by Marlie May
We stopped by my place, where I showered and changed, then drove out to the shop. While a few cars appeared to follow us, one even for over a mile, they all peeled off in different directions before a sweat broke out on my forehead.
Mia sat in the front office with her notebook open on her lap, her Aunt Becca watching her like she was the only person who could save the world. My need to stay hyper-alert relaxed for the moment.
I strolled out back, finding the main R&D warehouse empty—since Gabe, Haylee, and Flint were out of town and Cooper had taken the day off to work on wedding plans with Ginny. I picked up where I’d left off with Locust 3 yesterday.
Face recognition software was going mainstream, from cops to banks to the military. My current assignment was to program and test the drones and ensure they performed as accurately as possible. Once I was confident the beasties could be expected to perform as asked, I projected a wide array of photos onto the back wall and stood “among” the faces.
With a flick of my finger on my phone app, I released the swarm.
While I turned my head away, the mechanical insects rose off the bench and buzzed toward my section of the room. In seconds, they hovered in front of me. Stared at me. Tracked my every movement when I tried to hide.
A successful hunt.
Nothing made me happier than watching them on my app while they relentlessly watched me.
After another hour tweaking, ensuring the program functioned seamlessly, and taking notes indicating what needed to be worked on next, I left the back room and met up with Jax, who must’ve recently arrived at the shop.
“Eli, buddy,” he said when I entered the supply room. “Flint filled me in on what went down last night. Damn strange and horrifying, all at the same time. Mia’s…pretty shaken up.”
I growled. “Man, I wish I could…”
“You and me both,” Jax said grimly. He gestured to three boxes on the floor near the door. “I’ve put a few things together already. Nothing’s too good for Mia.” He dropped a couple of glass breaks into a plastic bin beside his feet.
Snagging an empty tote from a pile near the door, I stuffed a few more breaks inside, then some passive infrared detectors. I’d install them on walls and the ceiling and point one at each window and door. The devices put out a pattern of beams. If someone disturbed them, the device would set off the detector and trigger an alarm on both Mia’s, Flint’s, and my phone. I’d have to make a few programming adjustments to accommodate Walter, because his movements couldn’t be predicted.
“She need a new security panel?” Jax nudged his chin to a stack of them on the shelf.
“An entire rewiring, actually, but I’ll get to that over the next week.” I’d enlist Coop’s help since he was basically an electrician. Another local friend could do the final inspection and sign off the necessary paperwork after we finished. I lifted a panel and added it to my collection, also tossing in a spool of wire. While I planned to add a generator and battery back-up to Mia’s system in case of power outages, I’d wire everything into her main panel. Lifting the two bags I’d filled, I took them out to my Jeep, nodding to Mia, who chatted with Becca, as I passed. I returned to the supply room for more materials.
Pausing while taking a box of zone modules off the shelf, Jax glanced over at me before flicking his gaze toward the door. “I was wonderin’. You think Mia’s seeing anyone?”
Why did Jax’s mouth quirk up fast before thinning?
Unwelcome hackles rose along my spine. Hell. Was Jax interested in Mia? Sure had seemed that way back in Mexico. All that talk about cookies.
I told myself to back down. No way would I act like the possessive jerk who’d hurt her. She could see whoever she pleased.
I just hoped she’d be pleased to see me.
Besides, he was hot for Haylee, right?
Unable to hold back a low grumble, I chucked a keypad into another tote. It clanged against another spool of wire I’d already set inside. “Wouldn’t you already know if Mia was seeing someone?”
“Maybe.” Jax’s expression came across a little too slick for my taste. “And maybe not.”
“You sound uncertain.” I had to goad him because, while Mia and I weren’t a thing, I had high hopes we one day would be.
“Aren’t you curious to know if she’s seein’ someone?” he asked.
Pausing with my hand on another spool of wire, I sighed. “Why are you asking me all this?”
“Because I like Mia. She’s got spunk. And she’s hot.”
