Page 2 of Tough as Steele

They continued across the veranda and inside the massive foyer that ran to the front door.

“Any reports of anything suspicious at any of the entrances or out front?” she asked, her breath coming hard now.

He shook his head. “Just got a clean report from everyone.”

“You stay here where I can find you and tell the others to hold positions,” Londyn ordered, taking on her detective persona. If Mimi Vandervoort was indeed missing and had been kidnapped, Londyn would approach this from a law enforcement perspective, not as a company representative. “Lock this place down. Don’t let anyone or any vehicles leave the property.”

“Roger that.”

She bolted up the marble stairs, two at a time, stretching the dress to its maximum limit and fearing it might split. The stone was cold under her bare feet, the intricate wrought iron handrail smooth and shiny.

She reached the second floor landing. Mimi’s frantic assistant, Wendy rushed forward, her short pencil skirt that hugged her curves restricting her steps.

“Are you the one who called out?” Londyn asked.

“Yes. Yes. Mimi’s gone. Her room is empty and there’s a—” Wendy’s words fell off on a sob. She ran her hand through wavy blond hair, her large blue eyes tight with concern. “A note. There’s a note pinned to her pillow.”

“Show me to her room,” Londyn ordered.

Wendy spun, and Londyn followed theclick, click, clickof Wendy’s spiky heels down a long hallway to oversized double doors at the end. They stopped at the doorway where Damon Richards, a guard for Steele Guardians, stood tall and in command in his uniform.

Wendy stepped back and pointed at the door with a shaking hand and fire engine red fingernails. “In there. The note’s in there.”

Londyn looked at Damon. “Have you gone into the room?”

He shook his head. “Zeke told us to hold our positions.”

She appreciated his unwavering obedience. “I’m going in. Keep an eye on Wendy until I come back.”

“Glad to,” Damon said.

“Be right back,” Londyn said to Wendy.

The other woman clutched her hands together and nodded, her eyes wide and frightened.

Londyn drew her weapon, and Wendy gasped. Londyn hated to frighten Wendy more, but no way would she enter the room without taking on the right posture to clear it for everyone’s safety, including her own.

She stepped through the door into a wide vestibule that led to a seating area with lavish furniture, some of the pieces antique and gilded.

“Ms. Vandervoort,” Londyn called out, though she didn’t expect an answer. She didn’t know Wendy from a hill of beans, she’d only met her once, and for all Londyn knew, Ms. Vandervoort was in her bathroom and Wendy had overreacted. Wouldn’t do to surprise the family matriarch.

Londyn rounded the corner to a large chamber with a massive four-poster bed, intricate details carved on all the posts. The room smelled like flowers, gardenias, Londyn thought, recognizing the scent from having helped in her gran’s garden. A note was indeed pinned on the pillow. Londyn wanted to look at it right off the bat, but she stepped to the bathroom to clear the space first.

The area was bigger than Londyn’s bedroom in the big historic house she shared with her sisters and cousins in Portland. In-floor heating radiated warmth from beneath the marble tiles and the sinks and faucet sparkled their cleanliness.

She turned back to the bedroom, looked in the huge walk-in closet, and holstered her weapon as she crossed to the note, her feet sinking into a plush Persian rug.

We have the old lady. We’ll call to arrange a drop for two million in one hundred dollar bills. Don’t answer her phone and she dies. Call in the cops and she dies. Try to locate us and she dies.

No. Oh. No.Mimi had been taken.

Londyn flashed back to an earlier conversation with Mimi when Londyn had done a walkthrough for tonight’s detail. Londyn noticed a lack of exterior security cameras and suggested Mimi install a system. Mimi said she’d lived eighty years without cameras spying on her friends and family, and she could live the rest of her life without them. Little did she know how no video would hamper finding her tonight.

Londyn got out her phone and snapped a picture of the note then took a moment to pray for Mimi’s safety.

“I don’t care who told you to guard this door,” an unfamiliar male voice rumbled from the hallway and broke her concentration. “This is my jurisdiction, and you will let me pass.”

An officer? If so, he had to be from the Washington County Sheriff’s Department. Mimi’s house fell in their jurisdiction. How on earth had they arrived so quickly?

---