Athena Force 7: Deceived

by Carla Cassidy

  When she reached her room, she went into the bathroom and removed her makeup, washed her face and brushed her teeth, then pulled on the short pink silk nightgown she usually wore to bed.

  She had just gotten into bed when she heard the faint, but unmistakable sound of glass breaking. She sat up, heart pounding. The sound had come from someplace downstairs.

  She flew from the bed and took the stairs two at a time. She couldn’t be certain, but she thought the sound had come from the back of the house, in the living room area.

  As she entered the living room she turned on the light switch and saw movement at the French doors that led out to the patio. The pane of glass next to the door lock was broken out. Apparently that’s what she’d heard shattering.

  She didn’t hesitate, but ran to the doors, unlocked them and threw them open. In the shadows of the night she saw a figure racing away. Without conscious thought, she took off after the dark figure.

  She ran as fast as she could, surprised that she gained nothing on the intruder, who flew like the wind. When she was halfway to the high wall that surrounded the perimeter of the compound, bright floodlights lit the area enough for her to see the figure leap to the top of the wall then disappear over it.

  She slowed, her breath coming in labored gasps as she realized by the time she reached the wall, the intruder would be long gone.

  “Lynn!”

  She whirled around to see Nick running toward her. “Somebody tried to break into the house,” she gasped as she tried to catch her breath.

  He touched her arm, his features as hard and set as she’d ever seen them. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded. “Whoever it was is gone.” She pointed toward the wall. “He went over the top.” She drew several more deep breaths, then continued. “I’ve never seen anyone so fast. It was inhuman!”

  Nick stared at her for a long moment, but before he could say anything else to her, several other security guards came running toward them.

  His gaze raked the length of her and he tightened his grip on her arm. “Scan the perimeter then go back to your posts,” he yelled to the approaching men, then looked at her once again. “Let’s get you inside.”

  It wasn’t until that moment that she realized how skimpily she was dressed. The silk nightgown clung to her, making her look almost naked with her nipples hardened by the night air and her exertions.

  She was grateful he’d kept the other men away. She didn’t mind Nick seeing her in this condition, but she certainly didn’t want any of the other men to see her like this.

  Together they walked back to the house. “What I’d like to know is how the intruder got past the security cameras,” he said more to himself than to her.

  Lynn said nothing. Her mind whirled with troubling thoughts. At least she knew now she hadn’t been paranoid. She’d sensed somebody watching her and somebody had been out there. But who? And why would they want to get into the house?

  And who could run so fast…as fast as she could?

  When they reached the French doors Lynn excused herself to run upstairs and get a robe as Nick studied the broken glass.

  Minutes later when she returned, he’d positioned a piece of wood over the broken pane of glass and stood at the edge of the patio, staring out into the darkness. “I need to check the security tapes, although I was sitting at the desk watching the cameras and didn’t see anyone come or go over the wall.”

  “I’d like to go with you,” she replied. She wanted to know how somebody had managed to slip past security. She needed to see if the cameras had caught a picture of who had been on the property.

  She followed him around the side of the house and to the shed that served as security headquarters. Lynn had never been in the shed before and was astonished by the elaborate bank of monitors that lined one wall.

  “The cameras monitor the front gate and all along the perimeter of the compound,” he said. “There are a total of twenty cameras.” He pointed to one of the monitors. “That’s the one that should have shown me our intruder going over the wall to escape.” He pushed several buttons on a large console.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but when I got out of my car and was walking to the front door, I sensed somebody nearby,” she said.

  He frowned thoughtfully and sat in the chair in front of the control panel. “We got here around eleven-thirty, and if you sensed somebody hanging around, that means whoever it was came over the wall sometime before eleven-thirty.”

  The picture on the monitor began to rewind, small numbers in the corner providing a time stamp. “Is everything recorded?” she asked, wondering how many times they had recorded her leaving the premises for one of her middle-of-the-night retrievals.

  “Yeah, everything is on a seventy-two-hour loop, so the recorded images are kept for three days, then the tape is recorded over.” He stopped the tape. The time stamp in the corner read 10:00 p.m.

  “Can you tell by this picture where exactly he went over the wall?” he asked.

  She frowned and studied the frozen picture intently. “There,” she said and pointed. “It was just to the right of that tree.”

  Nick fast-forwarded the picture and they both watched the screen. Lynn gasped as the dark figure appeared and seemed to fly over the wall.

  Nick stopped the tape, rewound it and played it again. He played it a total of three times, then stopped the tape and turned to Lynn. “I’ve never seen anyone move that fast in my life. What do you think—male or female?”

  “Hard to say. With the mask and all it could be either.” Whoever it was had been wearing black clothing, and with the darkness of night it was hard to discern a distinctive body shape.

  “We see how he got out, but we don’t see how he got in.” Once again Nick rewound the tape and they watched it in fast motion, beginning at eight in the evening. Nothing. Nick checked all the camera angles, but they couldn’t find out how the intruder had entered the premises.