Sure didn’t like Jax mentioning hot and Mia in the same sentence, but I shoved off the uptight feeling generated by the comment. Jax must be fooling with me, trying to get on my nerves. I had no intention of hiding my interest. “The fact that your boss is her brother might put her off,” I said gruffly.
Jax shrugged and returned to the shelves. He sorted among the supplies and lowered a few more items into his plastic bin. “If that’s the only thing keeping her at arm’s length, I’d just do a little persuadin’.”
The idea of Jax persuading Mia to do anything with him burned through me like lava. But I checked myself. Again. I had no right to feel irked by Jax’s interest. Assuming that’s what this was.
“She is seeing someone,” I said, my spine rivaling a steel rod. “Sort of. At least for one maybe date.”
“Sort of seeing someone for a maybe date?” Jax let his full grin shine through, making it clear this was all teasing.
Seeing was stretching things a bit, but Jax didn’t need to know that.
“Ah,” he said. “Beat me to it, did you?”
“Mia and I…” There wasn’t a Mia and me at all. Just plans for the afternoon. Who knew what could happen after that?
With a smirk, Jax lifted his voice, sounding more like a high school cheerleader than a full-grown man. Ass might as well prance around the room while he was at it. “Do you think it bothers Mia?” He threw my own words back at me. “You do work for her brother.”
“Hard to say.” My smirk rivaled his. “But I’m also willing to do a little persuadin’.”
Jax followed us out to Mia’s home in his truck and, while Mia returned to her study, we hauled everything into her front entryway.
“We can get this installed in no time,” Jax said, scanning what he could see of Mia’s small house as if he’d never been there.
I shouldn’t be pleased he hadn’t stopped by to visit, let alone to sample her cookies.
“I’ll handle the outside,” he said, hefting one of the tool pouches.
“Perfect. I’ll work on the inside, then.” I returned to my Jeep for the rest of my tools, lugging the bags and a ladder into the house.
The study was my first priority.
“What does that do? I already have smoke detectors,” Mia asked me a few minutes later, as I stood on a ladder installing a device on her study ceiling.
“Not a smoke detector. This is a glass break. It’s got a microphone that listens for the specific acoustical frequency generated by breaking glass.”
She tapped her chin. “Sounds complicated.”
Glasses. I’d noticed her putting on glasses at breakfast. She must wear contacts the rest of the time. The glasses gave her a super-hot librarian appearance. I wanted to lift them off her face, tug her up from her office chair, and lay her back on her desk. Follow.
Shit. Needed to stay with the program, not give into the erotic daydreams charging through my mind. We were going on a sort of date today. I wouldn’t read anything more into this than the moment.
“Will it…” She blinked, her lashes super-long behind those hot-librarian glasses. “Eli? You with me here?” Chuckling, she looked ready to wave a hand in the air between us. “Will these glass breaks alarm like a smoke detector?”
“Yep. Most of the time, the person breaking the glass will take off, because they’ll figure you’ve been alerted.”
She peered around her study and focused on the cabinet used to lock Walter inside. �
�What if I’m not here?”
“We’ll program the devices to send an alarm to your phone.”
Her expression loosened. “I’m likin’ these glass thingys already.”
And I liked that she was feeling more secure, that I could give this to her. I stepped down off the ladder and started to mount a DS150I beside the door.
“And what’s that?” Mia rose from her chair. She tossed her pen aside, leaned her hip against the gleaming wooden desk surface, and watched me. It wasn’t the norm for someone to hang out while I worked, but that shouldn’t make me fumble with my tools. Why did it?
“A passive infrared detector,” I said hoarsely. Tightening my fingers on the device, I swallowed the lump in my throat that must be making me fidget. Nothing else.
A quick turn showed her gaze gliding down my backside. Hell, was she checking out my butt?
She chuckled again, her gaze rising to meet mine. Her eyes had softened to mossy green. Fuck, I hoped she’d been checking out my butt. “It’s a what, again?”
