When she thought she couldn’t stand it another second, they resumed talking.
“Maybe I did hit her too hard. See if she’s still breathing.”
As if on cue, Sidney groaned loudly.
“She’s breathing, all right. Seems to be coming around. Should I tape her mouth?”
“See if there’s tape in the kitchen. Can’t think where else it would be in this crackerbox apartment. And while you’re in there, see if there’s any beer.”
“Okay. Okay. Maybe after I tape her, I’ll take her into the bedroom. Have a little fun while we wait, you know?”
“She’s got a fine bod, doesn’t she? First, get the tape and my beer, then you can do what you want with her.”
“Oh, no,” Lyra whispered.
She heard sirens in the distance. Thank God.
Suddenly, Sidney screamed, and Lyra knew she couldn’t wait any longer. Ringing the doorbell, she stepped to the side so she couldn’t be seen through the peephole.
She heard a loud whisper from the other side of the door. “Keep your hand over her mouth.”
A rustling sound and then nothing. Lyra held her breath waiting. An eternity seemed to pass, and nothing but silence came from inside her apartment. Then she heard faint whispering and a scuffle. She had to do something! Edging toward the door, she carefully inserted her key. With one motion, she unlocked the door and pushed it open as she jumped out of sight. Swinging the lug wrench back, she waited.
A man bolted out the door with a gun aimed to fire. He was huge, wide in the chest and stomach. He wore a black ski mask, and all she could see of his face were his beady eyes. As soon as he turned in her direction, she sprayed. He screamed and grabbed at his eyes. Lyra swung the wrench with all her might at the hand holding the gun. The weapon discharged before it flew out of sight, the bullet grazing her leg.
Stumbling back into the apartment, the man shouted to his cohort. “Get her, get her. Don’t let her grab my gun.”
Right … the gun. Lyra spun around to look for it, but it must have fallen through the railing. The other man tossed Sidney aside as he reached into his own pocket for a gun. He started running toward the door and Lyra, but was stopped in his tracks when Sidney swung a table lamp full force into the side of his head. Howling, he tripped and went tumbling into the sofa.
Lyra rushed forward to pull Sidney outside. Her friend looked dazed and confused. In seconds, the two thugs would be coming out after them.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Lyra urgently whispered.
A shot rang out, hitting the doorjamb. They ran down the stairs and ducked beneath them. On the ground a few feet away, Lyra spotted ski mask’s gun. She had it in her hand a second later.
“Stay behind the post,” she told Sidney as she lifted the gun and took aim toward the stairs, waiting for the two men to emerge. When nothing happened, she took hold of Sidney’s hand and led her into a hallway that connected the front of the building to the back. Standing against the wall in the shadows, they heard footsteps pounding down the apartment complex’s front stairs. Lyra leaned forward just enough to see the two men jump into the rented sedan next to hers. They threw the car in reverse and tore out of the parking lot, slowing only to let the electronic gate open automatically. Their tires screeched as they careened out of the lot and disappeared down the street.
Lyra slumped back against the wall and finally took a breath. “Are you all right?” Lyra whispered.
“I think so. You?”
“Still scared.”
“Me, too.”
Seconds later, two police cars, lights flashing, slammed to a stop in front of their apartment building. Four policemen threw the doors open and got out with guns drawn.
Lyra stepped from the hallway, bent down and put the gun on the ground, and motioned for Sidney to come forward. Police surrounded them.
“She needs an ambulance,” Lyra said. “I think she has a concussion.”
“I’m all right,” Sidney insisted.
“We got reports of gunshots. An ambulance is on its way,” a policeman said. Noticing that Sidney was swaying on her feet, he led her to the steps to sit down while he took a look at her head.
Two paramedics arrived on the scene a minute later. One tended to Sidney, and the other examined Lyra’s leg wound. While he was applying antiseptic and a tiny Band-aid to the minor cut, two police officers questioned her. She couldn’t tell them how the men had gotten into the apartment or what they wanted.