  A muscle ticked in Nick’s jaw. “There must be a flaw in the security. And the only way an outsider could know about a flaw is if they studied the entire system or somebody from the security team identified the flaw and told them. Both situations concern me.”

  What concerned Lynn was the speed with which the figure had shot across the lawn. Lynn had never met another person in her life that she couldn’t outrun…until now.

  “So what happens now?” she asked.

  He leaned back in his chair, a frown furrowing his forehead. “I need to write a report and talk to Jonas and see what he wants to do.”

  “When I spoke to him this morning, he said he wouldn’t be contacting me for the next few days and I wouldn’t be able to get in touch with him.”

  “Did he say when he’d be back here?”

  She nodded. “He said he’d be back sometime on Monday.”

  “Then I guess I’ll talk to him when he returns.” He swiped a hand through his thick, dark hair. “In the meantime, I’ll add a couple of extra guards to walk the perimeter during the nighttime hours.”

  His features were taut as his gaze once again raked over the length of her. “You were foolish to chase after him.” There was anger in his gaze coupled with the heat of a deeper emotion.

  “I didn’t think. I just reacted. I had just gotten into bed when I heard the sound of breaking glass.” Every inch of bared skin prickled beneath the heat of his gaze.

  “I know there’s a panic room in the house. You should have immediately locked yourself inside and called for security.”

  Lynn thought of the small room that was hidden inside Jonas’s bedroom closet. The bulletproof, fireproof panic room was another of Jonas’s whims.

  She wasn’t going to argue with Nick, but there was no way she’d lock herself into that tiny room and wait for help to reach her. She suffered from just enough claustrophobia that the very idea caused her skin to crawl.

  She would much prefer to depend on her physical skills and face head-on whatever danger mig
ht be present, instead of hiding in what felt far too much like a small, steel-enclosed coffin.

  Nick stood and held out a hand toward her. “Come on, I’ll walk you back to the house. There’s nothing more that can be done tonight.”

  She allowed him to pull her up from her chair, and together they left the shed and walked to the back of the house. She saw several guards in the distance, walking the perimeter of the back wall.

  When they reached the back door he turned to face her, his gaze solemn. He reached out and grabbed the ends of the robe belt and pulled them to tighten the robe around her. “Promise me you won’t ever do anything so foolish again,” he said. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

  Heat blossomed in the pit of her stomach, created both by his words and by his close proximity. “I promise.”

  He used the ends of her belt to draw her closer until her lips were mere inches from his. “I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you.” He gave her no opportunity to reply, but instead took her mouth with his in a kiss that stole her breath away.

  When the kiss finally ended, she wanted nothing more than to invite him inside with her, take him to her room and make love with him beneath the canopy above her bed.

  He seemed to sense her thoughts, her desire, and he released the ends of her belt and stepped back from her. “Go to bed, Lynn. It’s late and I’ve got to get back to the security shed.”

  “I’ll sleep better knowing you’re there.”

  He smiled, touched her cheek with the back of his hand, then turned and walked away. Lynn waited until he was out of sight, then she went inside and carefully locked the door behind her.

  Even the warm glow of Nick couldn’t banish the troubling thoughts that stirred in her head as she once again went up the stairs to her bedroom.

  Who had been on the property? Who had tried to break into the house? Somehow she couldn’t believe it was an ordinary thief. No common thief would attempt a robbery at a place that boasted camera surveillance and guards.

  No ordinary person could run like that. No ordinary person could leap a high wall like the intruder had done.

  There was only one person Lynn knew who was capable of such things, and that was her. Lynn remembered the fantasies she used to entertain about having a sibling. She knew she didn’t—Jonas surely would have known and told her—but perhaps it was possible she had other family out there. It had been a long time since she’d read the news reports about her parents. Perhaps it was time to look at them again.

  Nick sat in front of the bank of monitors staring blankly at first one, then another. The attempted break-in had him disturbed on two levels. First, he couldn’t believe that somebody had managed to breach the security, had figured out where one of the blind spots was and had exploited it.

  More important, he was disturbed by what Lynn had said when he’d caught up with her in the backyard. Superhuman speed and agility and strength to match, those were the same qualities used to describe the superthief who had been plaguing the department for the past two years.

  Nick had always believed Jonas was tied to those robberies. Was it possible that the thief had come here tonight to check in with his boss, not knowing that the boss was out of the country? If that was the case, Lynn fell off his list of suspects. Still he’d stick to the decision he’d made to tail her on her nightly drives for a while. Just to cover all bases.

  He raked a hand down his face and straightened his back, trying to ease some of the tension that had been with him all evening.

  The phone call from his brother had started the first stir of stress. The idea of seeing his father had created a ball of tension in his chest, and being with Lynn, fighting his intense desire for her, had merely served to heighten it.

  He thought of those moments earlier in the evening, when her mouth had been so hot against his, when she’d pressed her body so close that he could feel every curve beneath her clothing.

  She’d wanted him to take her to bed, to make love to her, and he’d wanted it more than he could remember wanting a woman before in his life.

  The most difficult thing he’d ever done was to deny his own desire and call a halt to those kisses.

