Steele didn’t reply because Isla knew the answer to that question, as well.
“I’ll go through surveillance cameras positioned outside and in the back alley of the club. As far as inside, I’ll have to depend on some of the club attendees already being in our database of people or others to watch.”
“I’m sure there’ll be a few. Let me know as soon as you get the info,” he said and was about to disconnect the call when Isla spoke again.
“Magnum got her home at around two thirty this morning without incident. She hasn’t come up since then. But he placed our cameras all along that alleyway so I can keep an eye on her for you.”
Steele’s hands clenched the steering wheel and his eyes closed for a few seconds before he managed to grind out one word only. “Thanks.”
He wasn’t going to ask anyone about her, especially not Magnum, because he’d been certain that when Magnum told him he would take care of Ravyn, that’s precisely what he’d done. Steele hadn’t returned to his private suite until just after dawn this morning because he’d known that she wouldn’t be there.
It had been for the best. She didn’t need to be at the Office and she definitely didn’t need to learn more about who and what they were. He’d locked the dagger into a box and shoved it under his bed until he figured out how he was going to get rid of it. The fact that it had appeared in his dream last night and not before, told him it was somehow important to everything that was happening. So, until he had it all figured out, it would stay with him.
His communicator buzzed with a message from his personal account. He glanced down at it as the traffic had just started moving, so he had to hurry and get his eyes back on the road. But in that quick glance he saw the message was from one of the banks he kept money in, the bank he’d used to transfer the payment for the dagger to Ravyn. With a pinch of contentment he hoped she was able to do all the things she needed to keep Safeside running smoothly. While Steele wasn’t a believer in running or hiding, he figured there was always a reason for everything. He hadn’t learned what Ravyn’s reason was, but he knew that what she was doing was important to her. For him, that was enough.
A while later Steele pulled into a parking spot a block away from the hotel. He stepped out of the SUV and walked slowly to the corner, waiting for Magnum and Reese to join him.
“They’ve got the whole street blocked off,” Reese said when he stopped at Steele’s left.
Magnum came up on his other side. “Enforcers are everywhere. We should have had Theo come with us so he could tell us who’s a human and who’s not.”
Theo was a Soul Identifier which meant he was able to see through to a person’s soul identity, so if a vampire was—for whatever reason—working as an enforcer, Theo would know.
Steele shrugged. “There’s other ways of figuring out if there’re preternaturals in the building.”
“Yeah? How?” Reese asked.
“First, we’ve got to get into the building,” he said and stepped out into the street.
He could hear Magnum chuckle behind him and knew that Reese was frowning behind his back. They came to a stop at the row of thick yellow tape that had been wrapped around street poles from one corner to the next. Six enforcer vehicles were double-parked in front of the building, blocking in the vehicle marked “fire marshall” and two more with the fire department logo.
“Okay, genius, how do you propose we walk up in there?” Reese asked.
Steele looked to Magnum, who nodded at him. “Easy,” he said.
Then he and Magnum both walked away from Reese, getting closer to the group of enforcers that were supposed to be guarding the front door.
“Whoa, guys, you can’t be here,” one of the enforcers said holding up his hands as Steele and Magnum lifted the tape so they could walk under it.
He was a tall, slender guy with yellow-gold hair peeking from beneath the fitted cap the enforcers wore.
“Officer Grant,” Steele said after reading his badge. “We’re here to see your supervisor.” He walked closer to the enforcer and watched the stern look the guy was now giving him.
The minute Officer Grant opened his mouth to speak—probably to tell Steele he wasn’t going to see any supervisor today—Steele pursed his lips and blew the slightest breath full of sleep dust in the man’s face. The enforcer’s legs wobbled and before he could fall Magnum caught him and laid him gently on the ground.
They could hear the sound of guns being drawn and feet clattering as the other enforcers ran toward them.
Magnum pushed his sunglasses up farther on his nose and looked at Steele who rolled his head on his shoulders.
“Let’s go,” Steele said.
Both he and Magnum turned toward the other enforcers and blew sleep dust in their direction. And because they’d tried to all come after them at once, neither Magnum nor Steele moved to buffer the fall when the dust took effect and each of them hit the ground like dominoes.
Steele looked over his shoulder to see Reese still standing on the other side of the tape. “You comin’, buddy?” he asked with a smirk.
Reese gave him the middle finger and snapped the tape apart before walking through.
There were still people moving around inside the hotel and Steele didn’t want to put them all to sleep, even if it was just a temporary slumber, because that would risk more exposure and Theo wouldn’t like that. He pointed to the stairs instead and Magnum and Reese followed him. They were able to get up to the twenty-second floor using the steps but above that was taped off, and they could hear a number of people