“We don’t have anything of value except our laptops,” she told them. “I did hear one of them say they were going to take Sidney somewhere when it got dark.”
“Then how did they get in?” one policeman asked.
Sidney heard the question and came to stand beside Lyra. “They were already in the living room when I came home, and they weren’t interested in robbing us. They were waiting,” she explained.
“Waiting?” Lyra asked. “Waiting for what?”
“You,” Sidney answered. “Lyra, they were waiting for you.”
EIGHT
SIDNEY KNEW THEY NEEDED HELP.
Even with a police car stationed outside the gate, she didn’t feel safe.
Deciding whom to call was the problem. Of her six brothers, three were FBI agents and one was a federal attorney. Even her sister, Jordan, was married to an FBI agent. All of them would come if she needed them, which was a blessing, but it could also be a curse. Her brothers could be overly protective.
Siblings in large families usually found it impossible to keep secrets from one another, and the Buchanan brothers were no different when it came to their two sisters. If either Jordan or Sidney were in trouble, all the brothers rushed to get in the middle of it, and they couldn’t understand why their sisters weren’t grateful for their assistance. The lack of appreciation didn’t stop them, though. Fortunately, not all of the brothers were available to interfere. The youngest, Zachary, was in the Air Force Academy and, therefore, out of the loop. He and Michael, a Navy SEAL, were usually the last to know what was going on.
Sidney was the quiet one in the family. She was an observer, not a participant, which was why she, like Lyra, was going to be so good in the field they had chosen. She was also independent and determined to live her life on her own terms. In general, she wanted her brothers to stay out of her business and let her make her own decisions—good or bad—but what happened this afternoon was different. Lyra needed their help. Sidney realized that her best friend was in serious danger. Hopefully, one of her brothers would figure out why.
Sidney decided to wait until they were done at the hospital before making the call. Lyra had followed the ambulance in her car so that Sidney would have a way home.
The physician on duty in the emergency room examined Sidney and then ordered an X-ray and a CT scan. “To be safe,” he said. The results were good. Sidney had a mild concussion, but it wasn’t necessary for her to stay overnight. On the drive back home, she nagged Lyra to stop at the store to get some desperately needed chocolate, and Lyra gave in.
“I called maintenance,” Lyra said when they were back in traffic.
“What for?”
“The apartment door. Hank should be putting the frame back together now. If those men broke the lock, Hank will put a new one in. I chose this apartment because it was so close to campus but also because I thought it was safe. The electronic gate and the proximity to the police station … safety outweighed how tiny the apartment was. How did they get inside the main entrance?”
“They probably followed another tenant in. Getting into our apartment was easier. That front door is so old, one good kick and they’re inside.”
“They tried the lock first,” Lyra said. “There were scratches all over it.”
“I noticed that,” Sidney admitted, “but I didn’t notice the frame was messed up until I was walking inside.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve gotten lazy.”
“Me, too,” Lyra said
. “Tell me what happened next.”
“One of them grabbed me. The other guy pulled out a photo, looked at it, and shook his head. He said, ‘It’s the other one.’”
“The other one?”
“You, Lyra.”
Lyra slowed down when they reached their street. They could both see their apartment door. Hank wasn’t working on it.
He must have already finished, Lyra thought. She pulled up to the gate and pushed the numbers. The parking lot gate slowly opened.
“Did you see the photo? Where did they get a picture of me?” she asked as she drove through.
“Someone’s been watching you. The photo was of the two of us walking across the quad.”
“This is so creepy,” Lyra whispered. She pulled into her parking spot and turned off the motor.
“Yes, it is,” Sidney agreed. “The one holding me loosened his grip, and I kicked him hard you know where. That got him mad and he punched me right under the chin. Knocked me out. I’m kind of surprised I didn’t chip a tooth. I don’t know how long I was out, but when I woke up, I stayed still and kept my eyes closed so I could listen to them talking. They were waiting for you to get home, and were planning to take you somewhere. I think they wanted you to give them something.”
