Lethal Deception (10 page)

April 7

T
he next morning, Cassidy decided that she would move home to her gated community. She and Alexis needed the time alone together, and she needed to be in her own space. The tension between her parents ran high and they didn’t need her in the midst of it. She’d decided against bringing her bodyguard for now.

Within a few hours, she’d e-mailed Amy, fed herself and Alexis and had her car delivered. Anxious to get home, she moved quickly to pack the vehicle and say her goodbyes with promises to bring Alexis to visit often.

Cassidy breathed a sigh as the entrance to her subdivision came into sight. She was so fortunate to live in a beautiful neighborhood with manicured grounds, a clubhouse, pool and tennis courts. Her home was on the back side of the subdivision with a flat green yard that was the perfect host for the brand-new wooden play set complete with swings, a sliding board and sandbox.

Thank goodness Amy had been willing to come decorate the room for Alexis while Cassidy had been in Brazil. Everything should be just perfect. She pulled up to the gate, rolled down the window and waved to the guard. Frederick had been working the gate for as long as Cassidy had been living here. He was in his late sixties, and with his bald head, gold-rimmed glasses and snow-white beard, he reminded her of Santa Claus. She had a feeling he did that on purpose. Frederick returned her wave and opened the bar to let her through. She wove through the streets until she came to her house.

When she pulled into the driveway, she paused. The attic window above her garage was slightly open. She’d have to tell Amy to be more careful next time. She had probably been looking for something during her decorating frenzy and opened it to let out the heat and then forgotten to close it before leaving.

Cassidy pressed the button on the garage opener and pulled into the space. She shut off the engine, pushed the button to close the garage door behind her. She turned to Alexis in the backseat and said, “We’re home, kiddo.”

Alexis looked puzzled. “Home?”

Poor kid, she probably was really confused being jerked from one unfamiliar place to another; being stuck with people she didn’t know. Cassidy was immensely grateful that she’d taken the time to get to know Alexis in the child’s environment before whisking her off to the United States.

Cassidy climbed out of the car and opened the back door to unbuckle the child’s car seat.

“Phone.” Alexis proudly waved the device at Cassidy.

“Yes, that’s my phone. I’m glad it kept you occupied for a while. Just hold on to it while I get you out of this contraption.”

A scraping sound directly above her raised the hair on the back of her neck. Goose bumps pebbled her flesh. She pulled back and looked around the garage, up at the ceiling.

Nothing.

“Out?”

Cassidy focused back on the little girl, yet uneasiness quivered through her and made her pulse pick up a bit of speed. Was someone there? How could there be? She wanted to laugh and convince herself she was just being paranoid. Still…

She clicked the child’s belt back into place so she couldn’t get out. Alexis would be safer in a locked car…just until Cassidy made sure everything was okay.

God, please let me be just hearing things.

Another scrape.

Cassidy jumped, heart thumping. That was not her imagination. What was up there? Had a squirrel found entrance through the open window or was something more sinister afoot? She clicked the lock on the car door. She had to keep Alexis safe.

Another scrape and this time some of the popcorn coating fell from the ceiling of her garage.

Granted, Amy had been over several times to take care of plants and fix up the nursery, but a stray rodent could have made himself at home without too much trouble. She kept telling herself that.

But in the meantime, she needed to climb back in her car and get out of here. Call the cops just to be safe. No one would question her skittishness. Not after the way her life had been going lately.

The garage-door button was located beside the door. She reached for it then stopped, her finger hovering.

Shock skittered up her spine. The light was out.

Usually, it glowed a steady orange.

And it had been on when she’d pulled in because she’d noticed it.

She pressed it anyway.

Nothing.

Had someone been able to cut the wire since she’d pulled in and shut the door?

Blood thundered in her ears as realization crashed. She was stuck in her garage—with a baby to protect. And someone was in her attic—her unfinished attic with scattered pieces of plywood laid for walking and storing small items. The rest of the flooring was covered with insulation. The wires to her garage door ran up into that attic.

The attic where someone hovered.

The phone rang from inside the house.

Panic made her gasp as she tried to decide what to do. Did she jump back in the car and try to call the police on her cell? But she didn’t get good cell reception in her garage. The call might not even go through. Did she take a chance and grab Alexis from the car and run inside to snatch the phone? Or back up and smash through the garage door? Or was she just being crazy as a result of her life lately? However…

If someone hadcut the wire that powered the door, then that meant someone had deliberately waited until she pulled into the garage…and that meant someone was still here…waiting.

That spot between his shoulders itched. Gabe reached back awkwardly to scratch it as best he could. Pacing wasn’t helping. The basketball game on television couldn’t hold his interest.

He couldn’t help feeling that enough wasn’t being done to protect Cassidy and Alexis.

Worry chewed in his gut. What in the world was wrong with him? They were fine. They were protected better than the gold in Fort Knox behind the walls of her parents’ estate.

He tried to distract himself by considering taking the boat out for a spin. The water and the wind always had a calming effect on him. Or he could continue his research into the Coopers and see what he could find, but doing that stirred up thoughts of Cassidy, which, in turn, made that spot between his shoulders itch.

Exasperated with himself, he muted the game on TV and picked up the phone. He dialed her number and listened to it ring. He hung up before her voice mail picked up. Just as he was about to dial her mobile number, his cell phone rang. Relief made him sigh. Cassidy’s cell.

“Hello?”

“Gabe! Gabe, are…there?” Her voice came out in a whisper. “It’s me. I…paranoid, but I think…someone’s in my house. I called 9-1-1…bad…signal.”

