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“I’m sure,” she assured them.
“Okay.” Clearly, Hawk didn’t buy it. “Set the alarm behind us, yeah?”
“Always do.”
They both kissed her quickly on the top of the head, and she practically had to push them out the door. As promised, as soon as they walked out, she keyed in the code to arm the alarm, listening to the beeps.
Turning, she headed toward the kitchen to clean up and brew a cup of tea. Hopefully that would calm her. She’d only taken a few steps, though, when she froze.
The system hadn’t confirmed the alarm had activated. Weird.
She started to turn back when she saw movement near the hallway that led to the rec room and her office. A man. And she recognized him. He wore the same black suit as the last time she’d seen him—at the diner when he’d been flashing around her picture.
This time, the barrel of his gun aimed at her.
“Don’t scream,” he warned when she sucked in a breath, ready to do just that. “I’ll shoot them when they come in, let ‘em die where they fall, and take you anyway.”
Glaring, she pressed her lips together. She couldn’t let the guys get killed because of her.
Her hands clenched while she tried to be brave, but her knees wobbled so hard, she was terrified her legs would give out. She needed to run. If he shot her… Well, he shot her then. It would be pretty hard to deliver her to traffickers if she had holes in her.
“How did you get in?” she demanded. Maybe if she kept him talking, she could come up with a plan of action. Nothing was forthcoming. Her mind had blanked into flight mode, screaming run, run, run.
He smirked. “Watching. Waiting. It’s what I do. Once I figured you out, I just stood by and kept an eye on things. Mistake number one: Your alarm is too sensitive. I saw it get triggered by that kid. Couldn’t do anything then. Thought about taking out your men and just grabbing you then, but they were on the phone with the cops. Too messy. And I was ordered not to leave a mess. Mistake two…” he said as if he were giving her a lesson. “When it triggered yesterday morning, thanks to the projectile I launched at your barn door, you turned off the alarm.”
Yesterday morning? Oh, God…
“I took advantage of it being temporarily disabled while those dumbshits went to check out things. Almost grabbed you then. But you left too quickly while they were checking things. So I waited.”
She would have bristled at him calling her men names, but she was too horrified by his revelation. “You’ve been here? All this time?”
“Yeah, quite the show you put on, too. Would have liked to see it rather than just hear it. But maybe, sometime soon. The boss owes me, and where you’re going, they don’t mind observers. Might let me sample the goods, too.”
His evil leer raked over her, making her skin crawl even more than it had been. It was then she realized why she’d felt the sense of foreboding all morning. Her intuition had felt his evil presence and the danger accompanying it.
“Can’t touch you yet, though. And I can’t make a mess by leaving bodies, or I woulda grabbed you last night,” he groused. “Damn rules. The rewards are worth it. Boss’ll be anxious to learn what you’ve been up to. What do you suppose he’ll think about you being a little whore? I think he’ll make extra special plans for you; that’s what I think.”
Taking a step back, she shook her head. Bile burned her throat at his implication about her future. Edging away from him, she looked for escape, for something to hit him with, so she could run to activate the panic button to call the cops. Then… Escape. But…the alarm hadn’t activated before. Was the panic button deactivated? Would he do something to Hawk and Cannon if she ran outside? He had a gun and they didn’t.
“Did you do something to the alarm system?”
The lamp on the side table? Could she get to it, throw it at him and actually hit him? Maybe, that would distract him enough that she could grab something else. If she could get to the gun hidden by the front door…
She could shoot at him. More than once.
Run outside.
Scream for them to stay back and call the sheriff.
Something.
Nothing seemed like enough. Nothing would ensure her men’s safety. If they saw her in trouble, they’d come running.
“Yeah,” the intruder said smugly. “That tech shit’s one of my specialties. I like to—”
He cut off with a growl as she grasped the table lamp and winged it at him with all her might. It wasn’t enough. He batted it aside, dropping his weapon, but she was already running. She yanked open the entry table’s drawer and closed her fingers around the grip of the revolver they kept there.
Swinging around, she aimed and released the safety.
