by Remy Richard
She shrugged. “Well, attempted break-ins anyway. It’s proved very difficult for them to actually get into the house, or your wi-fi system, by the way, so kudos on that. That’s pretty much the end of what I know, to tell the truth. They are being paid by someone, I don’t know who, to steal the program from you before you turn it over to Organotech.”
“Why from me?” he asked.
She shrugged. “Your security measures are tough. Theirs are impenetrable.”
Sam eyed her speculatively. “How exactly do you know all of this?”
She stretched out, crossing her feet at the ankles in front of her, apparently now at her leisure. “Well, for a short time I was involved in planning another attempt to try to get the program. But I like a little finesse, you know?”
“Who are you working with?” Holden asked.
“I don’t know. We were set up through an intermediary. Aliases only.”
“How did they find out I was working on the bio-printer program?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who was going to pay for the program once you had stolen it?”
“I don’t know any more than I already told you.”
Holden blew out a frustrated breath and leaned back in his chair. “It seems like you don’t really know much of anything.”
Sabrina’s face brightened, as if she were proud of him. “Well, look at that, you were right! Figuring out everything I know didn’t take long at all! So I’ll just be going now—”
“I don’t think so.” Holden ran a hand through his hair and surveyed her. Considering. “Were you a part of the first two break-ins?”
She smirked. “No. Otherwise they would have been successful.”
“Oh, like this one was?”
“Hey, I got inside, didn’t I?” she said as she tossed her hair.
“You got caught,” he pointed out.
She shrugged as if that were a minor detail. “It was a last minute idea. I’ve been watching you for more than a week now though.”
“Creepy, but not terribly effective it would seem,” Holden said.
“Believe it or don’t. The fact remains that if your head of security hadn’t happened to be standing in the one place he could see me entering the premises, I’d already be gone. Hiding in plain sight is always the best plan,” she boasted.
“Which is why you came with the lawn service,” Holden said, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair.
“Sure. You guys have this place locked up like Fort Knox at night. But during the day you’ve got plenty of staff and lackeys running around. I just had to pick a service provider.”
“Aren’t you clever,” he said, almost to himself. “And what were you going to do once you were in here?”
“Originally just some recon. But apparently my copy of the layout of your house is a little outdated. I thought I was going right into your office,” she said, the slightest hint of frustration leaking into her voice.
“We did some rearranging when we put in the new security system,” he said with a smirk.
She looked around in distaste at the arrangement of chairs and end tables. “I’m guessing you didn’t hire a decorator for the re-do. It looks like a man cave.”
“Sunroom. Thanks.”
She shrugged. “Everybody makes a bad guess every now and then.”
“It seems like your ‘now’ and ‘then’ are closer together than mine. Your last bad guess landed you here,” he pointed out.
“Well, if you’re going to get hurtful, I’m just going to stop telling you my story,” she said with a sniff.
“I’m not too interested in the details of plans we’ve already derailed. I’d like more information on what’s to come.”
“I don’t have anything else to add, unfortunately,” she said without any heat.
He certainly didn’t believe that, but he didn’t think she was lying about everything. Sure, there were holes in her story and he needed way more information to actually act on anything, but something about what she said rang true.
Decision made, he nodded his head and stood up. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Sabrina, good news, you’re going to get a little vacation. You’re going to stay here with us for a little while.”
Sabrina and Sam both stared at him like he’d lost his mind and said in concert, “What?”
Sam stood up as well and paced back and forth across the rug. “What’s the point of that?”
“She lived up to her side of the bargain, so I’m going to keep mine. I’m not going to turn her over to the police. But I can’t exactly have her running around telling people what went on here.”
He leveled a glance at Sabrina. “Plus you can’t expect me to take what you say at face value. I need to verify some of it. So we’re just going to keep you for a little while,” Holden explained in a perfectly rational voice.
And it was completely rational. Granted, holding a woman hostage wasn’t exactly on his to do list for the day, but hell, he was adaptable. And more importantly, willing to make all kinds of sacrifices where his work was concerned.
Sabrina waved her hand. “Hello. Sitting right here while you calmly discuss kidnapping me. Are you sure I’m the bad guy?”
“Fair enough, I’m a bad person. Just maybe a little less bad than the average in this room right now,” Holden pointed out. “Besides, it’s not like we’re going to keep you locked up in the dungeon or anything. It’s being renovated.”
“Oh, ha ha. You are hysterical,” she said, her voice dripping with disdain. “So you’re just going to keep me here indefinitely.”
“Indefinitely sounds so long. I’m sure it shouldn’t take Sam longer than a day or so to catch these guys.” Holden looked over at Sam with raised eyebrows.
Sam threw up his hands in frustration. “Sure, what the hell? It should be no big deal at all.”
“See, aren’t you comforted, Sabrina? No big deal. And it will probably take less time if you cooperate. In the meantime, you get to catch up on your rest, maybe do some reading. I’m sure we can find a DVD player for you somewhere.”
“This isn’t a country club,” Sam said through gritted teeth.