“Get out of there, Cass.” Gabe clenched his fist around the phone and grabbed his keys.

“Gabe? I can’t…you. I’m waiting…police.”

He bolted for his car, yelling into the phone, “Cassidy, don’t hang up. Are you there?”

Dead silence answered him.

He hung up then punched in her cell number.

No answer.

Wait, she’d said “my house.” She must have gone home. On the way out to his car, he called her parents’ house, hoping to get someone to give him directions to Cassidy’s place.

Cassidy heard her cell phone ring. She flipped it open and it promptly displayed Call Ended. Then switched to No Signal.

She ground her teeth in frustration and shoved the useless thing into her pocket.

Was someone waiting?

Shivers of fear chased each other up and down her spine.

Think, Cass, think.

Thud. Scrape.

The intruder had somehow managed to climb up into the area above her. The open window above the garage. But how? He’d have to be Spider-Man to scale the brick wall. And why hadn’t her alarm gone off? Amy had forgotten to reset it, obviously.

Another sound; another scrape. Cassidy swallowed hard and shivered. He would have to be careful where he stepped or he’d fall right through the unfinished flimsy flooring.

That did it.

She had to get back into the car. Her gun rested in the storage compartment between the seats. Decision made, she reached for the car door.

The ceiling above her opened up in an ear-shattering crash. A figure dressed all in black with a black ski mask came through and landed like a cat on the top of her vehicle. White plaster and insulation fell like rain around him.

Not bothering to waste her breath screaming, she yanked the door open and vaulted into the seat. When she tried to slam the door after her, a black-gloved hand reached down to stop it.

“No!” she cried. She struggled for a brief second then a desperate idea crossed her frantic brain. She gave in to the hand pushing the door open and went with it. As soon as the figure stopped pushing and moved his hand to the top of the opening, Cassidy slammed the door as hard as she could on the fingers still gripping the top.

The furious scream of pain sent a shaft of satisfaction through her that overrode her fear for a brief moment. As soon as the hand jerked back, she quickly pulled the door shut and slapped the automatic lock. She hoped every bone in his fingers was broken.

The black ski mask appeared in front of her face through the windshield. This time, she couldn’t hold back the scream that ripped from her throat. Evil stared at her. She knew those eyes. Had nightmares about those eyes.

Rafael! From the jungle. How had he found her here?

Oh, Jesus, protect us.

Alexis started crying in the background, scared and confused about all the commotion. With shaking fingers, Cassidy shoved the keys into the ignition and turned the car on.

A black-gloved hand rose as if in slow motion and pointed a snub-nosed pistol against the glass. Cassidy slammed the car into Reverse and stepped on the gas but kept herself upright in case he pulled the trigger. Her body would have to be Alexis’s shield. There was no time to grab the gun from the storage compartment.

Wheels screamed against the concrete, then caught traction, and the car shot from the garage, bringing the door…and Rafael…down with it. Cassidy didn’t care about the door or the car. She just wanted to get herself and Alexis away alive.

Gabe sped to Cassidy’s subdivision. He drove fast. Weaving in and out through traffic on Highway 9, he finally made two more turns and arrived at the gated community.

He pulled up and flashed his military badge to the security guard. He hoped the man wouldn’t question him. “Let me through, will ya? Cassidy McKnight’s in trouble. Police are on the way.” Gabe stuffed down his impatience, tapped his right foot against the gas pedal, his left rode the brake. Nerves zinged along his spine.

The guard frowned at him. “She just came through here not ten minutes ago. She thinks someone’s in her house?”

The bar raised as though in slow motion and Gabe didn’t bother answering. He sped through the minute he could get under it and wove through the streets until he came to the number Marguerite had given him.

The garage door exploded.

“What the…?”

Slamming on the brakes, Gabe threw his car into Park and jumped out without bothering to shut the door. Cassidy’s battered SUV came to a stop at the end of the driveway.

Dirt and debris littered the area.

He started toward her, when he noticed a figure dressed in black stumbling through the hole left in the garage door.

“Hey!” Gabe hollered.

The figure halted, swore and lifted his hand in Gabe’s direction.

A gun.

Gabe dived for protection behind his car door and flinched when the bullet shattered the driver’s-side window. Glass rained down on him, but he ignored it and scrambled for the glove compartment.

Another shot sounded.

He managed to get the .45-caliber weapon from its case. He rolled back out of the car and ignored the glass crunching under his shoes. Slowly, he peeked around the edge of the door—and blinked.

Cassidy crouched behind her open car door with the window rolled down. A gun rested on the top edge where the window disappeared into the door.

The man in black lay amidst the mess in the driveway, blood flowing from the wound in his right shoulder. His left hand covered it while he groaned and cursed.

Gabe wanted to go to Cassidy, but first quickly approached the wounded man to kick the gun out of his reach. No sense in tempting him to try target practice with his left hand.

“The police are on the way,” Cassidy’s shaky voice assured him.

Gabe held his gun on the man while he spoke through gritted teeth. “What just happened here?”

Trembling, Cassidy slid the safety on and lowered the gun to her side.

Sirens screamed in the distance as Cassidy answered Gabe. “I got home and pulled into the garage. Somehow he managed to cut a wire or something after I pulled in and shut the door. He had us trapped.” Gabe heard the hysteria bubble close to the surface, but she managed to continue. “He was in the attic above the garage and then he just…burst through it onto the car…and somehow I managed to get back in the car…and…”