Authors: Kelly Abell
As if the guard had heard his thoughts, he proceeded to the deck steps and lazily walked down into the grass, drawing a deep drag on the cigarette. It’s tip flared a bright orange.
He never got to enjoy its effect because Jack hit him like a moving train. The skinny man fell hard and the air flew out of his lungs in a whoosh of breath and smoke. The cigarette flew out of his hands and landed in the damp grass nearby. Jack’s fist connected with the guard’s temple and he was out cold before he ever knew what hit him. Jack reached into the pouch he was carrying and pulled out two wrist ties. He rolled the unconscious man over and slipped one tie on his wrists and the other on his ankles. Then he picked the man up as if he were no more than a sack of feed and threw him over one shoulder.
Jack moved slowly up the deck steps and cautiously opened the back door. To his left was the door to the garage and to his right was the monitoring room. He took a quick look into the monitoring room to make sure he was alone. Relief flooded through him. He didn’t think his leg would withstand another fight.
Jack decided to lock his prisoner in the garage in case he woke up before his work here was done. He opened the garage door and flipped on the light. It was a large garage with room for three cars, but Jack saw only one, a red Mercedes convertible. He scanned the garage and was pleased to find a locking bicycle chain hanging on a hook beside the door. This would be perfect.
Jack dumped the skinny man on the floor against a built-in wooden bench. He linked the bicycle chain through the wrist tie and then chained it to the sturdy wooden leg of the table that was bolted to the concrete floor. That should do it. He wasn’t going anywhere. To make sure he stayed quiet, Jack gagged him with a dirty red bandanna he found lying on the workbench.
Locking the garage door behind him, Jack stepped into the monitoring room. He quickly scanned the monitors, taking in all the images in one quick look around the room. There were seven cameras mounted around the house, inside and outside views flashed on the monitors every 3 seconds. Jack pulled off his ski mask, sat in the chair and studied the control panel in front of him.
He had to flex his fingers to get them warm enough to work the keyboard. He had worked panels like this a thousand times and was quickly able to erase the tape that held his attack on the guard. He messed with the digital coding and the time stamp on the video and built a loop of that corner of the house so he would be able to leave undetected. It would look like that area of the house was quiet all night.
Jack hoped he would find what he was looking for. He had to find Warren’s computer, which he guessed would be in an office, possibly on the first floor. Moving silently across the tiled kitchen floor Jack proceeded up the small hallway that led to the expansive foyer of the house. When he reached the marble tiled floor, he glanced upward toward the top of the staircase, half expecting to see another armed guard waiting for him. The staircase was empty.
He stepped further out into the foyer and glanced around. In front of him were the massive oak double doors that led to the front of the house. To the left of the doors was a living room and directly across from that was a dining room that connected to the kitchen. Beside the living room there was a closed door. Jack assumed that was Warren’s office. He proceeded to the door and tried the knob. Locked. This confirmed Jack’s assumption that this room was Warren’s office. He tried the knob one more time to see if he could jar the door loose but it held fast. He sighed as he reached into is leather pouch for the third time that night. Couldn’t anything be easy?
He made short work of the simple lock and pushed open the door. It swung inward and through the darkness. Jack could see the light from the hallway reflected off a flat screen monitor sitting atop a massive wooden desk. Jack waited until his eyes adjusted to the gloom and then made his way across the thick carpet and sat down behind the desk. He pulled the chain on a small banker’s lamp that sat next to the monitor. He looked under the desk and found the CPU. He took a small memory stick out of his pocket and plugged it into the USB port. He turned on the computer. It whirred to life and the monitor filled the room with a ghostly blue light that when combined with the yellow light of the banker’s lamp tinted the area around Jack’s head an eerie green.
The desktop of the computer came up with no problem and Jack began to search the hard drive for files related to the Emperor. He searched using all types of related words he thought Warren might use to disguise the files. He came up with nothing. He even tried searching with the encrypted code that Carlos had used. Still, he came up with nothing useful. This was too easy, he soon realized. Warren was too smart to keep files this important on a desktop that everyone in the household could have access to. If he had any information on the Emperor at all, it would be on a laptop or another desktop that was completely hidden from view and completely protected from prying eyes. He had to keep looking.
Jack pulled his memory stick out of the computer and shut it down. He needed to go upstairs. Slipping the slim metal stick into his jacket pocket he turned off the banker’s light. Again, he had to wait for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. Jack was blessed with excellent night vision so it wasn’t long before he was moving across the carpeted floor and back out into the hallway. The staircase was grand. It wound its way along the wall and was flanked by a wide mahogany banister wide enough for an adult to slide down. Jack made his way cautiously up the stairs. He had not forgotten about what the guards had said about a woman being in the house. He hoped she was a sound sleeper. The last thing he needed was to deal with some hysterical female.
Chapter 11
Caroline sat bolt upright in bed shaking off the remainder of a very bad dream. Suddenly the pain caught up with her sleepy brain. She reached up and probed her throbbing cheek gently with her fingers. It was still swollen. She ached all over, bolting straight up from a prone position hadn’t helped at all. What had awakened her? Was it a noise? She leaned forward in bed listening, hard.
The house was quiet except for the occasional settling sounds from a huge house like this one. Wait. There it was again. A floorboard creaked near the stairway. She listened harder.
Soft footsteps came down the hallway. It was tough to make them out because the carpet was so thick, but she could definitely hear the steady padding of footsteps. She heard the door to Warren’s private suite open and close softly. Oh God, was he home? Had the trip not gone as expected and he had returned early? Tears sprang to her eyes. She didn’t think she could face dealing with him again so soon. Not after yesterday. What he did to her was so humiliating, she didn’t think she could face anyone for a very long time.
