Page 72 of Don't Bait Me (Nora Jacobs 3)

My throat closes up, and my eyes start to sting. These men are going to make me cry.

There’s a heartbeat of silence, and then Oliver says, “Nope. Sorry. Even without your pull, I’d still be a goner for you.”

Everyone laughs. I bark out something that’s half laugh and half sob. I’ve never known love like this before. I wish they were all standing right here so I could give each of them a big hug. “Okay, fine. You’re all happily bewitched. Can we stop talking about this, please?”

“She’s right,” Nick says, but I hear the laughter in his voice. “You’re all getting distracted. We’ve got killers to catch.”

Hours pass, and I startto get restless. We’ve roamed all over the casino with no sign of either man. Not even a potential spotting. “Ugh.” I groan, scrubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands. “This is a waste of time. They aren’t here. No one’s even seen anything suspicious.”

I hate to sound whiny, but I’m bored, and the smell of stale cigarette smoke is giving me a headache. At least I’m off my feet now, though, sitting in front of a slot machine with a bucket of quarters and Terrance and Illren on either side of me. I’m down twenty bucks. I wonder if I could get Henry to reimburse me, considering I’m trying to stop any more of his employees from being murdered.

“There’s a kid standing around, looking shady,” Rook offers, as if it might cure my boredom. “He keeps staring at me. I think he’s trying to decide if I’m security or not.”

“He’s probably trying to sneak past security to get to the slot machines,” Parker says. “It happens all the time.”

“Or he just thinks you’re really handsome,” I tease.

Several chuckles drift over the com, and we fall quiet again. At least until I groan for a second time. “This is a bust, guys. I’m not getting any kind of tinglies. No one in this building means me the slightest bit of harm. They aren’t here.”

“Maybe they decided to lay low since they know you’re on to them,” Oliver says.

“Or they’ve switched up their hunting grounds,” Illren offers. “A casino is a great place to gather intel, but so are bars, strip clubs, night clubs… The killers could have decided to stake out another location since this one was blown.”

My heart leaps into my chest. I glance at Terrance in a panic. “I hope not. Underworld has a nasty reputation in the human world. It wouldn’t be hard for hunters to connect the dots. Someone should call Wulf.”

Terrance frowns and pulls out his phone. “Don’t worry, Nora,” he says as he begins texting. “He’s got the composite sketches of both men and has already put the staff on alert.”

Terrance’s phone beeps almost immediately with an incoming text. I try to read over Terrance’s shoulder, but he’s too tall and his gigantic arm is in my way. Terrance smirks and holds the phone where I can see the screen. “He says ‘thanks for the heads up’ and that they’ve been handing out copies of the drawings to people all night.”

I feel marginally better, but I still hate the fact that the hunters haven’t shown up tonight. They’ve attacked people every day since they rolled into town. Why stop now? What are they up to?

“Relax, Nora,” Oliver’s quiet voice says over the com. I look across the room and spot him at a blackjack table. He’s been doing surprisingly well for himself, considering he’s hardly paying attention and only playing to blend in while keeping an eye on me. He catches my eye and grins. “You look jumpy, and people are staring.”

“People have been staring at her all night,” Rook grumbles.

“Well, now she’s attracting even more attention. Men are going to start approaching her soon, asking what’s wrong if she doesn’t stop looking like a junkie itching for her next fix.”

“Oliver!” I laugh. I look to my companions on either side of me. “Do I really look like that?”

Terrance shrugs. “A little.”

“You’d make one seriously sexy junkie,” Illren offers, smirking at me.

I groan again and take a deep breath as I try to stop fidgeting. I pull the lever on the machine in front of me and watch the thing spin. The images blur together.

“Stakeouts take time, Jacobs. Have a little patience,” Nick says. I roll my eyes. He’s been calling me by my last name all night, claiming that’s what partners do. I’ve made sure to call himNickyat every opportunity.

“It’s only midnight,” Parker says. “That’s still early. Give it more time.”

He has a point. Midnight is practically morning for the underworld crowd.

My slot machine stops, and I’m out another quarter. Terrance chuckles. “Remind me to never let you blow on my dice.”

I glance at his slot machine. The bastard is up seventy dollars.

Illren leans over and whispers into my ear. “You can blow on my dice anytime you’d like.”

Rook growls, pissed at the innuendo, but everyone else laughs. I punch Illren in the shoulder. When he cocks an amused brow at me, I realize I’ve just hit a notorious assassin, and I’m not worried in the least. “That was terrible,” I tell Illren, doing everything in my power not to crack a smile. “And all of you suck for laughing. What about defending my honor? Rook, you’re my hero. I love you the most right now.”

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