“What?”
“I have no idea. Neither of them said what they were after. That’s all I got before you opened the door.”
“Come on. Let’s go upstairs. I want this day to end.”
“I want chocolate,” Sidney said as she followed Lyra, who had pepper spray and her keys in her hands and a box of chocolates tucked under her arm.
“I want a Taser,” Lyra said. “And mace … lots of mace.”
“Are either of those legal in California?”
Lyra shrugged.
Sidney followed her toward the apartment building.
“How’s your poor little leg?” Sidney asked. “I can’t believe you were shot and didn’t say anything when the police got here.”
Lyra laughed. “No big deal. The paramedic was so sweet. How’s your head?”
“Throbbing.”
Once up the stairs, they hesitantly approached their door. The same lock was there, scratches and all, but the frame was repaired.
“We should get a second deadbolt,” Sidney suggested.
Lyra agreed. “Definitely.”
“Wait until you see what they did to the bedrooms. They were definitely looking for something.”
“Jewelry and money?”
“We don’t have any jewelry or money.”
“I’ll go in first,” Lyra said, holding up the pepper spray as she unlocked the door and pushed it open. Blessedly, the apartment was empty. And an awful mess. It would take a solid day to get everything straightened. Drawers had been pulled out, clothes ripped from their hangers, and matresses overturned.
“I’m going to call my sister,” Sidney said. “But I’ll make my bed first because I’m going to be on the phone all night.”
“I’ll make your bed. You relax. Jordan’s a talker, huh?”
“Not really. We’ll probably only talk for ten minutes, but she’ll tell her husband what happened, and he’ll tell my brothers, and you can bet that soon enough all of them will be calling you and me.”
“They don’t need to talk to me. You can tell them what happened.”
“Lyra, you’re part of the family now. You’ve known Alec and Dylan and Nick and Theo and Jordan’s hunky husband, Noah, for a long time. Not only are you my best friend,” she added, “but you saved my life today. It’s the one benefit of being related to so many men in law enforcement. Of course they’re going to help you.”
Lyra smiled. “Yes, you’re right. They’ll help figure this out.” Thank God, she silently added.
“Are you going to call Gigi or your brothers?”
“Oh, no,” she said. “Gigi would worry, and my brothers … you know how they are.”
“They’ll drag you back to the ranch and put armed guards around you.”
“Exactly,” she agreed. She headed to the bedrooms. “I’ll make the beds while you call Jordan. Then I’m taking a hot shower and finishing my paper on Katherine Hepburn films. It’s due tomorrow.”
“Who’s class?”
“Linden’s. He’s such a hardnose.”
Lyra got busy while Sidney looked for her cell phone. She found it under a table, plugged it in to charge it, then used the apartment phone to call Jordan.
“Is it too late to call?” she asked when her sister answered.
“No, of course not,” Jordan assured her.
“Is Noah home?”
“He’s right here. You want to talk to him?”
“Yes, please.”
“Are you all right?” Jordan asked, worry in her voice.
“I’m fine.”
Jordan handed the phone over to her husband, telling him that Sidney wanted to talk to him.
“Hey, sugar, what’s going on?”
“Listen … something happened today …”
NINE
SIDNEY WAS ON THE PHONE UNTIL AFTER MIDNIGHT. JUST AS she had predicted, she had to tell the entire story to Noah, then to Theo, Dylan, Nick, and Alec.
Alec was the last to get through to her. “Who have you been talking to?”
“Our brothers.”
“You should have done a conference call. Would have saved you some time.”
Why hadn’t she thought of that?
“Yes, I should have. Or you could have—”
“I talked to Noah,” he said. “He told me what happened. Do you have any idea what the men wanted?”
“All I know is that they were looking for Lyra. Detective O’Malley spent an hour with us at the hospital asking questions, but neither of us could come up with an explanation.” Her voice shook. “Alec, they were really creepy. I’ve never been so terrified.”