Holden sighed and tried to explain. “Look, the upshot is that she’s got answers to questions we haven’t even thought to ask yet.” He turned to face Sabrina. “What happens when I let you leave, but these guys try to break in again? You’re my only link right now, which means that I need to keep you close.” He crouched down in front of her chair. “Don’t worry. You have my word that you’ll be safe here.”
“Really? Your word? Well, that makes everything different,” she said sarcastically.
In desperation, she swung her arm out and almost managed to clock him in the face. He stopped her arm just in time and regarded her patiently. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“Neither am I,” she snarled.
“Obviously.” He looked at Sam. “Put her in the safe room.”
He nodded but looked doubtful. “I just want to go on record as saying that this is the worst idea I’ve ever heard.”
“Got a better one?”
“Yeah, let’s just call the police and let them deal with it. Nice, simple, and it has the added benefit of not being completely illegal,” Sam said.
“You know as well as I do that once they arrest her it’s going to be about twenty-four hours until she’s back on the street. And then she’s gone, as is every advantage we’ve got. We’ve been two steps behind these guys for more than two months now. Don’t you finally want to get ahead of them?”
Sam seemed to be considering his words when Holden delivered the clincher. “Plus, there are about ten people in the world who know what I’m working on. Until we know who she’s working for, everyone’s a suspect.”
Sam nodded and started pulling his captive toward the door.
“I can’t believe that you’re going along with this,” she spluttered. “You’re both insane.”
Sam grunted as s
he landed an elbow in his sternum. “Somebody get me some restraints,” he said in a winded voice as they both struggled out of the door.
Holden assumed that Sam had everything under control. Immediately he turned to the phone and called his sister several times in a row. Each time, his call went directly to voicemail.
He wasn’t worried though. Lila had a tendency to shut out the world when she was working, and she was safer across town than she was in a house that was suffering weekly break-ins.
But, just to be safe, either he or Sam was going to have to go over to her apartment and check on her. Probably Sam, since Holden didn’t think he was totally sold on the keep-a-woman-prisoner-for-more-information plan. Not that Holden blamed him. This was probably the second dumbest thing he’d ever done.
The logic was irrefutable though. If they were going to stop these guys, they would need more information. Inside information that she had, he was sure of it. After the first break-in attempt, the police had already blatantly stated that there was very little they could do for him other than drive-bys every now and then. Which was somewhat comforting, but not terribly effective since Holden had been able to predict when they would be driving by to a three minute window after the first twenty-four hours.
The following day he’d hired Sam, a highly recommended personal security expert, to figure out what was going on. Several thousand dollars in high tech home security later, they had narrowly missed capturing the culprits after a second break-in attempt. Sam had taken that one personally since he had almost chased the perpetrator down on foot.
But they’d been in a holding pattern ever since. Unable to let down his guard, but without any more information to go on, Holden was growing weary of the strain. He knew that it was in part what kept him from devoting his full attention to completing the algorithm and the bio-printer program. And his deadline was fast approaching.
It might seem crazy, but at least with Sabrina—or whatever her name was—around, they had a fighting chance at getting more information. Which was what they needed. Holden was a firm believer that there wasn’t any problem that couldn’t be solved by more data. And in this situation, she was his only source of data.
Reaffirmed in his plan of action, Holden picked up the phone again and dialed his friend, Dylan. He answered on the third ring.
“Hey, I need a favor.”
Chapter Two
Sabrina allowed her normally agile feet to falter and her body to stumble hard into the wall. Hopefully it was a convincing show of vulnerability, since her head had connected with the plaster a little harder than she had intended. At least the dull thwacking sound of her skull bouncing off of an immovable object would lend some authenticity to the performance. The headache that was starting to build behind her eyes was a small price to pay.
Sacrifice was sometimes a necessary evil.
A quick glance at her guard showed that this sacrifice wasn’t going to pay any dividends. He barely even paused to make sure that she was all right before continuing their march down the hall. Somehow he managed to prod her into going in whatever direction he wanted without touching her. The sheer size of him kept her moving forward and seemed to block off any options for running away.
Not that she’d get very far with this behemoth within arm’s reach. Sam, she’d heard Holden call him. Well, Sammy boy was surely earning his pay today. If only he didn’t seem so put out about it. After all, he was clearly the winner in their little skirmish. She was the one who was caught and being held against her will.
But hopefully not for long.
She devoted herself to watching every move he made. The more she knew about him, the better of a position she would be in to get away when and if the time came. He was coolly competent in the way of long time military, but he didn’t have the swagger of someone used to being a hotshot.
He’d already seen her seduction technique with his security guard underling so that wasn’t likely to work again and he clearly had no concern for her physical well-being. Maybe he would respond to the idea that they were all just second class citizens to guys like Holden Reed. Rich guys with enough money to buy and sell anyone they wanted. Or to have his employees hold a woman against her will.
Sabrina adopted a confidential tone and purposely slowed her steps and lowered her voice so that Sam would have to lean closer to hear her. “Listen, I’m sorry if I got you in trouble with your boss. It probably can’t look good for the head of security to have people sneaking onto the property.”
