Текст книги "Alien in the Family"

Автор книги: Gini Koch

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CHAPTER 10

MARTINI RECOVERED FIRST, if you could call it that. “Don’t know. Don’t do that again. Ever. Unless we’re alone.”

Chuckie was back to staring at my chest. “Love Aerosmith.”

“Yes, I still do.” I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Come on back now.”

Reader was next to me. “You know, that was possibly the most hilarious thing I’ve ever seen. Not your rack, girlfriend, but their reactions to it.”

“I warned them I was going to use the big guns.”

“They are big, I’ll give you that.”

“Stop looking at or talking about her chest, James.” Martini was growling.

“Jeff? I’m gay, remember?”

“Don’t care. Stop looking at them. Stop talking about them.” Martini looked at Chuckie. “Look at her face or, better yet, look at me, or I’m going to kill you.”

“I saw them first,” Chuckie said. This was true.

Martini was about to lose it, I could tell. “Boys? You either focus on my questions and how we answer them, or . . .” I raised my shirt over my stomach again.

“I don’t want to answer the questions,” Chuckie said. “Punish me for it.”

“That’s it!” Martini leaped up.

I jumped in between them. “Jeff? If you grab him, I’ll be sandwiched between the two of you. Is that what you want?”

Martini growled, loudly, but he backed off.

I kept eye contact with Martini. “Chuckie? Enough with the comedy jokes. Serious questions want serious answers.”

“I really want to be punished for my disobedience,” he said from behind me, and I could tell he was standing. “But okay.” He leaned down and whispered in my ear. “He’s fun to bait. But . . . damn, they’re still magnificent . . . and mesmerizing. Seriously, my parents love you, so, you know, consider the benefits of human marriage.”

“Flattery will only get you so far.” I tried not to smile or blush. Martini’s expression said I failed at both.

“I’ll keep working at it, then.” Chuckie stepped away from us, and Martini relaxed a tiny bit.

“So, back to my questions. Who bugged the room?”

“It wasn’t a human,” Reader said. At least someone was paying attention to the issues at hand.

I turned around to see Christopher, Tim, and my five pilots all staring at me in various stages of shock, as near as I could tell. Claudia had her face in her hands, and Lorraine appeared to be recovering from trying to laugh without making noise. Gower was shaking his head.

“What?”

Tim pointed behind me. I turned around. To see that the wall behind Martini, ergo, the wall I’d been facing, was a mirror.

“Oh.” So I hadn’t noticed that when we got in. So what? “Um . . .” Didn’t quite know what to say. “Whoops” about covered it. But I didn’t feel the need to admit it out loud.

Randy and Joe seemed to be recovering. After all, they had girls in the room who had racks at least as good as mine. Lorraine was still laughing silently, and Joe had her in his lap now. Randy was patting Claudia on the back—I realized she was laughing too, so hard that she was having trouble breathing. My friends, there for me when I needed them.

“The United States Navy is proud to serve under those, Commander,” Jerry said finally. “In fact, I’d like a picture, in case we ever need to remind the rest of the troops what it is we fight for.” Walker and Hughes nodded their agreement.

“Dudes, they’re not that big.” I mean, they weren’t. I wasn’t Pam Anderson material.

“As women love to tell men, it’s not the size that matters, Commander,” Walker said. “It’s how they look in their packaging. Or something.” He sounded dazed.

I looked at Christopher. “What did your dad have to say?”

“He’s never mentioned your breasts!”

I took a deep breath. All the male eyes in the room followed my chest. Even Reader and Gower were looking now. “I meant what did he say about a royal wedding?”

“Huh?” Christopher seemed stunned.

“Jeez, it’s a pair of boobs. Covered up, at least somewhat, in a bra and now, again, in a T-shirt, too. Surely all of you have seen something like them before.”

“Never used as an interrogation device,” Jerry said. “I’m with Reynolds. Punish me for my disobedience.”