“Do you know how lucky you were?”
Of course she did. “Do you know how many times I’ve been asked that? I have a concussion. That isn’t lucky,” she said just to be obstinate.
“It could have been much, much worse. Lyra used pepper spray, huh?”
“And a lug wrench.”
“Going in … that took guts. Still, she should have waited for the police.”
“She had called them, and she was waiting,” Sidney explained. “But then Lyra heard the two guys getting even more violent, and she decided she couldn’t wait any longer.”
“You both could have been …” He didn’t finish his thought.
“Lyra wants to get a Taser.”
“A what?”
“A Taser,” she answered. “I don’t think she cares if it’s legal here or not. Oh, and mace. She wants to get mace.”
“Let me talk to her. Can you put her on the line?”
“She’s asleep. Do you want me to wake her?”
“No, I’ll talk to her tomorrow. I was going to ask if you two are nervous about sleeping there tonight, but Lyra obviously isn’t. What about you?”
“There’s a nice policeman outside, and he’s going to be there the rest of the night. That’s a real deterrent, right? Besides, I don’t think they’d come back. You don’t either, do you?” she asked worriedly.
“Probably not.”
“And I’m exhausted. I’ll sleep. What do you mean, probably not?”
“You’ll be okay tonight. What’s your schedule tomorrow?”
“Classes.”
“Both of you?”
“Yes, but not the same classes. Why?”
“E-mail me Lyra’s schedule, and yours, too.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ll talk to some people early in the morning, and I’m going to send some help. I wish I could come out there, but I can’t. I promise I’ll send someone almost as good.”
“I see you’re still arrogant,” she said, smiling. “This someone will take good care of Lyra. You trust him, right?”
“Yes,
” he assured. “And just to be on the safe side, I’m gonna get someone to watch over you until we figure this out.”
“Alec, you’re being so sweet. I’m starting to understand why someone as beautiful as Regan married you.”
He laughed. “She lowered her standards. Talk to you tomorrow.”
Sidney hung up the phone, then went to the window to see if the police car was still there. It was parked under a streetlight, so anyone approaching the apartment would definitely see it. Sidney checked the door, put a kitchen chair in front of it, and looked out the window once again before finally getting ready for bed. She wished she had a baseball bat for protection, but she didn’t, so she grabbed a kitchen broom. She might be able to do some damage with that.
She fell asleep gripping the broom handle.
“WHERE ARE YOU, SAM?”
“Seattle.”
“You owe me a favor,” Alec said.
“Saving your ass makes me owe you a favor?”
“That’s how we do it in the United States.”
“Listen, Buchanan, I’m kind of busy …”
“Ask her to get dressed. This is important.”
“Hold on.”
Alec was left waiting for two maybe three minutes, then Sam was back on the line.
“Okay, you’ve ruined my evening. What do you want?”
“When are you going to Los Angeles?”
“I leave tomorrow. Why?”
Alec told him about Sidney and her roommate, Lyra. “I can’t get out there, and Lyra’s in trouble. I thought maybe you could step in for me. You’ve got the time off—”
“Sure, I’ll do it. What about your sister? Is she in danger?”
“I don’t think so, but I’m not taking any chances. I’m gonna ask Max Stevens to watch out for her.”
“How long do you think I’ll be on this?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’ll talk to the detectives tomorrow, but I don’t think they have anything.”
“When do you need me there?”
“As soon as.”
“Yeah, okay.”
“And Sam?”
“What?”
“Thanks.”
LYRA HAD COMPLETED HER paper and had fallen asleep on her laptop. Fortunately, the lid was closed so she didn’t drool all over the keyboard. She slept hard and didn’t really wake up until she showered the next morning. She dressed in jeans and a light blue T-shirt. Usually she wore flats, but today she decided to wear running shoes because they were more practical, and she could run like lightning if she needed to.