Guild Boss (Ghost Hunters #14)(23)

Lucy squared her shoulders and gave the caterers a dazzling smile.

“My apologies,” she said. “Send me the bill for the cake.”

The head caterer pulled himself together. “Your name, madam?”

“Lucy Bell,” Lucy said. “Professional weather channeler. Best in the business. Currently under contract to the Guild, but when the job is finished I will be available for consultation. My card.”

She opened her small clutch purse, took out a handful of business cards, and scattered them across the buffet table.

“Tony, Emeline, I am so sorry,” she said.

She whirled around and went briskly toward the entrance of the ballroom. The crowd parted before her. Gabriel managed to catch up with her just as they reached the gilded doors. He took her arm.

“I’m sure making a dramatic exit is even more effective than making a good entrance,” he said.

“You may be right,” Lucy said. “But something tells me I won’t be getting an invitation to the wedding.”





CHAPTER SEVEN





Lucy sank into the richly upholstered back seat of the limo and took a deep breath. Gabriel got in beside her and closed the door. Otis wriggled out from under Lucy’s arm and hopped up onto the back of the driver’s seat. He chortled at Joe and offered him a sugar rose.

“Thanks, pal,” Joe said.

He popped the rose into his mouth and put the limo in gear. Otis leaned over his shoulder and gave an encouraging noise.

“He likes to go fast,” Lucy explained.

Joe chuckled and reached up to give Otis a pat. “I like to go fast, too. Not going to happen now, though, not in this traffic. The Strip is always crowded at this time of night.”

Joe eased the big car out from under the brightly lit portico in front of the Amber Palace and went down the curved drive. He joined the slow-moving traffic on the Strip.

The silence in the back seat grew heavy.

Lucy risked a quick glance at Gabriel. He was not an easy man to read even in good light. In the shadows it was impossible to figure out what he was thinking. She gripped the armrest very tightly and forced herself to speak in calm, measured tones.

“I know you’re concerned about the Guild’s reputation,” she said. “If you want to change your mind about the contract—”

“I don’t think a single dust bunny incident will destroy the reputation of the Illusion Town Guild,” Gabriel said. He looked at Otis. “One thing I’ve wondered about for the past couple of months.”

Had he been thinking about her? Wondering how she was getting along? What she was doing?

She held her breath. “What?”

“How did Otis get those pizzas that he brought to you when you were trapped in the tunnels? They were all neatly boxed up. They didn’t come from the garbage bin behind the pizza restaurant.”

“Oh.” So much for whether or not he had been thinking about her. “I checked with Ollie’s House of Pizza, and it turns out the staff realized he loves cheese-and-olive pizza, so whenever he showed up at the back door, they gave him a small one. When I realized I’d eaten five free pizzas thanks to Ollie’s, I tried to pay for them. Ollie waved it off, but I’ve made up for it by ordering pizza from his restaurant every day at lunch.”

“That explains it.” Gabriel checked his watch. “We’ve got some time, thanks to the cake incident.”

“Time for what?”

“Let’s go into the Dead City ruins from the Storm Zone Wall and take a look.”

“Why?” she asked.

“You said that on the night you disappeared you stumbled through a hole-in-the-wall in the Storm Zone and then got disoriented.”

“Because of the drugs someone slipped into my drink at the wedding reception,” she said, enunciating each word very clearly.

Gabriel didn’t argue. “Right. Can you show me where you went through the Wall?”

“Yes, but it’s a dead end. There’s no evidence of what happened to me inside the Dead City. Trust me, I’ve looked. Every damn day when I walk to and from work I go through the ruins. I try a different search pattern each time.”

Gabriel’s mouth curved faintly. “But you haven’t tried a search with me.”

“What makes you think it will be different with you?”

“I’m good at tracking people, remember?”

“I know. You found me when no one else could. But it’s different inside the Dead City. The energy in there is extremely disorienting even during the daytime. After dark, it’s wild. You know that. You went into the ruins after dark to find me two months ago.”

“I walked into the Dead City after dark and walked back out with you, remember?”

He had walked back out with her in his arms and afterward nothing had been the same.

“Yes,” she said. “And I’m very grateful, believe me.”

“Forget the gratitude. I was just doing my job.”

“Right.”

Just doing his job.

“The point,” Gabriel said, “is that I’m good at what I do.”

She tightened her grip on the clutch purse in her lap, trying to decide what she wanted. It was so tempting to take him up on his offer to conduct a search. Maybe he would notice something she hadn’t. But what if he found nothing at all? That was the most likely scenario, and a failed search would convince him once and for all that she had hallucinated the kidnapping.