Page 49 of The Billionaire's Temptation

Regardless, she smiled, pleased that she had a plan to get out of this miserable house. And then her thoughts turned to Levi. Shivering, she wondered what he was doing tonight. Was he out with another woman? Or was he…?

An unexpected sound stopped her. Sitting up, she listened hard. Had she set the security alarm? Of course she had, she knew better than to not have the alarm activated. After the way Blaire and Chad had burst in, she couldn’t afford to take chances.

So, what was the sound?

Her phone buzzed and she grabbed it, but it was just a text message.

“Where the hell are you?” Levi had texted.

“At my house,”she texted back.

Another sound somewhere in the long hallway, barely above a swish, had her fingers trembling.

She thought about calling the police, but remembered the day that the police had handcuffed her. She could still remember the singing heat from the police cruiser against her cheek.

Since she’d been about to go to bed, she’d already turned the sound off on her phone, so when Levi called, there wasn’t any sound. She recognized the call by the way the phone lit up. Clarissa immediately answered. “Levi? Someone is here! Someone broke into my house!”

“I know, honey,” he replied, his voice calm and soothing. “Lance and I are almost to your place. We’re coming up from the back of the house. Where are you in the house? Are you in the master bedroom?”

She slipped out of bed, going to the closet. “No. I’m in a different room on the opposite end of the house.”

Levi muttered that information to someone, most likely Lance. “We’re heading in that direction now. We just saw a flash of light, probably a flashlight, in the primary suite’s window. So we know where the intruders are. Just hang tight, honey. We’re on our way.”

“Thank you!” she whispered, moving towards the closet. “They don’t know that I’m not sleeping in my father’s old bedroom now.”

“Good!” he replied back quickly. “The wires to the security system were cut,” he explained. “Lance is now coming in from the front and I’m coming in through the window right underneath the room I think you’re in.”

Clarissa walked over to the window. Sure enough, she saw two figures moving stealthily across the lawn. One large figure stopped right underneath the window and Clarissa wanted to wave. “I see you,” she whispered instead, then glanced over her shoulder. Someone was definitely in her house and they weren’t trying to be quiet any longer!

“Hurry! Whoever is here, they are getting louder now!”

“I’m inside,” he told her. “Lance is too. We’re heading towards the stairs. We’ve called the police and they are on their way.”

Clarissa looked around. She hadn’t really examined the room too thoroughly, just wanting to sleep in a room that didn’t have memories of her night with Levi. But now she needed a weapon. Oh, how she’d love a can of wasp spray! That stuff made a perfect weapon.

But there was nothing in this room and there wouldn’t be any reason to have wasp spray in a bedroom anyway.

“Wasp spray?” Levi asked, almost chuckling at the thought. “Right, I’m at the top of the stairs. Lance is with me now. We’re heading towards the sounds.”

“Be careful!” she whispered into the phone.

“You stay hidden, love,” he urged. “We’ll be fine.”

There was a loud thud, then several raised voices. In the distance, she could hear sirens wailing, but at the moment, the police were too far out to help Levi or Lance. “Levi!” she gasped. “Don’t you dare die on me!”

There was distant grunting through the line, as if Levi had dropped his phone. Then Clarissa remembered that the driveway gate was locked. She slipped out of the bedroom and rushed down the hallway to the front of the house. There, she quickly pressed the buttons for the security system but…there were no lights indicating that her code was working. Then she remembered Levi saying that the security system wires had been cut. “Darn it!” she hissed.

Reaching into the coat closet, she found an overcoat that must have belonged to her father. She pulled it on over her camisole and panties, all she’d worn to bed, then rushed out of the house. In bare feet, she hurried down the driveway, saying a silent prayer of thanks to Joe who kept the driveway clear of debris.

The police were just rolling up to the gate when she reached it. Clarissa released the locks manually and pushed the gate open. The police officer stopped her cruiser right beside her.

“What’s going on?” the officer asked.

“Someone cut the electricity to my security system. They are in the far bedroom,” she explained, pointing to the bedroom on the left of the house. “There are two others in the house, trying to stop the intruder.”

“There are civilians in the house?” the officer asked, opening her radio so that the information was conveyed to the dispatcher as well as the cruiser behind her.

“Yes, two men, Levi Harris and a bodyguard named Lance –I don’t know his last name. Both of them know what they’re doing.”

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