Page 15 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold (The Blonde Identity #2)
Alex
It wasn’t hard to spot the tail. The people after them weren’t exactly subtle, but then again, neither were King and Alex
as they fell into step together, wishing for heavier foot traffic. For the cover of darkness. For some kind of distraction
or disaster. Anything that would help them disappear.
“I have two at two o’clock,” Alex said.
“It might be nothing,” King said, even though it wasn’t nothing.
He kept trying to put his arm around her, but the cuffs got in the way, so he squeezed her hand a little tighter and dragged
her across the street, against the light.
It was still early, but there were always people on the street in Vegas, so King and Alex slipped into their midst, heads
low, steps unhurried.
“How are we doing?” He pressed a kiss against her hairline as she rested her head on his shoulder. Because that was the cover.
Only people in love would be out all night, dressed as they were and holding hands.
Casually, she checked their tail in the reflection of a window. They might have been clear. They were almost okay, but King
stopped—frozen—as he looked at her. He brought his free hand up to cup her face. His thumb brushed against her lip—it was
cracked and almost as tender as his voice when he said, “You’re hurt.”
“Yes. That happens on occasion.” The words were dry like the desert and just as dangerous.
“Come on.” She dragged him over an arching walkway that crossed the Strip.
There was no shouting. No running. It honestly felt like they were in the clear, but then, down below them, tires screeched.
SUVs swarmed. People stormed out and started searching.
It didn’t take a genius to know for what.
Or whom. A pair of men headed in their direction.
“I’m getting quite annoyed,” King said.
“With them or with me?”
“Toss-up,” he admitted as they took off running down the Strip as if their lives depended on it. Probably because they did.
So they ran faster, dodging in and out of tour groups and leaping over luggage. Three huge motor coaches were parked in front
of a sweeping drive. Sleepy tourists were waiting to board, and King dragged Alex through the crowd, shouting, “In here,”
as he pushed her toward the towering entrance of the casino.
“Great. Yes. Let’s go into a place with even more cameras.”
The lobby was bustling with people hurrying to catch early flights, stumbling out in dark glasses while hovering on the line
between still drunk and hungover . But King didn’t even slow down. He just kept dragging Alex across the marble floor.
“Don’t mind us!” Alex called to the slack-jawed security guard. “What happens in Vegas, am I right?”
She winked and—
“Did you just do finger guns?” King whispered.
“When in Vegas?” she replied, but he was already pulling her onto the casino’s floor.
It was a maze of blinking lights and ringing bells. People went in but they were never supposed to get out, and Alex wondered
if that was in their favor or against them.
Music and laughter and the constant ringing of slot machines filled the air, and for a person who was trained to see everything,
hear everything— notice everything —it was torture. There were too many sounds and lights and people. Every part of her was overwhelmed by every part of it,
and Alex was grateful for the man holding her hand. King was an anchor in that moment. He was the only thing she needed to
focus on as they ran down the aisles that seemed to sprawl and spread, and she had to admit he was right about one thing:
a person could get lost in here. Maybe they could get lost in here.
But there was no way to disappear—not really. Every square inch would be under surveillance. “If these guys can get access to the casino’s system—”
“They can’t.” He sounded so sure—so certain. So... King.
“But if they—”
“They’re going to think they lost us in here.” He pulled her down the darkest part of the casino floor. There was a wall to
their left and a row of dollar slots to their right.
“But how—”
He stopped and looked at her like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world. “Because they’re going to lose us in here.”
“But how—”
“Because of this.” There was an emergency exit in the corner—a lever labeled do not push. alarm will sound .
And then he pushed it.
Instantly, alarms began to wail. Lights began to swirl. King pushed Alex between a gap in the slots and into the next aisle
while security guards shouted and headed toward the open door. A moment later, King was leading her down a dim and narrow
hallway marked employees only .
“Just out of curiosity, what is your plan? Exactly?”
“My plan is to keep us alive, Sterling.”
“And you’re doing a phenomenal job. What with us being handcuffed and hiding in a place where it is literally impossible to
hide.”
“This is a blind spot.”
“Oh, is it? You psychically divined that, did you?”
“There’s nothing to steal here. Nothing to protect.”
But all she did was cock an eyebrow. “So what’s your big plan now?” He stopped in front of a service elevator and started
punching numbers into the keypad. “Seriously? That’s never going to...” But Alex trailed off when the doors slid open.
King just took her hand and said, “Come on.”