Page 22 of The Last Dance You Saved
“She left in a rental car just after the café incident, which is what caught my attention and why I asked you to come down.”
I waited as he swiped a hand over the touch-screen monitor, bringing up another camera. This one was near the registration desk. Sadie appeared, stuffed her room key into the drop box, and headed for the revolving doors. She’d gotten all the way through it before a completely innocuous man in khakis and a green polo drifted out behind her. Another swipe of a screen brought up the parking garage. Sadie wheeled her suitcase to a blue sub-compact with a rental sticker in the rear window. She tossed the luggage in the back with ease before sliding into the driver’s seat. She sat there for at least two minutes, and while we couldn’t see what she was doing in the car, we could see the same man in the khakis and polo step into view. He got into a gray SUV parked across the aisle from her.
Eventually, Sadie backed out and headed down the ramp, and the man did the same.
Another touch of Steele’s hand brought up the exit booth. Sadie put her ticket into the machine and the bar rose to let her out, where she was forced to stop at the red light just outside the entrance. The man in his SUV was parked on her bumper, and when the light turned green, he followed Sadie as she turned right.
Acid burned through my stomach.
It could mean nothing. Could just be a man leaving my casino at the same time as Sadie had, both of them heading down The Strip in the direction of the airport. But I knew it wasn’t true. Steele wouldn’t have shown it to me without a reason.
“Who is he?” I asked.
Steele tapped back to one of the screens showing Puzo sitting in the café before Sadie had arrived. It was then I realized the polo-shirted man was sitting at the table right behind him. They were back to back. It took Steele rewinding the film, enlarging it, and stopping several times before I saw it. They were talking. Puzo hid his words behind his napkin, but the man very clearly nodded in agreement, accepting orders.
“He works for Puzo?” That acid turned into a heaving, boiling pit.
“I’m still waiting on facial recognition. The man paid in cash at the café. I’m a day behind, so obviously the dishes had already been washed, so there’s no chance of DNA. I double-checked the cameras, and I didn’t see him touch a single thing anywhere else in the casino.”
Puzo was following her, and I doubted she knew it. Debate waged war inside me. Should I tell her? It wasn’t my business. If she’d gotten in bed with the devil, that was on her.
Or maybe on you, my demon cackled.
“Was the man here the night before? Did he see Sadie with me in the Marquis Club or the piano bar?”
Steele shook his head. “Not that I saw. I’ll look through all the footage again, but as far as I can tell, yesterday morning was the first time he’d stepped inside The Fortress.”
“Right now, we have nothing to tell her, and I have no desire to stick my nose in more Puzo business. She’s not our responsibility.” Even as I said it, something dark and feral and beastly inside me objected. The same animal who’d wanted to leap out of its cage when I’d first seen Sadie sitting with him. The same one who’d tried to claim her by biting her neck and baring her skin against the wall of windows in my suite.
I ignored the beast and headed for Fallon and the exit. I called back over my shoulder, “If you identify him, let me know. Otherwise, we move on.”
“Marquess,” Steele grunted, and I turned back. His brow was furrowed. “She might need help.”
“Not mine and not yours. She’s not our business.” The beast growled and banged on its cage, but I ignored it again.
Steele wasn’t happy with my answer. But I’d had enough of the dark-haired vixen. I wasn’t going to let her curse me more than I already was.
Fallon looked up as I passed by her. “Let’s go, Ducky,” I said.
She hefted her bag onto her shoulder and dragged her feet as she came to stand by me. “What did Steele want?”
“Nothing. Just a false alarm,” I told her, holding the door open for her.
“Is Parker still at the Naval Academy?” Fallon asked as we stepped into the hall, and I raised my brows in surprise. I didn’t know she’d kept tabs on Steele’s son. My protective-dad warning bells went off in my head. Parker was a good-looking kid. Nineteen, muscled and strong. He’d entered the Naval Academy right out of high school with every intention of joining the SEALs just like his father and grandfather had. He was way too much for a hormone-driven teenage girl.
“As far as I know. Why do you care?” I asked as we made our way to the elevator.
Her cheeks turned every shade of red that was possible, and the beast I kept caged rattled against the bars for an entirely new reason. Steele was going to get a lecture from me, and Parker wouldn’t be anywhere near my daughter in any near future.
“Don’t make a big deal out of it,Dad,” she said, sarcasm dripping. “He was just always nice to me when I was around.”
Steele wasn’t my bodyguard, but he went practically everywhere I did, especially when I was traveling out of the country. Steele’s wife and son had traveled with us at times too. Parker and Fallon had been together in that way kids of friends often are, but I hadn’t given it a moment’s thought. The five years between them had seemed enough to keep me from thinking it could ever be something more.
But then, look at the twelve years that existed between Sadie and me. It felt like nothing. Ithadbeen nothing when I’d had my tongue in her mouth and my fingers digging into her hips.
“No boys, Fallon. You’re too young.”
“As if Parker would even look at me that way,” she said with a heave of adolescent drama. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t date. Mom and Spence were dating when they were in high school.”
