Forever Alexa (Book Four In The Bodyguards Of L.A. County Series) Read Free Page B

surrounding her home. “What do you want? I’ll do anything.”
    The mechanical laughter erupting in her ear sent shivers along her spine. She stepped away from the window.
    “Two hundred and fifty thousand by Monday morning—2 AM. Leave it in your savings account. We’ll take care of it from there.”
    “But…” A quarter of a million dollars? Alexa paced about as cold sweat dripped down her back. She didn’t have that kind of money, not even close, but she didn’t dare say so. “Let me talk to Abby.”
    “I do the demanding, not you, bitch. Forty-eight hours. No more police. No more press. Silence will save your sister’s life until we get the money. Keep your new phone handy if you want to see her alive.” The line went dead.
    “Wait. Wait . Hello?” Alexa sunk to the bed, listening to the dial tone, then sprang back up to pace the room again. Teeth chattering, she sucked in rapid breath after rapid breath. She had fifteen thousand to her name and not a penny more. What was she going to do ? With unsteady fingers, she pulled the card the detective had given her from her pocket and dialed, then stopped abruptly. Would the kidnappers find out? “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do,” she said out loud as she pressed at the throb in her temple. Every move might be the wrong one. Every move had the potential to harm her sister. Unsure, she stared at the paper in her hand, then shoved it away again. The kidnapper said no one .
    Alexa studied the cell she’d been given, noting the full battery and three hundred minutes someone had put on the pre-paid phone. They had to have slipped it in her purse when they took Abby from the car. What other explanation was there? Whoever did this planned Abby’s abduction carefully, of this she had no doubt. Whoever took Abby knew Alexa’s name, what she drove, and more than likely that she was a single mother home alone in the small house in the woods.
    She rushed to her door, shut it, and shoved the solid oak dresser in front of it. No one was getting in there with the heavy antique furniture in place. Despite her efforts to reassure herself, she grabbed the baseball bat she kept under her bed. She clutched the Louisville Slugger close as she sat on the mattress and leaned against the headboard, staring at her sister’s picture, listening to every creak as the old house settled around her, until the sun’s rays brightened the morning sky.

 
    Chapter 3
    “I ’m sorry, Alexa. We’ve run your credit. Although you’re in good financial standing, you don’t make enough to qualify for a loan of this size, especially with your mortgage and two car loans.”
    “I’ll sell the house and the cars. I need this money, Mr. Macabee. I’ll pay every dime back.” It would take her the rest of her life and a second job—maybe a third, but that didn’t matter. “I’ll call the realtor right now. We can put the house on the market today. With the improvements I’ve made—the painting, the front gardens… I have to have this money,” she repeated, squeezing her hands together in her lap, trying hard not to sound too desperate. She’d saved for the down payment for her tiny two-bedroom, one-bath fixer-upper for three years. The living room was just big enough for Livy to play, the simple furniture she’d refurbished herself, and her grandmother’s piano she treasured. She’d give it all up in a heartbeat for Abby.
    “Alexa, let me be frank with you, honey, and it’s hard, especially at a time like this with everything you’re going through. I’ve known you since you were a little girl. Your grandmother kept her money in our bank most of her life. Even if you sold the house and yours and Abby’s cars, you still wouldn’t qualify. You’re a one-income household. With the loans you took out to help Abby with her schooling and the medical bills you’re still paying after your Gran’s last hospitalization… The monthly payments would eat up your entire