“Don’t you ever sleep?” I grumbled when I finally brought the device up to my ear.

   “A good assistant never sleeps when there is work to be done.” Silvio sounded annoyingly alert and cheerful. “Or when there is information to share. Just think of this as our morning briefing, Gin. Brought to you through the magic of technology.”

   I managed to swallow down my snarky retort, although I flopped back onto the pillows, not so much holding the phone as wedging it between my ear and shoulder. “I take it that you dug into Roxy and Brody?”

   “Of course. You were right. Neither one of them has been very secretive about their movements, so it was easy to track them. Not even a challenge.” Silvio sounded disappointed by that. “Both Roxy Wyatt and Brody Dalton grew up in Blue Marsh. Seems their fathers were hunting buddies who ran charters out into the swamps, helping tourists bag deer, bears, gators, and the like. From what I’ve gathered, Roxy, in particular, took to the family business like a duck to water, leading the charters after her father died. She’s also exceptionally good with guns. She’s won several trick-shooting competitions all around the country, and she even makes her own bullets.”

   I thought of how easily she’d shot those bottles off the roof during the high-noon show yesterday and how they had all exploded with her Fire magic. “Of course she makes her own bullets. Because she’s not nearly deadly enough on her own.”

   Silvio ignored my sarcasm. “I don’t know exactly how she ended up working at Bullet Pointe, if Deirdre was the one who hired her or if Tucker strong-armed Deirdre into bringing her on board, but Roxy actually has a background in the resort business. She’s worked for several carnivals and theme parks over the years, doing everything from running the concession stands, to being the resident sharpshooter, to actually managing some of the businesses.” He cleared his throat. “But in all the cities where she’s worked, there’s been more than one murder and missing person’s case reported shortly after she arrived, although nothing’s ever pointed back to her.”

   “Surprise, surprise,” I said.

   Roxy must have worked at all those places as cover jobs while she was waiting for Tucker to call and tell her whom to kill next for him.

   “Brody? What’s his story?”

   “Your typical giant muscle. He’s followed Roxy around the country, working at all the same places that she has. They appear to be friends, but nothing more.”

   “So he’s her hunting buddy,” I mused. “Just like their fathers were before them.”

   “Something like that,” Silvio agreed. “I’m still digging into the murders in the areas where they worked. I’ll call you again later today with an update. Try not to get into too much trouble in the meantime, okay?”

   “Me?” I scoffed. “Get into trouble? Never.”

   Silence, although I could well imagine the vampire rolling his eyes. Silvio said that he had more people to contact, and the two of us said our good-byes and hung up.

   I couldn’t go back to sleep, and neither could Owen, so the two of us got up and took a nice, long hot shower together before we got dressed and went next door to Finn and Bria’s suite. My foster brother and my sister were sitting on one of the couches, sipping coffee and looking at printouts of the hotel schematics again.

   “Finally,” Finn said. “I was wondering if the two of you were just going to laze about your room all day.”

   I arched my eyebrows. “And what were you two doing in your suite last night and this morning?”

   Finn grinned, while Bria blushed and focused on sipping her coffee.

   “I rest my case.” I nodded at the papers covering the table. “Do you see anything new or different in those this morning?”

   Finn sighed and shook his head. “Unfortunately, not. Nothing obvious. But those rocks have to be around here somewhere. And someone’s going to find them sooner or later, so it might as well be us, right?”

   He tried to inject some cheer and optimism into his voice, but his words came out as a low growl, and I could tell that he was still as upset, disgusted, and disheartened as he’d been after we’d come up empty in Deirdre’s suite yesterday. Yeah, me too.

   But Finn was right. Someone had to find the jewels sooner or later, and I wanted it to be us, instead of Tucker and his minions.

   I needed it to be us—I needed a win right now, and so did Finn.

   * * *

   We studied the hotel schematics for a few more minutes, then headed down to the lobby, since that was the most logical place for Deirdre to have hidden the gems besides her suite. She wouldn’t have risked stashing them in a guest room for a visitor or housekeeper to accidentally stumble across.

   So we rode the elevator down to the first floor and split up, each one of us heading to our designated section to start searching. Finn went over to the bar area, while Bria scoped out the massive fireplace and surrounding chairs. Owen disappeared down the left hallway to check out the shops and restaurants there. I headed in the other direction and took the opposite, right hallway to do the same to the shops and restaurants on that side of the hotel.

   Splitting up was a risk, but the group of us poking around would look strange and probably tip off Roxy and Brody as to what we were really doing. Besides, this way, they had four people to follow, which would make keeping track of all of us at the same time a little more difficult. Maybe we could at least identify how many people Roxy and Brody had watching us, so we would know exactly who all our enemies were. I’d take whatever small advantages I could get.

   It wasn’t even nine o’clock yet, but the hotel lobby was already full of people, with more and more guests arriving to take the places of those checking out on this Saturday morning. Still more people moved in and out of the shops and restaurants, while the costumed waitstaff hustled to bring out food and drinks to all the guests. Instrumental carols trilled in the background, and the lights on all the Christmas trees burned bright and steady. It was a lovely scene. Too bad so much darkness lurked beneath the holiday cheer.