Focus, Eli. If my tongue fumbled as much as my fingers, Mia would think I had major issues. Which I did, all revolving around her. Being in her presence only made me want a lot more. “It detects a change in infrared radiation emitted by or reflecting off an object. In other words, it sends out beams that’ll sense if someone comes in through your windows or doors.” I planned to install a bunch of these with battery back-ups in the woods surrounding Flint’s business. Mia had been inside the building yesterday when I swore someone was watching.
Was all this connected? I couldn’t see how, but I never discounted my instincts and they were electrified at the moment.
“A beam. You mean like a laser? It would be nice if it would zap someone.”
I liked the eagerness in her voice, that she was ruthless. “So says the doctor.”
She laughed. “Gruesome of me, isn’t it?” Her smile fell and her arms slid across her waist. “I’m having a hard time drumming up any sympathy for whoever broke into my house last night.”
“I don’t blame you.” The same feeling ground through me. “Unfortunately, no lasers. This device—” I tapped it. “Watches the air. It’ll know when there’s a change in temp, such as a warm body passing through the pulses. If disturbed, the device will notify you via your security panel. Which I’ll also mount. Your phone app will tell you something’s up.”
“And you and Flint will be notified, as well?”
“Of course.”
“Cool. What if I want to open the window?” She waved in that direction. “Will that set it off?”
“You can bypass the zone via the app on your phone. These babies will be armed mostly at night when you go to bed. Otherwise, you’ll trip it yourself just moving around your house.”
“What will I do during the day, when I’m here alone?”
“You can selectively arm zones. Say you’re sitting in your living room watching TV. You’ll arm your kitchen, your bedroom, whatever room you don’t plan to enter.”
“Okay, but how do I arm the room I’m in? As you’re aware, Flint has taught me a few moves, but I’m no black belt.”
She used one of her moves on me in Mexico. I was never going to forget my view of Mia in a wet sundress. “We’re upgrading your door locks. Remember, none of this does more than notify you if someone’s trying to enter your house.”
“Have to admit. I’m sad about the lack of lasers.” Her smirk fell fast. “You’re saying I’ll essentially have an early warning but nothing else.”
“With early warning, you can act. If the barriers are breached, you get out of the house. Lock yourself in your car again. Call the police. Me. Flint. Jax. Your Aunt Becca. Someone you trust. Knowledge of what could be coming is the key.” I paused after dropping a screwdriver back into my tool pouch. “Do you own a handgun?”
“No. Not sure I want to, either.”
“Unless you’re willing to train and practice, a gun could do you more harm than good.” Owning a weapon wouldn’t necessarily make her safer. Too easy for someone more experienced to take the gun away and increase the stakes by using it against her.
She cocked her head and studied the detector I held in my hand. “Is all of this part of the standard security system you’d install for Flint’s business? Say, one you’d install locally?”
In some ways, yes, but not locally. Our business catered to embassies, small government official offices, and the officials’ private residences. Nothing commercial and no houses outside of Mia’s. “Not quite.”
“Would you call this one top of the line, then?”
“Top of the line is for civilians.”
Her frown created creases on her face. “Then this system would be used for…”
“VIPs.” A simple explanation and the most I’d give.
Would I always need to keep the specifics of my job hidden, or would I someday be able to share part of it with a person I loved?
“Awesome.” The grin Mia fed me smacked into me like a bolt of lightning.
I loved that I could give her some sort of reassurance.
Stepping down off the ladder, I carried it into the living room, leaving Mia alone to complete her work. She strolled in a while later as I was finishing up and getting ready to start on her kitchen, and scanned the room. Her ready smile fled, and a quiver went through her frame. “I thought of something else. What about the windows? Someone could still get inside, even if the system’s alarming. For now, I can shut them and run the AC, but the windows are where I’m most vulnerable.”