I could hear Martini’s growl—it was on “rabid dog” and about to head to “enraged bear”. I decided to try to get things back under control. “Sorry, they’re Jeff’s now. Okay?”

“Lucky bastard,” Hughes and Walker said in unison.

“I’m beginning to see why Centaurion hired you on,” Chuckie added. Martini’s growl wasn’t subsiding.

“Okay! So, we have an alien plot, possibly much more sinister than just asking me if I know which one is the fish fork and which is the butter knife. Can we focus? Either that, or I’m going down to the casino to play craps.”

“Can you change into a low-cut top before you do that?” Jerry asked.

I looked at Reader. “A little help?”

“I saw a great low-cut top in the women’s clothing store in that mall they have connected to the casino. It was glittery and see-through. Want me to go see if they have it in your size?”

I put my hand on Reader’s forehead. “Are you okay?”

He shrugged. “Just trying to sound like one of the boys.” He flashed me his cover-boy grin. “C’mon, you know it’s fun to see Jeff almost pop a vessel.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not helping.” I looked back to Christopher. “Seriously, what did your dad have to say? About why you called him? His wedding? Royal? Bugged?”

Christopher was still staring at me. “I can’t believe you pulled your top up in front of all of us.”

I managed to refrain from mentioning that he’d seen the twins in all their glory a year ago. Apparently, he wasn’t as past all that as he said he was. “Christopher. Info from your dad. Needed now.”

Christopher handed me his phone. It was still open, and the call was still live.

“Mister White?” I figured formality might be a good idea.

“Here, Miss Katt. From what I picked up when Christopher stopped speaking to me midsentence, you’ve used the age-old technique of flashing to get the situation under control. Your ability to adapt on your feet remains impressive.”

“Thanks. Anything for the cause. Speaking of which, we found some weird Alpha Centaurion bug that Jeff and Christopher seemed to have dismantled or at least subdued.”

“Interesting. Alfred would know more about this than I, however.”

“Yes, but I don’t think I want to call Mister Martini at this exact moment.”

“Because Jeffrey’s ready to explode?”

“Wow, you do know him well.”

“Very. How is Mister Reynolds dealing with this?”

“He found the bug. Apparently the C.I.A. has some alien-detector thing. Does nothing by a human, turns purple by a hybrid, green by a pure A-C. And red by the bug. It also turned red by the Unity Necklace.”

“Interesting again. I truly would have expected the Unity Necklace to have become inactive. As we’ve seen, not the case.”

“So, they’re sentient? For real?”

“In a way. Call it smart metal. From our home world, obviously. We can’t make metals here work in the same way.”

“So, the bug, it would have had to have come from the home world?”

“Yes. However, all our families here have their Unity Necklaces. Any who might have been separated when we were exiled here would have made a new one before leaving.”

“How do the bugs work?”

“They attract to a Unity Necklace.” He said it like it was obvious.

“So, any bug can attach to any Unity Necklace?”

“No. Think of them less like a bug and more like a tracking device. These necklaces are hugely important in our culture. The loss of a necklace is devastating. In the past, we had several suicides over the accidental loss. Hence, the tracking devices were created.”

Wow. People killed themselves over losing their necklace? I’d have felt like total crap if I’d lost it, but I didn’t think I’d have gone suicidal. Then again, I wasn’t an A-C.

“So, how does the tracking device work?”

“It’s set to find its necklace. The ones Jeffrey and Christopher played with as children were the ones Alfred and I had for our necklaces. I would have thought they were the only ones in existence for those specific necklaces, but I believe my thinking is incorrect.”

“So, the tracking device finds the necklace, and then what?”

“It transmits location to the owner, by means of another piece of the intelligent metal.”

“Is that how they knew which mountain ranges to light up the night skies with?”

“No, that would have tracked based on Jeffrey.”

“How so?”

White sighed. “It’s more complex. If it’s not relevant at this moment, it would be easier to explain it to you in person.”

