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Jeff nodded and turned silently toward the stairs that led back downstairs.
Logan spun Sam’s head into a tizzy with one of his craze-inducing kisses before walking out the door with her promise to lock up and set the alarm behind him.
Chapter 13
Yoshi listened as one of the men he’d hired to watch Samantha Page delivered news he didn’t want to hear. “I think we’ve been made. There’ve been some intermittent outages on the bugs. Some of it could be normal interference. No bug is foolproof, but I’m fairly sure Stone just spotted us. He looks like he’s rallying more protection for her. They’ve got a man outside her house. Stone just left, but if you’re gonna want us to act, now is probably the best time.”
“Hold on,” Yoshi said, then held the phone away from his mouth and relayed the information he’d just been given to Diya.
Diya’s expression turned cold. The faces of her mother and father and her two angel brothers flashed through her mind’s eye and she all but whimpered at the pain of their loss. She’d give anything to be wrapped in the love of her family again. Anything.
“Take her out.”
Yoshi brought the phone back to his ear, prepared to give instructions before Diya interrupted.
“Wait. Strike that. Tell them to bring her to me. Let’s go ahead and draw this out. Let Logan Stone suffer for a while.” She felt a slight, if only temporary, ease in her chest. Yes, bringing him pain would alleviate some of her own.
Yoshi gave the instructions to the man on the other end of the line, smiling as he told the man not to be careful with her. He didn’t care what condition Samantha Page was in when they got her, as long as she was alive enough to let them film her for a few days.
Yoshi was happy with Diya’s plan to let Stone suffer watching videos of Samantha as they tortured and killed her.
Diya laughed when she heard him. Yoshi had a lot stronger taste for revenge than she’d given him credit for when they set out on this journey. It turned out, he wanted payback for her family’s slaughter almost as much as she did.
* * *
Sam set the alarm after Logan left and went up to her bathroom on the third floor to take a hot shower. She figured she would change into the silk pajamas that she’d bought recently, just in case she ended up spending the night with Logan.
She’d thought about getting something skimpy and sexy, but had opted for a soft ivory-colored pants and top set instead. It was more her style, with the light scalloped edging and buttons down the front. It was sexy without being over-the-top, in-your-face slutty.
Although, now that she thought about it, being slutty for Logan had its appeal. She grinned as she reached into the shower and started the water running. Maybe she’d buy something with a little more lace for next time. He made her feel sexy and alluring.
She didn’t feel big and clumsy and awkward with him. Hell, he made her forget her size. She didn’t feel like a woman who was almost as tall as he was when she was around him. She felt downright dainty, and that was saying a hell of a lot.
Sam undid the buttons and slid her shirt off her arms and down her body, then removed her bra, letting her hands trail over her nipples as she did. Logan’s mouth had felt incredible on her breasts earlier. When she slid her panties off, she saw they were damp from the effects of Logan’s caresses, and she couldn’t wait to finally make it to bed with him. To see if it would be as explosive as she thought things would be with him.
Sam pulled open the shower door and let the water run over her hand to test the heat. She hated getting into the shower before the water was good and hot. She loved being warm.
She’d earned more money than she could have imagined on her game. Sam planned to build her own house from start to finish and she knew one thing for sure. Her master bathroom would have a minimum of two shower heads and heated tile flooring throughout to keep her toes warm. Maybe a heated towel rack and toilet as well. Why not go all out?
She placed one leg into the shower, and then froze as a piercing screech filled the house. It took Sam precious moments she didn’t have to realize what it was. Her alarm. She hit the shower faucet to turn off the water, realizing too late that if someone was in the house, they would have heard it and would know her location sooner rather than later.
How would someone have gotten past Jeff? Could it be Jeff coming in for some reason? He wouldn’t trigger the alarm, would he?No. The alarm that was screeching was the internal alarm Zach had set just inside her front door. A laser crossing her inside hallway was a backup precaution in the event anyone disarmed the perimeter alarms. All too late, Sam heard footsteps on the stairs and started toward the panel that led to the crawl space, grabbing the top to her pajamas as she went.
She slid the panel open and climbed through the two-by-four-foot opening, wincing at the darkness. She slid the door shut and then threw her pajamas over her head. She shoved her arms through the holes before moving boxes in front of the door to block it from opening.
It was too late. Sam froze as footsteps hit the top of the stairs.Would they hear her moving the boxes and know right where she was?Her heart felt like it would break straight through her ribs with its pounding, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to choke on the fear.
Please be Jeff, please be Jeff, please be Jeff, she chanted again and again praying she was being foolish by hiding. Maybe he would call out to her and tell her he forgot the code for the alarm. She’d feel like a fool but she’d be safe and that was all she cared about right now.
But harsh voices came to her through the panel door of the crawl space. They sounded as though they were right at the top of the landing, which put them within feet of the bathroom door. Sam crushed her fist against her mouth, biting into her knuckles, and squeezed her eyes shut as her heart slammed in her chest.
“Move it! We’re out of time.”
She heard them move and swallowed a sob, trying desperately to remain quiet. Her mind raced. She had only pushed three boxes against the door. If she pushed any more in place, they would hear her. On the other hand, there didn’t seem to be any possibility that they would leave without checking the crawl space.
Then again, the police and Logan would know the minute the alarms went off. The intruders should know they were almost out of time. Would they give up and leave? Or would they guess that the response time of the police would be long enough to allow them to grab her?
Moving to the back of the crawl space, Sam made herself as small as possible behind a few boxes of winter clothing and silently rocked back and forth. She saw nothing in the space she could use to defend herself with, but she mentally began to prepare.
