Page 29 of Acting on Instinct
Was that allowed?
Should she ask to see their warrant?
Before she could decide, Ty lifted his hand to her shoulder and pushed her to the side with vehemence.
Rory stayed glued to her right thigh as her left hip banged against the counter.
Kira turned to Ty with venom in her eyes. How dare he? Howdarehe?
The can came out of the first man’s holster. He lifted it to spray silly string toward Abdul’s security cameras. The goop looped and clung to each lens, rendering them useless.
Kira wondered if she could pull out her phone and surreptitiously tap the camera. She glanced over at Ty to see if he would give her a clue about what she was supposed to do, but Ty had his hands up and wide, saying, “Nobody wants any problems here,” to the man by the door.
Ty must have picked that guy out as the leader, even if he wasn’t the biggest one in the shop.
The pickaxe guy slammed his tool down into the glass covering the engagement rings.
With the first sound of splintering glass, the heat of Kira’s anger froze, forming a hard ball of terror that dropped down, filling the cradle of her pelvis where it sat heavily on her bladder.
Abdul ran from the back room, and seeing the armed men, his face flamed red, then flushed white.
Rory shifted to sit between Kira’s feet, seeming to notice everyone and everything, watching for his moment.
The man with the silly string, done with that task, flicked open what looked like a pull-string canvas laundry bag. He reached into the diamond case and scooped everything into the bag’s opening.
The man with the pickaxe walked from case to case, slamming his tool over and over again until the heavy glass gave way.
This was planned and practiced, roles meted out.
They seemed like the two worker bees.
Then there were the two security bees.
One of the security bees trained his rifle on Ty’s chest.
Ty angled his gaze down as if he were looking at his shoes, as if he were being subservient. But Kira knew that he was every bit as focused and assessing as Rory was. This was the same thing he did the night the terrorists attacked, and London was shot.
Abdul twitched his head toward Ty, then Kira, and in the same motion, pivoted to race back to his office, slamming the door behind him.
The pickaxe guy threw himself over the counter and came to the office door. There, he tried to wrench the knob open. Failing, he crashed his shoulder into the door, then slung his axe over his head and slammed it into the door frame by the lock.
Kira’s legs were jelly. They wobbled underneath her, and she tried to lock her knees out so that she wouldn’t slip to the ground, because as she’d learned in the past, the ground made her vulnerable.
As the man with the bag reached into the next case to scoop up the gold, Kira took two steps sideways and out of his way.
Rory hopped like a rabbit as she moved.
Kira figured she needed to present as little friction as possible, and the guy seemed fine with her decision.
But with each step, Kira peed a little, making her panties wet and uncomfortable. It made her aware of her lack of control. She wanted to press her thighs together because peeing down her leg would be a sign of fear and give these men too much power.
And there was Rory.
Please don’t let me pee on Rory.
Of all the very bad things that could go wrong in that moment, why Kira focused on that, she had no idea.
They weren’t calling her out by name.
