Free The Keeper: Alexa LeGardien by Kaytie Reade Page A

good,” she repeated with less trembling in her voice.
    “All right.” Davidson nodded as he tapped his fingers on the headboard separating the driver from the passengers. “They are ready.” And then he turned to face Alexa and Matt. “Good luck.”
    As the side door of the limo opened up, they were immediately welcome by a swarm of cameras flashes and cheers of a nearby crowd. Granted, the cheers weren’t for them, but that didn’t stop the cameras from being pointed at them.
    Alexa instinctively reached for Matt’s hand with one thought in mind: What the hell did she get herself into? “Whoa,” she exclaimed as a bright flash almost blinded her.
    “I guess it’s lights, camera, action.”
    “I guess it is. Fingers crossed, we don’t die on our first mission. Smile.”
    —             —             —
    “W HAT are you doing?” Alexa asked on high-alert when Matt took her hand and pulled her to the entrance of the ballroom.
    “What does it look like? We are blending in, right?” he extended a palm in front of her. “May I have this dance?”
    “Sure. I’ll have to slip away in, like, twenty minutes, so we—or you will have to socialize.”
    As they neared the very elegant, very spacious ballroom, they were approached by a married couple. Alexa immediately knew who they were from the pictures they’d studied—Emily and Peter Rownley. They were not only the owners of the mansion that Alexa and Matt were in right now, but also the holders of the artefact she had been tasked to retrieve.
    Here goes nothing , Alexa thought, putting on the most realistic fake smile she could. “They are headed towards us,” she muttered. “Game face.”
    “Hi. You must be Evelyn, and you, you must be Richard,” the woman that approached them said.
    Must be, Alexa thought while burying a snicker. The whole scenario was a tad bizarre. She and Matt playing a rich couple as a ruse to steal an artefact that was—according to Leeman— très très important. “Yes, we are.” She spoke as softly as she could, her mind still on retrieving the artefact.
    “You look so young. You’re going to have to refer me to your doctor.”
    Should I be insulted or flattered? “Funny. I’m afraid it’s all genes.”
    Emily smiled wildly, but in a way that didn’t scream ‘friendly’, more like the exact opposite of that. “It’s so nice to finally meet you. And there we were wondering why we had never been acquainted before.” The first thing Alexa noticed was the woman’s very prominent accent—English, not Italian in the least.
    “Probably because we live in a completely different continent,” Matt said.
    “Where, America?”
    Alexa slightly nudged Matt on his side. They weren’t supposed to give out personal information, so it probably wasn’t best to reveal their actual residential location. “No, Africa,” she quickly corrected before she had a time to think through her answer. Africa ? She knew next to nothing about the continent.
    “ Yeah , Africa . It’s a long story,” Matt added, suddenly feeling a little uneasy about the whole situation.
    “Don’t be creeped out, but we had a background check on both of you guys. We do it for all our guests,” Mr Rownley said, his voice deep and just a tad scary.
    “That’s good to know,” Alexa said, stopping herself from visibly gulping.
    “Truth time, we did know you lived in Africa. We were just testing the waters. Forgive us.”
    “Already forgiven. If anyone understands that, it’s us,” Matt spoke confidently. And for a minute, Alexa forgot that he was her Matt. Her Matt that never went to elegant parties, the same one who apparently wore converses to prom, and the same one who puked shamefully after watching a slasher movie with her. The way he spoke conveyed confidence, and for a while she began to wonder what else he was good at other than playing the part of a rich husband.
    They stayed for a little chatter before parting