Page 19 of Pressure

“You Lance?” the man asked.

“That’s me. How do we get her out of the house?”

“We’re under orders to put her in your car and follow you back up to the ski lodge. We’ll park a detail here to make sure things don’t get out of hand and we’ll work out a plan to move the family somewhere else by this evening.”

He nodded to show he understood. Solitaire was an old ski resort and he noticed the guard was careful not to say the club’s name. That meant he’d at least been briefed by Russell.

“Can you call her and let her know we’re coming in?”

He picked up his phone and dialed Isabelle’s number.

“Hey sweetie, Russell sent some men over. They’re going to escort you out and come back for your family once we have a place to put them. You’ll ride with me back to the club.”

“OK. Thank you,” she whispered.

He watched as two of the guards stood at the edge of the driveway to keep the press back while the other two went to the door. They escorted Isabelle out of the house and into Lance’s car.

“Let the first SUV pull out then fall in behind them. We’ll follow in the second one. We’ve already got another vehicle on its way to sit and keep an eye on things. They’re sixty seconds out.”

Lance nodded and restarted his engine.

“I’m so pissed and scared at the same time,” Isabelle said as she pulled her seatbelt on. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

He squeezed the girl’s shoulder as he watched the first SUV back out of the driveway and pull to the stop sign.

“It’s the least I could do. I feel like I caused this.”

“Nonsense. You didn’t ask the question or film it and you certainly didn’t leak it.”

“No but they got your membership information from somewhere. It still seems most logical that it came from some kind of digital intrusion that I haven’t tracked yet.”

Isabelle smiled. “Well hopefully your lady friend can help with that. Though I don’t think she likes me very much.”

Lance winced. He’d hoped Marissa hadn’t been so obvious about it.

“Marissa has… issues with a lot of women and doesn’t trust them easily. It’s not that she doesn’t like you. She just doesn’t know you very well and her instinct is to be bitchy at first.”

Isabelle cocked her head to one side as she looked at him. “Sounds like you know her well.”

He nodded as he followed the SUV and watched in his mirror as the second one stayed close behind them. From what he could tell, the press wasn’t following but it seemed unlikely that someone hadn’t picked up their tail. He hoped the guards had a plan for that.

“I knew her very well for a number of years. But that’s in the past.”

She gave him a skeptical look and he flashed her a stern glare. It didn’t faze her.

“How soon until Garrett lands?” he asked, changing the subject.

“I think his plane took off an hour before I called you so probably not more than two hours.”

He nodded.

“I like your glasses,” she said after a moment of silence. “I don’t see you in them very often.”

“Didn’t want to leave you hanging while I took time to put in my contacts. I wear them at night a lot when I’m working on a project but for public appearances and such I usually go with the contacts. Marissa always preferred my glasses too.”

Damn it. Now that she was back, he couldn’t keep her out of his head for more than a minute.

The SUV ahead of him turned into a parking garage so Lance followed. The SUV behind him kept going. They went up two levels where they parked next to two more black SUVs.

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