Page 48 of Love At the Gates of Hell (The Seven Sinners Trilogy #1)
thirty-three
The Heist - Phase One
The cater manager looked at her team expectantly, her brows raised in a pleading “don’t fuck this up” kind of way before she clapped her hands and went back to the clipboard tucked under her arm.
Luke huffed an amused breath as his eyes scanned the rest of the servers lined up in the kitchen, all of them wearing the same ill-fitting white dress shirts, black slacks, a long black apron, and a matching black tie. Some of them were even wearing Crocs. Jesus Christ.
He leaned over toward Cleo, his shoulder nudging against hers.
“You ready to relive your youth?”
Cleo snorted.
“This isn’t a Martinsburg truck stop, babe,” she said, her eyes glancing down at the watch strapped to her wrist. “This is rich people shit. It’s gonna be a cakewalk compared to drunk truckers.”
She tilted her head thoughtfully, and Luke’s eyes lingered on the curve of her neck.
“Probably the same amount of grabby hands, though.”
“What?” he said, snapping from his daze.
“Hey, you two—”
The cater manager approached them, her eyes deep in her clipboard.
“Looks like we’re down a couple of servers,” she said, before tilting her head back to look up at Cleo and Luke. “You think you can handle taking that back section near the stage?”
Luke smiled.
Those servers got a decent little payoff to skip out on the event courtesy of the Crawford brothers’ petty cash.
“Sure thing, Laura. Whatever you need.”
8:21pm
Olivia was nearly buzzing with excitement as she ducked her way through the crowd in the Grand Ballroom.
The gowns, the champagne on little sterling silver trays, the fourteen-piece band playing some kind of springy jazz from the stage.
It was a level of luxury she had never experienced before.
Hell, the fanciest event she’d ever been to was her senior prom.
The theme was Under the Stars. It was on a boat, and it was actually a total nightmare.
Who thought trapping a bunch of teenagers on a boat in the middle of the river was a good idea?
But still, the fanciest party in her life up until this moment.
She checked her watch.
The silent auction was due to start soon, and while she was still wrapping her head around the Aston Martin just sitting out in the hotel lobby, she knew she had one very important job for the evening.
She couldn’t get distracted by hundred-thousand-dollar cars and luxury vacations, and honestly, how on earth was all this for an art museum?
No. No. She had to focus.
Which was why she was currently making her way across the ballroom, doing her best to keep her vibe as chill as possible.
But as she approached the row of clear display cases near the stage area, Olivia found herself getting a little clammy.
And not only because she was low-key excited to see the stunning sapphires and rubies and diamond up close and personal, but because at the crux of all of this was a plan to try and stop some random power-obsessed guy from becoming a freaking demon.
Her life really was extremely different from what it was a couple of weeks ago.
A tall white woman in a stunning pink suit was hovering near one of the display cases. She had long blond hair and striking blue eyes and an earbud in her ear that Olivia noticed almost immediately. Bingo.
“Wow, this is incredible,” Olivia said, peering into the display case nearest them both.
A pair of oversized emerald earrings with diamond accents sat in a little velvet bed under a small light.
“Is this your job for the night? Getting to hang out with all this amazing jewelry? I can’t believe some of the pieces you have on display. I’m geeking out a little bit!”
The woman smiled in return and she had little dimples in both her cheeks.
“Me and a whole army of security detail,” she said with a slight wink as she gestured to an array of men and women dressed in all black, all stationed closely to the various display cases.
One man in particular looked incredibly familiar to Olivia, and she couldn’t help but smile.
Harker hardly paid them attention, save for a little twitch at the corner of his mouth.
“Do you know what you’re looking at here? Or should I go into my spiel?”
“I would love for you to tell me everything you know.”
8:30pm
Harker glanced down at his watch as the band took a break, the cymbals from the drum set reverberating slightly as footsteps clicked across the stage.
The silent auction was about to begin, and a woman in an emerald-green gown and a man in a black tuxedo were at the microphones going into a clearly pre-written speech welcoming everyone to the event, the witty banter and repartee scrolling along a teleprompter in the back of the ballroom.
It wasn’t exactly a night at the Apollo, but the crowd seemed into it, some scattered laughter following each pause.
