Page 49 of Take the Sub and Run

Until the video feed flashed up a warning and automatically switched to thermal imaging, which revealed four figures instead of one.

Andrei had sat up, shocked and half thinking he was imagining things.

In nonthermal mode, only Sofie was visible, but the feed kept flashing to thermal imagining, and though the vaguely humanoid blobs of color sometimes merged together, he watched them pull her out of bed. Hit her.

He raced down the café stairs, slapping open doors until he hit the ground floor. Rather than going out onto the street, he turned in the narrow hallway and headed for the rear exist.

The fucking thing was locked.

Andrei glanced down at the video, which had switched to regular camera, and the clouds must have shifted because now, there was enough light for him to see three figures in all black. Sofie wasn’t visible, except for one leg. They had her on the floor.

With a grunt, Andrei forced open the back door emerging into the verdant garden. There was a small patio here with tables—probably a break area for the people who worked at the international aid organization on the ground floor.

Andrei scaled the wall and hit the ground, taking out a bush on his way. He should call the National Police Corp. He should call Interpol. Hell, he should call Landon.

To do any of those things would mean stopping, if only for a moment. Every bit of training he’d ever had, told him the smart thing to do was to stop and call for backup.

But Sofie was in danger, and nothing else mattered unless she was safe.

Andrei shoved through overgrown bushes, skirting the fences and walls that delineated the back property line of the buildings. All the while, he held his phone, glancing at the feed every few steps.

He watched them shove her down onto the bed, and his stomach sank with different, sick fear.

No, no, no. Don’t do that to my angel.

The feed switched to thermal. The three figures…retreated?

Andrei cursed when he realized how far he still was from her house. If the assailants were leaving, he wasn’t going to get there in time to beat them to death for touching his angel.

It took him nearly five minutes to reach her house. Crouching low, he slid along the side of the building. Using his phone’s camera, he checked around the corner.

Her front door was closed, and there was no sign of the men outside.

Switching back to the video feed, he could see her heat signature. It looked like she was curled up in bed. The men could be on one of the lower floors. He’d tried positioning the crawler lower, but there was too much vegetation. He’d been happy enough with only having a view of the upper floor when he realized it was her living area.

Now he cursed not having a way to find out if the assailants were on the lower floors. If he tried to go in through the front door and they were still inside, more than likely they’d hear him, and this could too easily become a hostage situation.

He needed to get to Sofie.

Andrei backed up to the rear corner, then swiveled on the balls of his feet and looped up at the tree that obscured the back of Sofie’s house.

Sofie was scared to move. She thought she’d heard the door close, the security system beep, but what if that was a trick? What if they were still here and waiting for her to move or make a noise?

No, her father wouldn’t have allowed that. They respected his word. The way he’d protected her home.

Her home was safe, and what had just happened proved it.

Chest stuttering as she continued to cry, Sofie forced herself to move. To go to the panel on the wall. It unlocked with her palm print. Her finger shook as she tapped the security program controls, but she calmed a little when she watched the footage of the three men leaving. She didn’t go back far enough to see them entering.

Sofie swiped at her cheeks with her palms, wishing for dawn. Maybe she would go paint. Or sew. Colette had bought more than enough fabric. She could make another dress with the pale lavender satin.

No. What would be the point? She’d would never have anywhere to wear it.

She’d make it for Colette, and next time Colette came to commission a painting…

Except, would she? Colette was now going to steal things only to help museums improve their security. Would she need copies of the works she stole to do that?

A sense of loss swept over her, and Sofie pressed her back to the wall, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. Colette wasn’t the only person she worked for, but Colette was the only one she considered a friend. Now who did she have? No one.

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