“There’s not a bottom line I can give to Chuckie?” Who, I knew without asking, would want a better answer than “tell you later.”

Another sigh. “I would be happy to share it with Mister Reynolds. He actually has the capacity to understand the explanation.”

“I’ll ignore that comment about my mental prowess.” I handed the phone to Chuckie. “You get the scientific mumbo jumbo, but I want the Pontifex back.”

Chuckie shrugged. “Hello, Pontifex White. No, I haven’t demanded this answer yet. Yes, she’s right, of course I’m about to.” He was quiet for a couple of minutes while the rest of us basically watched him listen to the phone. It didn’t seem to faze him, but I was used to that. “I understand. Yes, nothing we can do about it. Yes, that’s a good idea, thank you. Here’s Kitty.”

Chuckie handed me the phone. “It’s based on a process similar to how their Operations Team functions.” Oh, right, the Elves had an official title. “High-level math, higher-level science. Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to know.” He looked at Martini. “We’ll be putting some people onto this—I don’t think we want the heads of American Centaurion tracked like timber wolves, at least not by our enemies.”

Martini snorted. “As if you’re not tracking us.”

Chuckie grinned. “Of course we are. But we’re not your enemies.”

“Right.”

I decided going back to my call with White was the better part of valor. “Okay, happy to have let Chuckie do the heavy thinking. But I do have another question, Mister White.”

“No insinuation that you’re not able to think heavily intended, Miss Katt. I just know where your strengths lie. So, please, do go ahead.”

“The night sky thing. Is that triggered from across space, or does it trigger closer to home?”

There was a pause. “The trigger would be Jeffrey, again, based on the complexities I shared with Mister Reynolds. However . . . I don’t know about the relationship between physical location and original home world.”

“You’re saying you don’t know if the light show went on at Alpha Centauri at the same time as here?”

“In a way. I’m saying I assumed all ties were severed when we came here. But if we were on our home world, the light show, as you call it, is an announcement that a royal match is beginning, the declaration made and accepted, and so forth. And at home it would be triggered by the agent of the royal family who was assigned to guard that particular member.”

I looked at Martini. He still looked upset. But I could tell he was picking up my feelings, because he cocked his head and gave me a questioning look.

“So, Mister White—who’s here, watching Jeff?”

CHAPTER 11

“NO IDEA, MISS KATT. I have to say I doubt it’s any of our own people.”

Made sense but could be wrong. “You’d have told me Beverly was trustworthy, too, though.”

“Yes, good point. Bottom line is I have no idea.” He coughed. “That’s what Alpha Team is for.”

“Oh, fine, got the hint. Thanks so much. If someone announces that he or she is the Royal Family Spy or something, you will manage to let me know?”

“With all haste, yes.”

“Super. So, any other issues we should know about that I’m sure will make my eyes cross?”

“Not that I know of, but, again, I’ll contact you if something occurs to me. Besides, if you’re feeling stressed or confused by something I tell you, just pull your top up, and I’m sure we’ll be even.” He did have a sense of humor. He hid it, but it was there.

“Point taken. Talk to you soon, Mister White.”

“I’m breathless with anticipation of the next call, Miss Katt.”

We hung up, and I tossed the phone back to Christopher. “Okay, so there’s someone here who’s spying on Jeff and probably Christopher, too. Possibly all of the Martini family. The Pontifex has no guess as to who, and we have no guess as to how many. Could be Earth A-Cs who are still loyal to the home world, could be that the home world opened the door on their side and sent one or more spies here.”

“I don’t think it’s anyone who calls Earth home,” Gower said, in his own voice. “Beverly backing Yates, that was understandable. He was our religious leader before he’d been exiled. But we have no loyalties to the Alpha Centaurion throne.”

“You know, the person I’d like to talk to about this is your mother.”

Gower looked startled. “Why? She’s an Earth woman.”

“She warned Michael, so she’s smarter than the rest of your family.” And I had to figure she’d gone through what I was going to, at least in some way. I wanted to talk to her for more than this threat—I wanted to talk to her to find out if she regretted falling in love with an A-C.

