“Yeah, right,” he interrupted.
“Maybe I did this because I love you, you moron, and I want to protect you. And thank God I’m here, because without me, you’re throwing yourself right in the middle of this.”
He stared down at her, speechless finally. Had she just said that she loved him? Was that just another ploy? She sure as hell didn’t look like she was joking.
Evelyn reached out for his tie and pulled him in, kissing him fiercely. Luke was still pissed, but he couldn’t help kissing her back, tangling his tongue with hers.
It didn’t seem to matter where they were. As long as they were together, he would want her: kitchen, office, fucking janitor’s closet. He still wanted to push her back against the wall, hike up her skirt and wrap her legs around him.
She let go of his tie and stepped back, but he followed her, not breaking the kiss. If he stopped, they’d go back to fighting, and he didn’t want to deal with that. He just wanted to stay in this sexy cocoon and ignore the reality of where they were and that they were each furious.
She ran her hands over his shoulders and arms and a strange, plastic noise cut through the silence in the room and Luke suddenly realized he couldn’t move his hand.
He broke the kiss and looked over where Evelyn had zip tied his wrist to one of the supports in the metal shelf next to them. “What the hell—”
In a flash, she had his other hand zip tied to the same beam.
“Are you kidding me?” he snapped.
Evelyn stepped away and leaned back against the door. “Sorry, Luke. You obviously have a death wish and I’m not going to let you put yourself in any more danger. I have to go and try to apprehend Easson by myself since Cali won’t want anything to do with him anymore and we won’t have a good way to track him after tonight. So it’s now or never. I’ll get you once he’s out of the way.”
“Evelyn! I am not sitting here doing nothing while you’re out fighting for my life! Now cut these fucking things off me!”
“I’ll be back soon,” she promised as she opened the door.
“Wait! Does this mean you lied?”
She paused. “Lied about what?”
“You fucking know what.”
“Stay here.” She walked out, shutting the door and leaving him alone.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Evelyn blinked back tears as she tried to keep her walk as straight as possible as she went back to the ballroom. Keep it together. She needed to stay focused. Once Easson knew that Cali was on to him, he’d know she and Luke had found out who he was and he’d slip out of their fingers.
Arrest Easson. Get him to flip on Longineu. Get Longineu to spill the beans on all of Thirteen Stars. Problem solved and she would be well on her way to not going back to Texas.
Evelyn pulled out her phone and dialed into headquarters. She’d need backup and support if she was going to bring Easson in. Local police said that it would be about ten minutes before anyone could get there, but Evelyn needed to get eyes on Easson so that they could have some game plan to bring him in once backup got there.
She reached the ballroom and glanced inside, looking for the man who could put all the pieces together. She frowned as she thought back to the file Hotchins had given her earlier that day. If this guy really was black ops like it said, there was a real chance that he wouldn’t flip once in custody. Those guys could handle an interrogation like no other.
She’d just have to hope that loyalty wasn’t his strong suit. She scanned the room once more, but there was no sign of Easson.
Damn it. She headed down the corridor, looking for any sign of him, but nothing. Evelyn reached into her purse to feel the comforting butt of her gun and paused in front of the men’s room. Without giving warning, she pushed the door open. Judging by the lack of curses thrown at her, there was no one there. Just to double-check, she looked inside each of the three stalls, but there was no one there.
If he wasn’t in the ballroom and wasn’t in the bathroom, where the hell had he gone? She’d need to go back to check on Luke to make sure he was still secure, and then she’d do another loop around the building.
She did one quick look through the women’s room before going back to the janitorial closet. Her stomach flipped when she saw that the door hung open. Did Easson already get to Luke?
She ran over and her fears were confirmed when she saw the cut remains of the zip ties and no Luke. “No,” she breathed.
Evelyn twisted around and ran straight into a hard chest. “Luke! I was worr—”
Nope. Not Luke.
She stepped back as she looked up into Easson’s dark eyes.
~~~~~
Luke rubbed at his sore wrists as he snuck into the ballroom, making sure Evelyn was nowhere around. He would’ve been in there for ages if the metal shelving beam he was hooked to hadn’t rusted enough to become sharp and jagged. Just enough for him to work away at the zip tie. But he knew it was only a matter of time before Evelyn realized he was gone and came after him.