  As if that hadn’t been difficult enough, seeing her in that skimpy, sexy nightgown—her nipples thrusting out as if to taunt him and her breasts heaving from her exertion—had nearly undone him.

  He’d wanted to take her in his arms and pull her down in the sweet lush grass and make her moan as she’d never moaned before. He’d wanted to lose himself in the pleasure of making love to her.

  Dammit.

  Business and pleasure were mingling together in a dangerous way. Even though his instinct was to protect Lynn, he had to focus on getting the information he needed from her.

  He couldn’t afford to get soft. Too much time and too much money had already been spent in an effort to bring down Jonas White.

  No matter how much he wanted to spare Lynn from the truth about her godfather, tomorrow he was going to step up his campaign with her. He wanted access to financial records, and he needed to see who, exactly, Jonas kept on his payroll.

  He had a feeling that somewhere in those records he would find the identity of the superthief and the information to bring Jonas down. He just hoped Lynn didn’t get crushed in the process.

  Chapter 9

  The next morning Lynn went to class unusually early. She wanted some extra time alone in the computer lab. Although the computer search she intended to conduct could have been done at home on her godfather’s computer, she preferred doing it in the neutral territory of a classroom.

  Before heading for the lab, she went to the student union, wanting to fortify herself with an extra cup of coffee before getting down to work.

  Even though it was early, the student union was hopping with people, most utilizing the coffeemaker and the vending machine that offered snack substitutes for breakfast.

  She got her coffee, then with surprise spied Sonya looking half-asleep and more than a bit grumpy, seated at a table alone. She made her way to the table.

  “What on earth are you doing here so early?” she asked her friend.

  Sonya wrinkled her nose in disgust. “In half an hour a bunch of us are supposed to start painting sets for the play.”

  Lynn sank down in the chair next to her friend. “Painting sets? But I thought you were the leading lady.”

  Sonya snorted indelicately. “Yeah, right. Leading lady, set painter, prop getter, costume seamstress. I can’t wait until I work on a production that has a bigger budget than a buck eighty-five.”

  Lynn laughed. “Just think of everything you’re learning.”

  “What I’d like to learn is what it’s like to have a personal assistant and make more money than Oprah. I’d like to learn what it’s like to get dressed in Dior or Chanel for the Oscars and be nominated for three different awards.”

  “Give it time, Sonya. If you want it badly enough it will eventually happen for you.”

  “I suppose. What are you doing here so early?” Sonya grabbed her coffee cup and took a deep drink.

  “I wanted to get in some extra time in the computer lab.”

  Again Sonya wrinkled her nose. “Sounds perfectly boring. So tell me what’s been going on with you. You’ve been pretty scarce since that night at Sensations. And what about that hunk who took you home from there?”

  “You mean Nick?” Despite her best efforts, Lynn felt the blush she knew reddened her cheeks. “I told you that night that he works security for Jonas.”

  “Right. So, where have you been keeping yourself the last couple of weeks? You haven’t even made it to the Cloister for coffee lately.” Sonya raised one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows. “It’s been my experience that when a woman stops meeting with her friends, there’s a male somewhere in the picture. So tell me, where have you been and with whom?”

  Lynn’s blush grew hotter. It was true, she hadn’t spent much time with her fri
ends in the past couple of weeks. After her classes she’d hurried home each afternoon to see Nick. “I’ve been here and there.”

  Sonya eyed her narrowly. “It’s a guy, isn’t it? I can tell. You’ve got that look about you. It’s the security guy, isn’t it.” She smiled like the proverbial Cheshire cat. “There’s more going on between you two than just the fact that he works for your godfather.”

  The desire to tell somebody how she felt about Nick was suddenly overwhelming. She reached out and grabbed Sonya’s hand. “Yes, there’s more to it than that. We’ve been seeing each other every night for the past two weeks. Oh, Sonya, I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. He excites me, yet puts me at ease at the same time.”

  She paused, aware that she hadn’t even begun to explain how she felt whenever she was with Nick. No words could adequately describe what she felt.

  “Oh, girl, you got it bad. I see it in your eyes.”

  Lynn laughed once again. “I’ve got it so bad it feels good.”

  Sonya squeezed her hand, her features unusually somber. “Go slow, Lynnie. If this Nick is really special, then take it slow and savor every moment.”

  “I am…I mean, we are.”

  “Good.” Sonya released her hand. “And of course it goes without saying that you need to remember that a man is a luxury, not a necessity for women in our generation.”

  “Don’t worry, I don’t need a man to complete me,” Lynn said dryly. “But I sure enjoy spending time with him.”

  “From what I remember of him, the man isn’t exactly hard to look at.”

  “No, he isn’t, and what’s even better, he’s a good guy.”

  “Then, honey, hang on to him. They don’t always come as a complete package.” Sonya checked her watch, then jumped up. “I’ve gotta split. We were told if we arrived late this morning then we’d be spending our Friday night painting sets. Like I want to do that. Call me,” she said over her shoulder as she hurried away.