He didn’t want to disturb Elena or make any sound, so he stayed still, listening.
There. Downstairs. Footsteps.
He shook Elena awake. She moaned and he leaned near her ear. “I think someone is downstairs.”
Her eyes shot open.
Jed took a look at the alarm on the wall next to her bed.
Nothing. No blinking, no alert. Dead silent.
Shit. He knew he’d installed a foolproof alarm system, and that he’d set and armed it. That someone was in the house meant that whoever was inside was good enough to bypass his alarm system.
No routine burglary this time.
He pointed to her clothes and a pair of tennis shoes across the room. She nodded and slipped out of bed as silently as he did. He grabbed his clothes and slipped into them, got his gun and moved over to her. “Car keys,” he whispered.
She shifted her gaze to the kitchen. There, on the counter. He nodded and took her hand, and that’s when he heard the creak.
Bottom stair. He’d heard it himself a few times coming up and down her stairs. It was a good alert.
She squeezed his fingers. He turned to her and motioned with his head for her to stay quiet, then
backed up to the terrace. The night was warm so they’d left the door open. He pushed her outside.
“Stay here.”
She grabbed his arm. “Where are you going?”
“To see who’s in your shop.”
“We should call the police.”
He nodded. “I will.” He pushed her down. “Stay here and out of sight. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as he figured out if it was someone after what was in her shop, or someone after Elena.
He stepped back into the room and inched over to the doorway leading to the stairs, listening for further sounds of approaching footsteps. He slowed his breathing down, trying to force the adrenaline to calm so he could hear something other than the rush of blood in his veins and his pounding heart.
Once he was calm, he listened. Nothing. Whoever had made the noise on the bottom step must have changed their mind, at least for now.
Until he saw the movement at the top of the stairs.
Shit. Someone had infinite patience, and after he’d made the sound at the bottom of the stairs, had probably stopped and waited to see if someone came after him. When no one had, he’d continued coming up the stairs.
Jed crouched down as the guy reached the top of the stairs and rounded the corner.
After that it happened fast. The intruder moved in a hurry, spotted Elena and pointed his gun.
Jed pushed off and attacked, kicking the gun out of his hand.
The intruder sent off a kick and Jed’s gun went flying, as did Jed. The guy dove for his gun but Jed tackled him, taking an elbow to the face and barely dodging a lethal move meant to kill, not incapacitate.
This guy meant business, and now so did Jed, who hadn’t intended to do anything but disable the gunman. But this guy was determined to take him down, then either kill or capture Elena, and Jed wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
They rolled across the floor together, strength fighting strength. Jed fought a hard blow to the chin and knocked the guy in the throat with his elbow. As the guy fought for breath, Jed knocked a lamp over, grabbed the cord and wrapped it around the guy’s throat.
He fought it off, rolled over Jed and gave him a hard kick to the kidney that had Jed wincing. He struggled for breath, the room spinning, saw the other guy running for his gun. Jed leaped up, dashed for his, turned, aimed and fired.