“Call your mother and ask her if she’d prefer to come here or have us to go to her.” Martini’s voice made it clear this was an order.

“She’ll want to come here.” Gower grinned. “She loves Vegas, too.”

I knew I’d be able to relate to her. “Great, let’s ensure she gets here safely.”

“I’ll have my father come with her.”

“Have them under guard.” I looked to Chuckie and Martini. “Seriously. Human and A-C. I think Chuckie’s right, and we should be considering this as an invasion of some kind. Which means I want to bring Kevin in, full-time, on this.”

Everyone in the room but Chuckie nodded agreement. We’d all like Kevin around to give Chuckie someone to focus on other than Martini or Christopher.

Chuckie, however, gave me a slow smile. “Nice try. But no. I have Mister Lewis otherwise occupied.”

“But he doesn’t report to you.”

“Oh, actually, he does. Since he’s the assigned P.T.C.U. representative to Centaurion Division, and Centaurion currently reports in to me, so does Mister Lewis.”

I tried not to grimace. “Okay.”

Chuckie grinned. “I know you’re all disappointed. However, I’ve stared down your mother, Kitty. Mister Lewis presents no challenges.”

“Jerk.”

He laughed. “It’s my job. And I’m good at it.” He looked around. “Okay, any ideas about who delivered the bug? And are there any more in the room?”

“I have a question first.”

Chuckie rolled his eyes. “What a shock.”

“Does the necklace transmit information like the bug did or does?”

Martini shrugged. “No idea. Didn’t know they were sentient, bugging us, or tracking us until this hour.”

“Let’s assume it does, in some way. That means whoever’s watching you has been watching for at least six months.”

“Okay,” Martini said, patience clearly being forced. “I can buy that. So what?”

“So, why now? I mean, why right now? It’s six weeks before we’re supposed to get married. I can understand that maybe they wanted to come out and give me whatever test it is that I’m undoubtedly going to fail, but why wait until now? Wouldn’t it have made more sense to do it, say, before you officially proposed? Or right after I said yes?”

“No idea. I don’t know these people, their archaic rituals, or why they’re coming. I just know I hate them.” Martini’s teeth were clenched.

“She’s got a point,” Chuckie said, and I realized he was speaking in a soothing tone. “Look, I’m not accusing you, hell, anyone in this room, of some sort of subterfuge. It’s pretty clear this is a surprise to all involved. Let’s get Gower’s mother and your father out here, and maybe we’ll get some answers.”

“He won’t come without my mother,” Martini said, sounding utterly depressed. “She gets upset if he comes out West without her.”

“Why?” This sounded odd, since all their family, other than Martini himself, Christopher, and White, were back East.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Like every other woman in my life, apparently, she loves Vegas.”

“Great, road trip.” I looked back to Chuckie. “Whoever’s watching Jeff must be watching you.”

“Why so?”

“You got the pineapple. You know, in the Mob, that means you’re marked for death.”

“It’s not a pineapple. And we’re not dealing with the Mob. Besides, that’s F.B.I. territory.”

“I just think they’re after you, too.”

“What are you suggesting? We all go underground into one of the Bases?”

I thought about it. “Actually, no. I think we all want to be really easy to find.”

“What?” This was chorused by Martini, Chuckie, Christopher, and a few of the others.

Reader shrugged and leaned against the table next to me. “Girlfriend’s right. Why make it hard for them? Hard means we have less maneuverability. Easy means they have more of a chance of making a mistake.”

“How so?” Chuckie didn’t sound convinced.

I sighed. “Look, someone’s on Earth, someone I think it’s safe to say we can all consider at least somewhat unfriendly. We haven’t known about it, but they’ve been here at least six months. Maybe they didn’t show up when Jeff made the decision he wanted to marry me, but I feel pretty sure they showed up as soon as I put on that Unity Necklace. So call it six months. We’ve been under observation, close observation, since then. And no one, including ACE, has spotted it.”