One bright laugh in particular caught his attention, and Harker looked up to find Olivia still deep in conversation with the woman from the museum who was handling the jewelry for the evening.
She was a Research Director in the Gems and Minerals department, and the responsibility for the jewels rested in her hands.
Which was exactly why Olivia was talking her ear off about gemology and history.
But he didn’t think they’d be standing this close to each other.
He smirked just as a crackle of white noise hit his eardrum.
He pressed his finger to the earbud he wore, the one that connected to the radio all the security detail shared.
A broken voice alerted them it was time to rotate.
Security would swap off on the half hour, each of the men and women assigned to support the museum working a different area of the display.
Which meant he knew exactly when he’d be tasked with watching over the Heart of Fire.
8:36pm
“What about you two, how long have you been together?”
Gideon had his glass halfway to his lips when the question was sprung on them by the older woman sitting across the table.
They had made it through the beginning of dinner, through the inane welcome speech by the museum committee.
He had half hoped they’d be able to bypass most of the small talk but it was hard to avoid the curiosity of some of the other guests at the table.
He was sure they were all familiar with each other.
The charity circuit. But before he could say a word, Benny gave him a knowing look, her hand squeezing his thigh underneath the tablecloth.
He swallowed as he took a long sip from the champagne glass, the bubbles hitting the back of his throat.
“Oh, not that long,” she said, with a bright and airy smile. “But it feels like we’ve known each other a whole lifetime, you know?”
The older woman chuckled.
“Just wait until you’ve gotten as old as us,” she replied with a playful roll of her eyes, gesturing to the older man sitting beside her.
Gideon guessed they were in their seventies, maybe.
And frankly, they didn’t look as sick of each other as she made it sound. “It really will feel like a lifetime.”
“I don’t know, I think I’d be a pretty lucky man to get to that point.”
One glance at Benny, and he could see the way her skin flushed.
“Excuse us, actually,” he said, pushing his chair back. “I think I promised my girl here something from the auction. We should make our rounds.”
He helped Benny up from the table, his hand curving around hers as they stepped away from the table.
That damned slit in her dress pulled his focus, his eyes focusing on the soft smooth skin of her thigh.
Gideon was going to have a hard fucking time concentrating if this was his view for the night. He cleared his throat.
“ My girl ?” Benny mused as they reached one of the auction tables.
He grinned. “Just playing to the character, princess.”
“And who exactly are we this evening?” she asked, tilting her chin at him playfully. His eyes scanned her face, taking in her blood red lips, the way her skin seemed to glow in the low light of the ballroom.
“Not married,” he said, turning his attention back to the table of auction items. A cruise through the Arctic. A long weekend in the very hotel they were standing in. A date with some rich fuck in attendance. “But definitely in love. Honeymoon stage. Like we can’t get enough of each other.”
She let out a low sigh.
“Honestly not sure I can swing that.”
“A glass of champagne?”
He turned to find Cleo standing before them holding a tray filled with glasses, a big shit-eating grin on her face.
Gideon eyed her with a knowing look. Her grin went to more of a polite smile, but there was still an amused flicker behind her eyes.
Benny stepped forward, unable to stifle her laughter, but the sound was so nice Gideon couldn’t bring himself to say anything.
Instead, he watched as she reached for a glass, her free hand hovering near the apron tied around Cleo’s waist. If he wasn’t specifically looking for it, he was certain he’d have missed the tiny spark emitting from her fingers and the Latin that dripped from her lips.
8:42pm
A finger snapped furiously in Cleo’s direction.
She almost ignored it until she remembered where she was.
A man in his mid-forties was staring at her expectantly, waving his empty glass in her direction.
No one at the table seemed to have the good sense to be embarrassed about this.
Still, a job was a job—and this one had a payout they needed to see through.
So, Cleo put on her best smile as she tucked her serving tray under her arm.
“Hi, what can I help you with?”
“Can’t you see I need another drink?” he asked. “Whiskey, neat.”
It wasn’t exactly her job to run drink requests to the bartender, but the overwhelmed catering manager Laura seemed two shakes short of a breakdown, so Cleo nodded silently and grabbed the empty glass from the guy’s hand.