Sam didn’t even look her way as he guided her down another short hallway. “It only looks bad if I didn’t catch you in the act. Which I did.”
Sabrina bit her tongue and let the jibe pass. “Well, he doesn’t seem like the most forgiving person under the best of circumstances. I mean, what kind of man has his employees lock up a guest in his house?”
He snorted. “The key to being a guest is being invited.”
“True, but now that I want to leave and you won’t allow me to, I’m officially kidnapped. You could get in a lot of trouble for this. Like twenty-five to life trouble.”
“Of the two of us, I think you’re in the most trouble if the police show up.” Sam stopped by a door with a strange keypad on the knob and opened it wide, gesturing at her to precede him into the darkened room.
“What is this? Who has a keypad entry on a bedroom?” she asked incredulously.
“Just one of my little safety improvements. This is where we keep the safe.” He shot her a mildly harassed look out of the corner of his eye. “It’s emptied now, thanks to you and your friends dropping in on us every few days.”
“Oh, really? He doesn’t kidnap women every other week?”
Sam snorted. “You’re funny. That’s good, you’ll be able to keep yourself entertained.”
He turned to shut the door behind him without another word and Sabrina’s mind whirled as she thought of a way to postpone her solitude. Locked rooms made her crazy. Especially when she was on the wrong side of them. “Wait! Prisoners usually get bread and water, don’t they? I’m dying of thirst.”
Sam paused for a moment before nodding briskly. The door closed between them. “How about a phone call? Prisoners get those too, you know,” she shouted.
His voice came faintly from the other side of the thick door. “Don’t push your luck.” Unfortunately the sound of a code being punched into a keypad came through loud and clear. A standard lock she might have had a chance in hell of picking, but a coded lock from the inside? No way.
With a growl of frustration, Sabrina allowed herself one swift kick to the closed door, creating a loud reverberating sound with the heel of her boot and sending an arching pain through her foot.
With a shake of her head and a softly whispered curse word, she limped to an upholstered wing chair that sat in the corner of the spacious room. As prisons went, it wasn’t bad. And she considered herself to be something of a connoisseur. If it wasn’t for the state of the art lock on the door and the absence of windows, she would be very impressed with what would be a generous guest suite. The decor was high end and the subtle peach and cream color scheme was restful and warm.
Sabrina tugged off her boot and massaged her heel as she made a quick survey of any possible weak points. The door clearly wasn’t an option. A quick glance into the adjoining bathroom proved that there weren’t any windows in there either. However there was a deep soaker tub that had possibilities. An overflowing tub could also make a nice diversion if timed correctly. Too bad she was on the first floor.
She limped back to sit in the chair and take inventory of what she had on her person. Unfortunately Sam hadn’t given her back her bag, not that she had expected him to. That meant that she only had a few tools. A small lock picking set that she kept in her boot and a pen knife that was more suited to opening letters than it was to forcing her way out of a guarded mansion. The only reason she still had the pen knife was because Sam’s pat down hadn’t been too thorough around her br
easts. A kidnapper with a chivalrous side, go figure.
And, of course, her cell phone had been in the bag as well. They had probably found it by now but it would be of little help to them. There were no calls or contacts saved. She kept all of the numbers in her head.
The small pistol that she sometimes carried with her on jobs would have been reassuring, but not terribly helpful. Mike, her mentor and fence, had insisted that she learn how to shoot it but she had always been squeamish. When push came to shove, she just couldn’t see herself actually killing someone. But it had made a pretty plausible threat once or twice. In her line of work, sometimes a little muscle was necessary.
Speaking of Mike, he was probably going to kill her. When he heard about her capture he was really going to go over the deep end, which she really didn’t need. She had her hands full of irrational males as it was.
Sabrina squirmed and tried to force her mind away from Holden Reed. Grainy surveillance shots and peeks through cheap binoculars during recon sessions couldn’t do him justice. Face to face his features had been stronger and his eyes were a deep gray.
She’d thought she’d known everything there was to know about the guy. After all, she had been studying him for two weeks, trying to get a handle on her newest mark. But while she had known everything that could be committed to paper about the man, he had still thrown her for a loop. He had a strange magnetism, an absorbed way of staring at something or someone that made everything else seem to fade away.
A dangerous prospect if that someone had to stay on her guard at all times.
Sabrina shook her head hard to dislodge the mental image of Holden kneeling beside her chair and promising that she would be safe. She needed to concentrate on finding a way out of her cell. It had been a colossal mistake to come in the first place. She should have just followed the original plan. It would have taken longer of course, but at least she wouldn’t be in this situation. At the whims of a man who could call the police on her at any time.
Determinedly, Sabrina shook the lock picking kit out of her boot and dragged a delicate desk chair across the floor until it sat under a small heating and air conditioner vent. Much too small for her to fit through, but it would be as good a place as any to hide her pen knife. The best place to have it would be on her person at all times, but she considered it a stroke of incredible good luck that they hadn’t already found it. She decided she should take Sam’s advice and not push that luck.