Breaking Steele (Sarah Steele Legal Thriller)

Chapter 50

Rick was a little paranoid. He had a small room he called the security room. It held the monitors for all the cameras throughout the house, the alarm switchboard, and some other things that just looked like buttons and lights to me.

I’d known them both a long time, so I knew the codes and how to work most everything from the few times I’d house-sat for them. The house was dark with all the blackout blinds drawn. I went through the house, making sure all the doors and windows were locked except for the one right off the back porch. I figured he would go around checking them, and if my hunch was right, he would walk right into my trap.

I turned on all the alarms, but put them into silent mode so I could see what ones got tripped and they wouldn’t send out an audible alarm.

I sat in the dark security room watching, waiting for him to come.

The house creaked in the wind. A timer buzzed somewhere, maybe the dryer. Nothing happened. Maybe Williams had just driven past, nothing more. Was I losing it?

It had been over an hour and I was about to give up when a little red light came on. The large monitor showed a map of the house. And when the silent alarm went off, a message flashed onscreen.

SOUTHEAST WINDOW BREACH!

It was the one I left cracked open.

As I found the monitor for the camera on that side of the house, my hands started shaking again. I needed to throw up, but forced it down. Using my sleeve, I wiped the sweat off my brow. A dark figure ducked in through the open window and stood in the dining room. He was dressed in black with a hood over his head.

A warning message flashed again, but this one was different.

POLICE WILL BE NOTIFIED. TO CANCEL, TYPE IN YOUR PASSWORD!

I typed in the password and the warning message disappeared. I could break a window later if I needed to get some help, but right now I needed time alone with Williams.

Williams—I didn’t know which one—slowly made his way toward the stairs that led up to the bedrooms—my bedroom. I flexed my left hand and began to wrap the right with a torn piece of my shirt. Kickboxing classes taught me to wrap my hands and feet before a fight; it would protect them. And just the act of wrapping the cloth made my hands stop shaking.

I loaded a round in the chamber just like Solomon showed me and slipped the gun in my left pocket. This was it, and just down the hall was a man who wanted to kill me. I was done running. This time, he’d better run.