She listened again but all she could hear was the hammering of her heart and her own rapid breathing. Warren said he would be gone for at least a week. That was the only thing that had gotten her through the night, knowing she would not have to face him tomorrow. She heard soft noises coming from the room but when she looked at the door that connected their suites, no light was on. That was odd.
Why would Warren fumble around in his room in the dark? She pulled the sheet up high and tight to her breasts. Maybe it was one of the guards. That was the only explanation she could think of, but she knew Warren did not like anyone in his study when he was away. They would have to be crazy to mess around in there with her in the very next room. If it wasn’t Warren, then someone was up to no good.
There was a loud thump, as if something heavy had hit the carpet followed by a softly mumbled, “Shit.” She caught her breath and started to tremble. A chill crawled its way from the base of her neck down her spine. Something was wrong. The atmosphere didn’t feel right. She was not alone and she knew it wasn’t one of the guards. She just knew it. How could it be an intruder? This house was wired like the Oval Office. No one could get in undetected. The guards would have spotted someone long before they ever got close to the house. What if whoever was in there had killed the guards? What should she do? Pretend to be asleep, hope they find what they came after, and go away?
She lay back down as fast as her painful body would allow and pulled the sheet up around her chin. She curled into a tight ball and closed her eyes, willing whomever it was in the next room, to go away. Her eyes popped open again when she heard a drawer shut, then another one. Someone was definitely looking for something. What if they came into her room? What if they saw her and decided to take advantage of her the way Warren had just hours ago?
No, she shook her head. She just couldn’t go through that again. She would hide. Yes, that was what she would do. She was going to try and make it to the panic room. She knew Warren had one. It was in the back wall of the guest room, right across the hall from her suite of rooms. When she got to it, she would call the police. That thought was more palatable then just waiting on the man to come and get her.
Slowly, she slid the sheet back and sat up in bed. She was so stiff and sore she could hardly move, but she forced herself. She was wearing nothing but a very thin nightgown and no shoes but she was afraid to open her closet and get a robe for fear of attracting the intruder’s attention. Softly, she crept across the room to the door where she stopped to listen again. She could hear the person moving around in Warren’s room and occasionally she would hear a muffled curse. Whatever he was looking for he was having trouble finding it.
Slowly, she turned the doorknob, hoping upon hope that the latch would make no noise when it opened. There was a soft click and the door popped open. She opened the door an inch and peered into the hallway. It was dark except for a pale shaft of moonlight coming in from the window at the end of the hall. It wasn’t very bright but her eyes had already adjusted to the dimness and she could make out the dark shapes of the tables and side chairs in the hallway. Listening one more time and still hearing him in the other room, she decided to make her run for it.
Opening the door wider, she slipped out and began to tiptoe across the hallway toward the other room, but she didn’t see the shoes that were left on the floor right outside her room. In her haste, she tripped over them and fell hard on the carpeted floor. It wasn’t a very loud noise but it was enough. She was struggling to get stiffly to her feet and dash down the hall when the door to Warren’s suite flew open.
“
Stop right there.” A man’s voice said gruffly.
She was not about to stop. She was only a few feet from the open door where she would be safe and she began to scramble toward it like an insect on a hot rock. He was on her in an instant. He grabbed her roughly by the arm and hauled her to her feet. She cried out.
“
Oh, no you don’t. You’re not going anywhere. Don’t even think about screaming because no one will hear you. One of your useless guards left and the other one is indisposed. They won’t be able to help you.”
She shivered, even though the breath against her ear was warm. He smelled strange, kind of sour and metallic. He smelled like blood. Caroline couldn’t get a good look at the man’s face because he was behind her and had twisted her arm painfully behind her back. Her stomach lurched in fear. She thought for a moment she was going to throw up. Her head was swimming from her sudden dash to get away and his abrupt jerking of her to her feet. She swayed slightly.
He caught her and with his other hand, steadied her. She felt cold steel touch the bare skin of her other arm and nearly fainted again. He had a gun.
He began to walk her in front of him back to her bedroom and she couldn’t think of anything to do but fight. She twisted around stomping on his foot with her instep as she did so. He grunted, but his grip remained firm. He chuckled.
“
Bit of a wild cat, huh? I wouldn’t do that again. You’re going to hurt yourself. These boots I’m wearing couldn’t feel a railroad spike come through them, so your bare feet aren’t going to do much damage.”
She was facing his black down jacket and could feel the warmth of his breath on her face. She smelled blood. Maybe he was hurt. If she kept on, she might find the right spot. She continued to fight against him, flailing at him with her free hand and screaming, “Let me go you Bastard.”
Her hand connected with his neck and he sucked in his breath as she felt the soft flesh give under her acrylic nails. His grip eased up only slightly, but it was enough for her to twist free of him. She ran down the hallway a few feet before he was on her again. He tackled her this time, grabbing her by her legs and sending her face down into the carpet.
He was heavy and she struggled beneath his weight but she couldn’t get away. She felt the fly button of his pants pressing into the soft flesh of her butt and then she felt the hardness of him pushing at the flimsy material of her gown. She froze with fear. He was in control and he knew it. Her struggling would only inflame and excite him more, just like it had done with Warren. She went rigid and still beneath him.
His voice was in her ear, quiet and demanding. “I’m going to get off of you and we are both going to stand up. Then we are going to go into your bedroom and have a little chat. I really do not want to use this gun but I will, if you don’t cooperate.”