Gower twitched. “ACE was not looking for this kind of threat.”

“Can you look now? I mean, if it’s not going to be a conscience issue.”

Gower’s head nodded. “ACE will look. ACE will tell if it will not go against how ACE must interact.”

“That’s great, ACE, and thanks.”

Gower twitched again. “I don’t mind ACE, but I hate the palsy that comes with him.” He sighed. “You’re right, though. I can tell when ACE knows something he desperately wants to tell me but feels he can’t. He’s as worried as the rest of us, but he has no idea of what’s going on any more than we do.” Gower looked directly at me. “No one in his consciousness is clear on what’s going on, either.”

Ah, I’d always known putting ACE into Gower was the right choice. So Terry had no idea of what was up, either. Then there was more going on than just the standard Royal Wedding crap. I considered that my thinking the word crap, let alone the rest of the way I spoke, thought, and acted, was probably going to guarantee that whoever was administering whatever test were going to flunk me. I wondered if Martini was going to have to listen to them and tried not to let the worry that he might get out of control.

A hand was on the back of my neck, massaging gently. He’d picked the worry up, of course. “It’ll be fine, baby,” Martini said softly.

“Let’s hope so,” Chuckie said, his voice crisp. “Because I think Kitty has a point.” He tossed the alien-detector to Tim. “Check out every single thing in this suite.” He looked at my pilots. “There are a few more of them in the small black bag on my bed. Get them, and help him.”

None of them moved. “Guys? We’re answering to Chuckie right now, remember?” I got a couple of betrayed looks, but they all got up and did as requested. “Chuckie, you might want to remember that they haven’t adjusted to the change in chain of command yet.”

“And you might want to remember that they’re all military or A-C trained, which means they adjusted to it the moment Martini said yes. As long as you, White, and Martini are fighting it, however, they’re going to do their best to support insubordination.” He wasn’t smiling

“Don’t talk to her in that tone of voice.” Martini’s voice was low and threatening.

Chuckie faced us, and I saw, clearly, how he’d risen in the C.I.A. so fast. He wasn’t out of control, but his expression was icy, and the authority radiated off of him. “You all, all, report to me now. I’m being nice because I realize it’s a shock and you’re being attacked personally. But if you don’t get it under control within the next five minutes, I’m putting C.I.A. into every Centaurion stronghold, and that includes your family’s estate. We are in a state of international and interstellar emergency, and if you’re not part of the solution, then you are automatically part of the problem. And, better than any human alive, I know how to solve alien problems.”

CHAPTER 12

“BY KILLING US?” Martini’s voice was calm, but I could tell he was ready to attack. “No, Jeff. By outing you.”

Chuckie nodded. “I’ll do it, in a New York Minute. You’ll be so busy dealing with the world governments and worldwide human reactions that you’ll all be dead or leaving within a week.”

“You’re a piece of work.” Martini didn’t sound any more relaxed.

“No. He’s a human. And he’s C.I.A.” I turned around and looked up at Martini. “Jeff, he doesn’t want to. Don’t you understand? He spent his whole life trying to prove you all were really here. Other than my mother and her team, he’s the best friend we have in any government agency. I know you two butt heads, but that’s because you’re alpha males—you, Chuckie, and Christopher—and it’s a natural thing. You and Christopher get along only because you’re so close and closely related. But you conceding authority to Chuckie doesn’t diminish yours.”

Martini didn’t look convinced. “Why do you trust him?”

“Because I’ve known him since I was thirteen.”

“People change.”

“Sure they do. And he has. He’s become more like you. But what he hasn’t become is someone I can’t trust.” I focused all my energy on trying to show Martini what I meant emotionally. I wasn’t sure it was working—my emotions were getting jumbled for a variety of reasons.

Martini took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Fine.” He looked back at Chuckie. “We’ll get it together and keep it together. Sir.” There was no sarcasm in his tone, particularly on the last word.

