charlotte had already slid inside. “Why don’t you try grabbing a taxi? If you’re fast, you can follow right behind us.”

“Logan, stop!” Sebastian thundered.

Nah.

He slid into the limo.

Chapter Nineteen

The plan was falling apart. The mission was going straight to hell.

As the doorman opened the gleaming, glass, entrance doors at the sprawling Vegas hotel, Charlotte was aware that her heart raced too quickly, that adrenaline spiked in her blood, and that guilt was eating her up from the inside.

Harper should not have been taken.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Maybe…maybe Charlotte shouldn’t have tried to escape from Ares’s study. Maybe she shouldn’t have fought so hard to reach Logan.

Maybe…

Maybe she should have just let the drug knock her out, right there next to Ares’s big desk. Then, when she’d woken up, she would have been with the killer. She would have been near Harper. Perhaps she could have fought the killer at that point. She could have freed Harper. Saved her but now⁠—

Is it too late?

Her phone rang.

They’d just stepped into the opulent lobby. A hotel that was not quite as big as the one Logan owned. Still certainly impressive, though. Only this one was not connected to a casino. The hotel was just a big jewel in the middle of Vegas.

And her phone was ringing.

Charlotte yanked her phone from the small bag she’d slung across her shoulder and put it to her ear. “Just reached the destination,” she said in way of greeting. No sense wasting time with a “hello” because she’d recognized the specific ringtone that she’d assigned to Jezebel.

“And I’ve just gotten access to the first batch of video footage from Harper Channing’s floor.” An exhale. “Techs say someone tried hard to erase the footage, but they are recovering it, bit by bit.”

“What did you find?”

“Harper received a late-night visitor. Someone who came bearing a gift for her.”

Charlotte grabbed Logan’s arm. Pulled him to the side. Into a little alcove that had been partially blocked by a massive fern.

Logan’s brows lowered as he leaned toward her.

“Want to guess what that gift was? Here, let me help,” Jezebel offered. “I believe you sampled something similar recently with some ill effects.”