“You’ve got locks.” I’d been pleased to see all new windows in her house, but even a lock could be forced. Reaching into one of the boxes I’d hauled inside, I pulled a handful of pre-cut pieces of wood from my bag.
She slid her finger along one. “If I’m going to stake a vampire, this needs to be sharper on one end.”
“Sometimes, the simplest things provide the best security.” This was why Flint hired all Seabees at the shop. We could create something out of nothing. A Seabee could fight with a gun or his fists and feet, all while MacGyver-ing his or her way through the situation with the innovative construction skills drilled into us by the military.
Mia’s eyebrows lifted. “What will I do with a stick? Hit the person with it? I guess that would sort of fit with my Hippocratic Oath. Do no harm. Well, not too much harm unless I sharpen it and gouge them.”
“Not a bad idea, but how about using it for this instead?” Walking over to a window, I stood the piece of wood upright in the channel where the frame would slide. “With this here, no one can lift it, even if you forget the lock.”
“Hmm. I like it.” Returning to my bag, she pulled out the rest of the wood. “I’ll install this security device myself.” She went to each window in the living room, carefully placing the sticks in the channel. “Thanks,” she said as she headed across the hall to her study.
Sometimes, the best security was one you could control yourself, be it an app on a phone or even a small piece of wood. And there was nothing that made a person feel better than the sense they were secure.
Jax poked his head into the kitchen, where I’d moved my equipment to continue my installation. “All finished up outside. We’ve got motion detector lights, cameras that record and store on a hard drive in the basement, and I put in the security panel. Crappy old wiring everywhere like you said. I’m glad you’re making that a top priority.”
“Mia deserves the best.”
“You know?” Jax slapped my shoulder as I passed him on my way to mount a break. “I like how you think. I like you. Mia could do a hell of a lot worse.”
“We’re nowhere close to anything like that.”
“Oh, I think you’re closer than you think.” Jax paused in the doorway. “Do you want me to work in her bedroom next?”
“I’ll do whatever’s needed in her bedroom.”
He snickered.
Hadn’t meant it like that. “You know what I’m sayin
g.”
Jax turned partly away but I still caught his grin. “I’ll leave whatever needs doin’ inside the bedroom to you, then.” Laughing, he strolled into the hallway, meeting up with Mia. “Hey, sweet-as-sugar. I’m about to head back to the shop. Anything I can do for you before I leave?”
“Let me give you some cookies.” She rushed into the kitchen, took a bag from a box in the cupboard, and dropped a few cookies inside before sealing it and handing it to Jax.
He kissed her cheek. “You’re too good to me.”
“I’m beginning to think I should open a bakery.” Her gaze darted to me. “Though I might make cookies for only a few select customers.”
Was there more to this conversation than just cookies?
The front door clicked behind Jax, and I heard him engage the lock.
Mia glanced up at me. “I deployed the window sticks and finished my presentation.” Her pinkening cheeks highlighted her smile. “Which means it’s almost time for my education. I’m completely yours for the rest of the day.”
Descending the ladder, I strode toward her, pleased by her comment. I swept my arm around her waist, a bold move on my part, but if I didn’t test this, I’d never know where this could go. “Seems I’m not the only one who can play the suggestion game.” Hell, if only I could gather her close enough to show her how awesome she made me feel.
Her green eyes gleamed like rich jewels, and her voice went husky. “You might find I’m good at a lot of games.”
She was going to kill me if she was not interested in taking things further than our sort-of date.
“Your room’s the last.” Backing away, I waved to her bedroom in general. “Then, I’m done.”
“Perfect.” She glanced down. “What should I wear?”
“Something comfortable. Casual.” Climbing the ladder, I finished installing a sensor. “We’re going to have fun.”
Her head tilted. “Where are we going for this education, anyway? A library?”
She’d taken off her glasses. While I loved seeing her beautiful eyes shining in her face without lenses between us, I missed the hot-librarian of my dreams. Maybe, someday, I could talk her into wearing them.