“I don’t need that. I don’t want that. Kitty’s right—I’m the best friend you have right now. I’m not trying to ‘rule’ Centaurion Division. I’m trying to keep out the people who want to take over and turn you into something none of you want to be.”

Oh, I knew what that was. “The War Division.”

“Right. How’d you know?” Chuckie didn’t seem worried, just curious.

“Leventhal Reid couldn’t have been the only politician out there who could see the advantages of turning the A-Cs into weapons. The parasites are slowing down, and the only thing stopping them from pushing for a change in A-C status is the fact that ACE is in Paul, and that means Centaurion can pull out the biggest gun this planet’s ever seen.” Of course, ACE wouldn’t do it, and Paul wouldn’t okay it, but that was, at least currently, our little secret.

Chuckie’s expression told me he was in on the secret, however. I did know him well, and I could tell when he knew I wasn’t telling him everything. I could also tell when he knew what it was I wasn’t telling him. But he didn’t argue, just nodded. “Right.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Martini asked. “And what do you want us to call you?”

“What you always have, but leave off the dirty words. However, when your distant relatives appear, figure you’d all better call me something that would indicate to them that you’re not the one ultimately in charge.”

“So I’m back to what we were trying to decide before you two got into your latest fight for dominance. I think we need to be really out in the open and easy to find.”

“Why?” Martini didn’t sound convinced, but he did sound as though he was calming down, which I felt was the more desirable outcome.

“Because—and I’ll say this again since I know no one but James was listening to me—whoever’s watching Jeff and presumably Christopher is also obviously watching Chuckie. I think it’s safe to assume they know we saw the light show. They could be aware Chuckie’s in charge of Alpha Team now, or just think he’s working closely with us, but it’s his room that was bugged.”

“To me, that would indicate we should go into lockdown.” Christopher didn’t sound his usual snarky. I guessed he was still recovering from the twins’ surprise appearance. I wondered how he’d handle a typical Vegas show.

“Not if we want to find them before whoever’s coming arrives. Especially since it doesn’t seem like they’ll be coming via a gate.” I looked around. Apparently I was the only one who’d had this thought.

“Why would you say that?” Lorraine asked slowly. “It’s fast and safe.”

“It’s not grandiose and impressive. The peasants love a good show.”

Chuckie and Reader laughed. “Yeah, girlfriend, they do that.” Reader shoved off from the table. “I know where this is going. Or, rather, where we are.”

“Where’s that, James?” Martini didn’t sound as though he had any idea.

Reader grinned. “We’re gonna stay in Sin City. I’m going to order up clothing and necessities for the entire team for, how long do you think, girlfriend?”

“Week, week and a half. No A-C Elves here.”

“Right. Sounds good. We can buy that top for you later.” Reader pulled out his phone and wandered over to a far corner of the room.

“We’re staying here?” Martini sounded mildly freaked.

“Yeah, I think that might be a good idea,” Chuckie conceded. “They found me here without issue, might as well not make them work any harder.”

“Why are we doing this, exactly?” Christopher asked. “I’m not wild about being out in the open where anyone can attack us.”

“If they’re Earth A-Cs, seeing them here will be sort of an alert, wouldn’t you think?”

There was silence. I could hear Reader telling someone what to pack up for us.

“It’s a big town, with a lot of people coming through,” Gower said finally.

“It’s a big town with a lot of security all through it. This is probably the most secure town in all of the United States. Security we can tap into since we have the C.I.A. intimately involved.”

“Fine. Then you’re all moving into this hotel.” Chuckie went to the room phone and dialed.

“While you’re talking, see if they can tell you who cleaned your room and brought up the spread, particularly the pseudo-pineapple.”

“Oh, yes, Miss I’ll Take Charge.” He grinned at me, though, so I knew he wasn’t angry with me.

So did Martini. “I want to be on record that you and I are not staying on the same floor as him and you’re not, under any circumstances, sleeping in here with him.”

