Excerpt of Bulletproof Hearts by Kay Thomas

"What did you find?" Abby asked.

"Nothing good. My backup is gone."

She looked up at Shaun looming over her in the darkness. The candle threw strange shadows on the wall behind him, reminding her of an old-fashioned cartoon character where the villain is looming over the victim and about to pounce.

"Gone as in left or gone as in you can’t get them to pick up their phones?" she asked.

"Both. They’re not answering and when I look out the window, I don’t see their cars anymore. This group of condos appears to be the only ones with no electricity. Everyone else at least has a front porch light on."

She swallowed hard. "You’re right, doesn’t look good. What do we do next?"

They were whispering but the rain had increased to such an intensity, he had to put his lips directly against her ear to be heard. "We need to take your brother’s laptop and get out of here."

She nodded, ignoring the tingles of awareness that shimmied down her spine. "Let me get something to cover it with before we take it into the rain." She grabbed the candle and crouched under the desk to scrounge for a bag of some sort. Shattering glass had her startling and bumping her head against the kneehole. Something or someone was breaking through the patio door.

"Stay down," commanded Shaun pressing her to the floor with his hand on the small of her back. He leaned over her, a gun in the other hand. His body heat seeped through the thin material of her dress. She could smell his aftershave again or maybe it was a shampoo he used that made up the scent that was uniquely his. This all had a sense of eerie familiarity, like today in the limo.

"Stay here. Blow out that candle. I’ll be one minute." His hand left her back and she felt strangely bereft.

Still clutching Jason’s yo-yo, she’d gone to her knees with no protest but just as she about to snuff out the light, she spied a plastic grocery bag tucked under a box of printer paper, perfect for protecting the laptop from the rain. She tugged on the sack, determined to tug to pull it from under the forty-pound carton.

More glass broke. She took a breath to blow out the candle when she sensed someone behind her.

She had time to turn, look up and scream before the crash came down against her head and everything went black.

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