Free In Her Sights by Keri Ford, Charley Colins Page B

her pulse. It was a little far
away and sounded like it was in the foyer. If that was her hand-painted, porcelain
vases from Italy, these thieves might not make it back out alive. She didn’t
collect a lot of art. Instead when she saw something she liked, she bought it.
She got those vases on her last honest vacation. As in no one died by her hand
during that time.
    The beeping of her security stopped and within a moment, the
phone rang. That would be her current company calling for a vocal password. It
might be outdated but her old system was still reliable. Her employees already
knew to let the phone ring. It would send a message immediately to the police,
and they would be on their way.
    Now all she had to do was buy a few minutes and gather her
thieves in one place. And get it done before those sirens were close enough to
hear. There weren’t footsteps in the hall yet, so she eased from her spot and
slipped around to the door. The hallway was dark and she hurried down it, ready
to engage if they rounded the corner. The hallway emptied into the foyer where
six men stood in the center and fanned out.
    Each carried a flashlight. She hurried from the hall and ducked under a low side table as a beam of
light landed on the hallway.
    “Over here,” one of them whispered.
    Another across from them faced a different hall. One that
led to a library, a sitting room, and then, further down, it wrapped around to
her employees’ rooms.
    “No, this one.”
    “I think it’s this side,” they argued.
    She shook her head. Granted, there were five places to go
once entering the foyer. Six, if the stairs were counted, but they should have
figured this out. With all those exit routes, the center of her house wasn’t
where she wanted them when those police sirens would start.
    They continued arguing back and forth until more light came
from the back of the house. The thieves turned and pinned that area with their
flashlights. She twisted around, taking a guess that whoever was coming wasn’t
with this group.
    The police were already called, so if whoever was coming
decided to fight it out, that just meant she wouldn’t have to get involved. The
less involved, the less she had to lie about later.
    “ Get down on the floor! ” a male voiced yelled out.
She started. That sounded official, but that was not how the police were
supposed to show up. It also sounded somewhat familiar.
    She eased out of her spot, ready to move. Two more men
stepped in the room, and Lexie’s warm, ready-to-attack body completely froze.
    Not the police.
    Her heart pounded.
    Worse.

 
     
     
    Chapter Eight
     
     
    Clayton shifted on his hard seat atop Lexie’s security wall.
The thick branches he intended to cut back once his security was in place
draped around them to keep them hidden. He wanted to catch these fools to get a
break on what was going on. Having fifteen men stationed around her perimeter
would scare anyone away so it was just him and Reid. They were positioned so he
could see inside her office window and along the back of the house. It still
left a lot of ground to cover, but since those were weak areas, he hedged his
bets. She still had her existing security system in places, so she wasn’t
unprotected.
    Reid let out a heavy sigh, dropped his phone in his pocket,
and stared at the dark house.
    “Something on your mind.”
    His best friend stroked a hand over his face and then
shrugged. “You’ve had me reading those Magnolia newsletter things. I must have
read hundreds. I just finished one that was dated a few years ago.”
    “Find something?”
    Reid didn’t profile suspects. He was a bodyguard through and
through, but Clayton was in a bind, needing information. Lexie’s life was
extensive, and they had a lot of ground to cover in a matter of hours. He’d put
Reid to work reading the society pages. Whether the man admitted it or not,
they all knew he liked reading those things anyway.
    Reid rested a hand on his thigh. “Not