I looked up and over my shoulder at him. “Jeff, of course I’m not going to sleep in here with him. I’m with you, and I’ll be sleeping wherever you’re sleeping.

“Okay, Martini and Kitty, you’re in the suite on the other half of this floor,” Chuckie called, right on cue. “That keeps the floor secure. I have everyone one else on the floor directly under us. Includes room for Gower’s parents and yours, too, Martini. I took all the others that were open, too; we’ll probably need them for a variety of reasons. That fills up the floor, so we’ve got the top two. Means we have roof access without an issue as well.”

Martini started to growl. I turned around again. “Jeff, it’s a huge suite. He won’t hear us.”

“Right. I hate taking orders from him, you know.”

“I know.” I took his hand. “Tell you what. Later on? Why don’t you give me some orders? And,” I moved closer and dropped my voice, “I’ll argue about taking them.”

His eyes started to smolder. “God, I love how you think.”

“Consider this, too—we won’t be on the same floor as your parents.”

“Hmmm, maybe Reynolds is my friend after all.”

Chuckie hung up the phone. “They couldn’t reach Catering. Someone’s supposed to call me back. Housekeeping is the standard staff. But, realistically, I don’t think it was them. The pineapple thing came with the food.”

“Works for me. Jeff, you going to call your dad? And, Paul, you need to call your mom, too.”

Gower nodded, pulled out his phone, and dialed. Martini grumbled. I decided to give him incentive and wandered over to Chuckie. “We need human as well as A-C guards on the Gowers and the Martinis. What do you suggest?” I heard more grumbling, but also heard Martini dial his phone. Good, he had picked up my annoyance.

Chuckie sighed. “I’ll have Agent Lewis handle it.”

“Where is Kevin, anyway?”

“Checking out some leads it makes more sense for a human Federal officer to check out.” Chuckie grinned. “I’m not telling you, so don’t try to get it out of me.”

“I’m sure I could if I worked at it.”

His grin got wider. “Not with Martini around.”

The room phone rang before I could come up with a suitable retort, and he went to answer it. I was relieved and wistful both, which probably wasn’t good.

It was shocking to me to realize I was finding it harder to be here with Chuckie than I’d expected. This part of the Mandalay Bay hadn’t existed when we’d been here, but we’d stayed in the complex. The part of me that was thrilled to be staying here for a week or so was doing its best to ignore the other part that felt it wasn’t a good idea to put myself into any kind of compromising position with a legitimate romantic option. Martini was too easily able to pick up when I was thinking things I shouldn’t be.

Gower and Martini hung up about the same time. “My parents are all set,” Gower said. “My mom’s looking forward to it, my dad, not so much.”

“Have Michael come out here to finish his vacation. We can use the help—we need to have help we know we can trust—and maybe your dad will have more fun if he’s here, too.”

Gower shrugged. “Good plan.” He opened his phone again.

“My parents are coming,” Martini said in a voice of doom. “My mother has a different impression of why we’re here, though.”

“Oh? What does she think we’re doing?”

“Girl-time bonding.” He looked as doom-filled as he sounded. “You might want to see if your parents can come out, too.”

“I’ll see if we have enough rooms.”

Chuckie hung up before I could get my phone out. “Caterer’s a jerk, but the food was catered from one of the restaurants in their version of a food court.”

“Which one?”

“L’Avventura.”

I shook my head. “There’s no restaurant named that here.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I’m positive.” The week with Chuckie wasn’t the only time I’d spent in Vegas, and I lived to eat out at nice restaurants—at least, I had before I’d discovered sex with Martini. Fine dining had dropped a bit on my list since then. But not so much that I wasn’t fully aware of every restaurant here.

I walked over to the huge television that dominated one wall in what I supposed was the living room. The hotel amenities book was there. I flipped through it. “No L’Avventura.”

“Check the mall,” Reader said as he finished his call. “Could be there.”