Page 76 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

“He’s just too chicken shit to do it, himself,” Bert muttered.

“What’s the plan?” I asked.

“Nope,” Alex said. “You are not going to be a part of this.”

I didn’t know his sister or those guys in his condo, I wasn’t at all sure anymore that I knew Alex, but I knew I wasn’t going to walk away when I had the potential to help an innocent woman. “Your sister is in trouble,” I said. “You may never have introduced me to her, but I’m not going to sit around and do nothing when I can help her.”

“Jill,” he said. “Please—”

“Nope,” I said. “You lost the right to ask me for anything when you walked away.”

I turned to the other guys. What’s the plan?”

***

“This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Lee said. “Let’s go in.”

“Just give it a little more time,” Alex said. “Wait for someone to leave or for the lights to go out, so we can get an idea of what we’ll be walking into.”

The guys and I were parked on the street watching the house where Willow was supposedly being held.

It was a bungalow on a cul-de-sac surrounded by other houses that looked just like it.

We’d been sitting in the car, in the dark, watching the lights go on and off, trying to figure out how many people were actually there, but getting no closer to an answer. It was after ten.

Alex and Bert wanted to wait until everyone went to sleep, but Lee and Fin argued that sleeping thugs were only safer than waking thugs if you knew exactly where the thugs were sleeping and where they were holding Willow.

I was so bored I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open and, though it wasn’t below freezing out, it was cold enough in that car that I couldn’t feel my toes. I hated just sitting around and waiting more than anything. All I could think about was Willow alone, or worse, not alone, somewhere in that house.

“I’ll find out,” I said.

I put my hand on the door handle, but Alex grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back.

“You can’t just walk in there,” he said. “Those aren’t executives who need the hard sell, they’re criminals, possibly murderers.”

“I have a plan,” I said. “A better plan than sitting out here waiting for something that’s never going to happen.”

“No way,” Alex said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders to keep me there. “Going in there alone is insane.”

“She’s the only one we can be sure they won’t recognize,” Bert said. “And she’s right, we haven’t learned anything sitting out here watching. We either need to go in there blind or let her scout it out.”

“I’m with Bert,” Fin said.

“She will be recognized if one of the guys from my condo is there,” Alex said.

“What’s the plan?” Lee asked, ignoring Alex’s concern.

I sighed. “I’m just going to knock on the door and tell them my car broke down. It’ll give me a chance to get a look inside without any risk. I’ll be in and out.”

“On a cul-de-sac?” Alex asked, his arm around my shoulders tightening. “They’re never going to buy that. Even if they do, there’s nothing to stop them from hurting you if they think you’re a woman alone out here in the dark.”

I rolled my eyes, mostly to cover my own nerves and worry. “They aren’t going to hurt me when I can just go to the police and give them the address of the guys who gave me hassle.”

“It’s not worth it,” Alex said. “There has to be another way.”

I stared him down. “Okay. Tell me what that other way is and let’s do that.”

He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t have an idea right off the top of my head, but if we all brainstorm and—”

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