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He figured he’d break it to her gently once he had her alone in her office—she had no classes on Thursday after her lecture hall calculus class, just office hours. But first her teaching assistant and then a string of students appeared at her door needing help, and before he knew it the day had zipped by without him breaking the news to her. He started to tell her as they were walking to the parking lot and her SUV, but then he feared she might be too upset to drive after that.
Telling her at the dinner table was impossible. Neither of the Jones brothers was in attendance, but the majority of the princess’s household was, so Trace postponed the conversation. Conversation? he asked himself. Confrontation is more like it. And confrontation was what he wanted to avoid, although he was afraid that’s exactly what it would be.
He almost managed to tell her right after dinner, but she disappeared into the kitchen to consult with the chef on duty before he could catch her. And from what he overheard of their conversation in French he knew she would be in there for a while, so he finally gave up.
Coward, he mentally jeered. He knew he had to tell her. He’d even rehearsed what he was going to say and how he was going to say it. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Couldn’t bring himself to erase that glowing expression on her face. Couldn’t bring himself to hurt her. Not until he absolutely had to.
Tomorrow, he promised himself grimly as he headed to bed early. No matter what, he would tell her tomorrow.
Chapter 13
The covert team came out of the night, garbed in black, cloaked in darkness. The leader, taller than the rest, held up one hand for quiet when they approached the rear gate, although the team was stealth personified. He punched in the access code turning off the active alarm, then silently swung the gate open just far enough for the five men behind him to file through. Alert, their eyes watching in all directions for any sign they’d been spotted, they waited until their leader noiselessly shut the gate and took the point again.
He nodded to them, and they fanned out, each man already knowing his assigned target—this one heading for the stables, that one heading for the garage, and a third standing guard near the rear gate with an earphone plugged into a police scanner, protecting their escape route.
The leader and his two most trusted men made for the main house some distance away, their soft-booted feet making almost no noise in the snow. They stole around the side of the house to the front door. One of the men picked the lock and would have entered, but the leader caught his arm and shook his head. The leader slipped inside, found the alarm pad on the wall near the door with its timed red light blinking, counting down the seconds before the alarm would shrill, and keyed in the access code to turn the interior alarm off.
The house was shrouded in darkness, silent as a tomb. But the leader waited a moment, his hand upraised to hold his men still, listening closely for any sound of movement. Then he smiled his faint smile. Although the plan had already been discussed in explicit detail, the leader warned his two men with just an exhalation of sound that reached no further than their ears. “Neutralize the household, then follow my lead,” he breathed before fading noiselessly into the shadows.
* * *
Trace woke instantly when the passive alarm went off. No grogginess—just asleep one minute and sharply alert the next. The digital alarm clock on the night table by his bed glowed in the darkness, telling him it was almost 1:00 a.m. Trace had already automatically reached for his gun even as he was responding to the passive alarm lights blinking above his bed.
The passive system had been his idea. He’d approved the active alarm system already in place before the princess had moved in, but had recommended beefing it up with a supplemental active system, as well as the addition of a complex series of motion sensors. Alec and Liam knew the location of every sensor, which were tied into a sophisticated computer with its own backup power source. The computer not only pinpointed the location of which sensor or sensors had gone off, but was also smart enough to not set off the alarm unless more than one sensor was tripped, so that it wouldn’t go off if a rabbit scurried across the lawn. The light panel above his bed told him that not one but five of the exterior sensors had lighted up, and two of the interior ones as well.
They were under attack.
Forty seconds later Trace was dressed and moving silently through the guest house, SIG SAUER in one hand. Even though he was fairly sure neither Alec nor Liam was there because they were both off until Saturday, he quickly checked their bedrooms just in case. He didn’t waste any breath cursing when he found their bedrooms empty, just triggered the silent alarm signal to the Boulder police. But he couldn’t wait—intruders were already in the main house, and his princess was in peril.
