Executive Protection(51)

“All right,” Thad relented. “We’ll leave on Friday.”

Lucy would have plenty of time to get Sophie’s things and pack.

“It’s Sophie’s birthday this weekend,” Lucy verbalized her realization. “I’ll go shopping for the monster dolls.”

“I’ll arrange for a dollhouse to be delivered to the beach house,” Kate said.

Lucy looked at Thad the same time Kate did.

He met each one and then said, “I’ll get her a bicycle. There are adult bikes already there.”

This had the feel of a real family vacation. Lucy couldn’t tame her smile.

“I can’t wait to hear all about it when you get back,” Kate said.

Now brooding, Thad stood. “I’ll call Darcy in the morning.”

He strode from the room.

Kate waited until he was out of earshot. “You just might be the best thing to walk into his life.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it.”

* * *

Thad headed for a storage room where Security kept their records, beset by the prospect of spending a long weekend at the Carova beach house. His mother was right. He should let her try to get information, and Lucy and Sophie would be safe if he took them away for a while. Not knowing who paid Layne to kidnap Sophie bothered him.

The house was dark and quiet at this hour. The agents were at their posts for the night and none would come near the file room. He’d copied one of the keys so he could monitor the video recordings without anyone knowing. Unlocking the door, he entered the ten-by-eleven room lined with shelves and a few file cabinets. The shelves were half-full of file boxes and in the center was a rectangular table with a computer. Sitting on the stool there, he logged in as he had every night since catching Jaden in the dark living room. Navigating to the daily video files, he scanned through them.

Thirty minutes later, he finished. Nothing of significance had occurred. Closing the file, he opened the live feed and checked all the cameras. He almost closed the one monitoring the side entrance next to the kitchen when he saw Jaden appear and unlock the door. Looking around him, he left as quickly as he’d come.

After making a file of the portion of video showing Jaden unlocking the door, Thad saved it to a jump drive he always brought with him on his surveillance rounds. Shutting the program down, he left the file storage room. He went to the bathroom down the hall and waited. Sure enough, Jaden stepped into view and entered the storage room. He didn’t see Thad hidden in the darkness.

A few minutes later, Jaden left the room. Thad returned to the storage room and confirmed Jaden had deleted the recording of him unlocking the door and tampering with the security system.

First going to the side door to relock it, Thad then headed for the guesthouse. There, he went inside without knocking. No one was up at this hour. He found the agent in charge and woke him. The man had slept here most nights since the shooting.

Todd Matheson was never surprised when he was awakened at all hours of the night. But he was surprised to be awakened by Thad.

“There’s something you need to see.” Thad handed the man his laptop case when he sat up on the bed.

“Give me a second.” Todd dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved Henley and then booted his laptop.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You’ll see.”

Todd let Thad put the jump drive in the computer and navigate to the video file. The agent in charge watched Jaden unlock the side door with an increasingly tightening mouth. When the file finished playing, he cursed.


“He also disabled the security system for that section of the house.” Thad saved a copy of the file to Todd’s desktop and then removed the jump drive. “He’s trying to allow someone access.” The gunman, most likely. Had the same person paid Layne to kidnap Sophie? Was he also paying Jaden?

After a moment, Todd said, “We’ll keep this between you and me for now.”

Jaden was finished as a Secret Service agent. Todd wouldn’t reveal how he’d discovered Jaden’s betrayal. Thad wasn’t supposed to be involved in the investigation, but Todd had been briefed on Sophie’s kidnapping, the way Cam was stalking Lucy and the fact that Thad had seen Jaden go to Cam’s home. That would help Thad catch his mother’s shooter and anyone working with him.

* * *

Leaving the guesthouse, Thad walked down to the gatehouse and found it unmanned. A chill ran down his spine. It had been manned when he’d checked in the file storage room. He pressed a button on the gatehouse console that set off the internal alarm system. The agents in the guesthouse would be alerted, as well as his mother in her bedroom. Anyone else in the house wouldn’t know an alarm had been set off.

Thad ran toward the house. Through the side entrance, he held his gun up and moved stealthily into the living room. Nothing moved. He raced up the stairs, hearing agents behind him. Sophie was still asleep in her room. Lucy’s was empty.

Kate appeared in the hallway as agents swarmed her. His mother was all right. Lucy was missing.

Sam emerged from his room, still fully dressed and looking as though he’d gone out for the night and had just gotten home. “What’s going on?”

“Lucy’s missing.” Thad turned to search the rest of the house.

“I’ll help you.” Sam told him which sections of the house and grounds he’d search and that he’d meet him on the side driveway.