Locked and Loaded by Alexis Grant

of there. She’s a sitting duck as long as she’s perceived to be Salazar’s woman.”
    Davis gripped the encrypted cell phone and stared at Hayes as he spoke to Hank. The dank, oily water had soaked through his fatigues, but it was hard to tell which chilled him more—that or his worry about Sage Wagner.
    “Both of my decoy agents are already gone for the night,” Hank said, sounding frantic. “She doesn’t have access to her encrypted cell phone and there’s no way to get word to her tonight without compromising her cover in Miami. They’ll go for Salazar first while he’s in New Orleans, then—”
    “What room is she in at the Ritz?”
    He ignored the glance of concern Hayes shot in his direction.
    “Twelve fifty-five,” Hank said cautiously.
    “Have an agent call her from the desk citing a plumbing problem. Get her to move to a room that Salazar’s security goons didn’t arrange for her, so that she knows she can speak freely. If they’re in an adjoining suite now or something, that’ll bust up the party.” Davis looked at his watch. “I can be there in two hours.”

CHAPTER 7
     
    The sound of her hotel room phone ringing gave her a start. Sage looked at the unit and quickly picked it up. She hadn’t been in her room a good five minutes, not long enough to take her shoes off and get settled, and now Bruno was calling?
    But it wasn’t him or one of the security guys. She recognized Dan’s voice instantly. Her stomach clenched as she braced for the worst. Dan wouldn’t have made contact like this unless the matter was urgent.
    His message was terse. “Hello, ma’am. This is hotel maintenance. There’s a leak in the stack pipe of your toilet that is unfortunately impacting the room below yours. We hate to inconvenience you, but need to move you to another suite. Will that be all right?”
    “Yes … yes, of course,” Sage replied in a wary tone. As soon as the call disconnected, she quickly grabbed her weapon, checked the magazine on it, hid it in her purse, then gathered her shopping bags and the small toiletries kit she’d gotten at the spa.
    Dan arrived at her door wearing a hotel maintenance uniform. His blue eyes held a level of panic she couldn’t decipher. But before he could give her a message, Bruno’s door swung open with a slam.
    He stood in his doorway for a moment wearing only a pair of black jeans and no shirt, frowning. “What’s going on?”
    Sage gave Dan a warning with her eyes to be cool and not to move. It was like doing a standoff with a Doberman. As long as it snarled and didn’t advance, the more still you remained, the better your chances.
    “Drama,” she said with an airy wave of her hand. “Seems the seal or whatever in my toilet stack busted in the wall or whatever, and it’s leaking down to the floor below. So they’ve gotta move me.” She sucked her teeth and shrugged. “They slap all these buildings up in a blink of an eye these days, what can ya do?”
    “Where’re you moving her? I’ve gotta go check out the room.” Clearly annoyed, Bruno kept one hand behind him, concealing his gun, while he body-blocked Sage from peeking into his room. No doubt he had company since the boss was away and guarding her was fairly light detail.
    “Oh, don’t be silly,” Sage said, heading to the elevator with Dan. “It’s just a little leak. I’ll call you from whatever room they put me in.”
    Bruno hesitated, and that’s when she knew she had him. “You sure?”
    “Yeah. It’s been a long day. All I want to do is lie down.”
    Again Bruno hesitated. “Well, hit my cell as soon as you get settled, all right? I want me and the guys to be able to do hallway patrols and to know where you are.”
    Sage let out a long sigh and offered him a bright smile. “Bruno … this isn’t the compound. It’s the Ritz . Hallway patrols? Really? I promise to tell Roberto you guys walked the nap out of the carpet pacing back and forth in front of my room until I