Page 1 of Tough as Steele

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If Londyn had to stay at this party for one more minute, she couldn’t be responsible for her actions.

“Stop scowling, Londyn,” her mother said from where she stood next to Londyn, a chilly breeze playing over them. “Our host will think you don’t want to be here.”

Londyn gritted her teeth. Her mom was right. As usual. No point in arguing. She almost always was. She didn’t want Londyn to offend Mimi Vandervoort at her eightieth birthday party. Not that she’d appeared yet. She was fashionably late to her garden party beneath a large white tent in her perfectly manicured backyard. An odd choice of venue for February in Portland. The temps had reached a record high of sixty-eight today, but the night air was chilly.

Londyn tugged her nubby silk jacket closer to her body against the sharp breeze.

No. Stop. Don’t reveal that you’re carrying.Seeing a sidearm in her holster was bound to put people off. She was a detective for the Portland Police Bureau. She wasn’t on duty, but she always carried. Always. And especially tonight as a representative of Steele Guardians. Their family business was providing security for tonight’s event.

She took a long breath to let out her frustration. She forced the smile she used when starting a police interview and turned to her mother and father.

“Now you look like someone’s strangling you.” Her dad grinned. He should know. He looked like he was choking on his tie paired with his formal black suit that usually only came out of his closet for funerals, weddings, and contract negotiations with their clients.

“What I want to know is why didn’t everyone else have to come?” Londyn asked. Somehow her two sisters and three cousins, several of whom were taking over the running of Steele Guardians as her father and uncle settled into retirement, managed to avoid this party.

“Simple,” her mom said. “You’re the only one who said yes.”

Londyn gaped at her mother. “You mean it was optional? You didn’t make it sound that way.”

“I said we needed to represent the company well.” Her mom smoothed her hands over her only party outfit, a tan A-line dress paired with white pearls and a silky black blazer for warmth. “You stepped in the way you’ve done since Thomas died. You’ve taken on responsibilities of the oldest now and felt obligated to come.”

Londyn resisted frowning. She missed her older brother. His murder last year had rocked her world and left Londyn as the oldest sibling in her immediate family and also with her three cousins. Thomas had filled that role so admirably, and Londyn didn’t resent taking over for him. At least not most of the time, but tonight was weird for her. She wasn’t a party girl. No way she attended top-tier socialite birthday parties. Police detectives weren’t often invited to such events.

“Your mom and I are real proud of how you stepped up,” her dad said, his eyes tight with angst. Her parents, the whole family really, was still trying to come to grips with Thomas’s needless death. None of them would ever be the same again.

“Even if I didn’t hire on at the Guardians?” Londyn felt a need to point out the one area where she didn’t step up yet and might never do so.

“Even then.” Her dad smiled at her, and it was like looking into a funky mirror at the carnival. She not only looked like her dad, but she’d followed in his footsteps to become a detective. “You’re doing admirable work, sweetheart, and if you can and want to keep doing it, we both support you.”

“The company could really use this account,” her mom said. “Means we need you to be gracious and polite tonight to make sure that happens.”

Londyn nodded. Steele Guardians provided security guards for large corporations and special functions like this one. Mimi Vandervoort’s family owned too many businesses to count, and tonight’s job was a trial run for opening the door into the Vandervoort empire. Guardians’ best manager was on duty tonight, but Londyn and her dad had worked out the security detail and were overseeing it from a guest’s perspective.

“I’ll be good, I promise,” she said, trying hard to believe her words and failed miserably.

Her dad snorted and slid his arm around her shoulders. “How many times did we hear that when you were growing up and some sort of a scuffle found you?”

She grinned at him and opened her mouth to answer when a scream sounded from near the house.

“She’s missing,” a woman screeched from the second-floor balcony. “Ms. Vandervoort is gone.”

“Stay here and make sure Mimi’s daughter stays out here too,” Londyn shoved her evening bag into her mother’s hands as she kicked off her shoes. “We don’t want her to see anything that could disturb her.”

“I’ll make sure of it,” her dad said.

Londyn broke into a run and charged toward the back entrance. Thankfully the dress was stretchy, but she wished she’d ignored her mom’s fashion demands and had worn pants instead of a body-hugging dress.

She bolted over the soft grass to three wide stone steps that led to a brick veranda running the width of the ten-bedroom house. The Guardians’ manager, Zeke Davis, climbed the steps ahead of her, his head on a swivel, his hand on his sidearm.

“Wait up, Zeke!” she called.

He slowed and met her gaze, his prior ten years of service in law enforcement heavy in his expression.

“What do we have?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Heard Mimi’s assistant yelling and was on my way to check it out.”

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