“You can’t be too careful.”
“That is…” I couldn’t think of the words. One minute, I thought they were a regular security firm with a bunch of trigger happy ex-military. The next, one of them was standing in the home I was staying in with a killer robot. It was so…
“That is so awesome!”
His gaze snapped up to mine. I was so excited. I mean, I knew these people all had some trouble adjusting back to the real world. It was obvious in the way they all tossed around grenades like they were suckers. Just a few minutes with Florrie on the range had me feeling like I was the queen of the world. But now? Now I had my very own killer robot in my house. It was freaking amazing.
“You know she’ll kill you if you piss her off,” Knight said, like I was the freaking lunatic.
“Well, obviously. That’s why you’re reprogramming her, right?”
He eyed me curiously and finished up with what he was doing. “As much as I’d love to see how the nerve gas will work on a human subject, I don’t want it to happen around a kid. So, yes. I’m reprogramming it.”
Nerve gas? I mouthed to myself. I was seriously in awe right now. I mean, I had no idea what nerve gas was or what it did, but it sounded so cool. Maybe if I watched him closely enough, I could figure out how to use it and have some fun of my own.
He flipped the robot over and positioned it so it was facing me. Then he stepped behind me and adjusted my body. “Look straight at Ruby.”
I did as he said and saw a red light fanning out of the robot. I was so mesmerized that I didn’t even realize that there was some kind of scan going on until the red lasers had moved over most of my body.
“Scan complete,” the robot said.
“What was that for?”
“So that Ruby recognizes you when you’re around the house.”
He pulled out what looked like some medieval torture device and yanked my arm toward him, pulling my sleeve up in the process.
“What’s that? Is that some kind of counteragent to whatever Ruby will spray into the air?”
“That’s the daily code to get into Evie’s room. It will appear at exactly seven o’clock every morning for ten seconds. After that, if you don’t have the code you’ll be locked out of the room,” he said it drolly, like he had already given this speech before.
“Does Rocco have this too?”
He stared at me like I was an idiot. Then he pushed my sleeve up further and took a needle, depressing the liquid into my arm and repeated several more times.
“And what’s that? Maybe a vaccine to some deadly virus? Ooh! Is it a tracking device? Is it an invisibility cloak? Like in Harry Potter?”
He stopped and stared at me for a moment before dropping the needle onto the table and slapping a gauze pad over the injection site.
“I just gave you a booster on necessary shots, including rabies and tetanus. Since your birth control shot is almost used up, I took the liberty of giving you another one.”
“So, I don’t have to go back to the doctor? That is so cool, because honestly? Sitting through those exams is as painful as going to church. By the way, how did you know all that medical stuff?”
He smirked at me. “Do you really think that I’d allow someone to come stay on the property and not know every last detail about her?”
Every last detail? That didn’t mean that he knew…other stuff, did it?
Knight’s face grew serious and his eyes narrowed in on me dangerously. “He deserves to know.”
“Hey, what happens in my life is about me and no one else.”
His eyes narrowed even further and it took everything I had not to squirm away from him. This man was super scary. His eyes had this deadly calm that made me think that he was not just your average ex-military. He could be an assassin or something.
“What reason could you have for not telling him? Unless…”
“Why would I tell him? Fucking doesn’t require personal information.”
“If it does become more and you don’t fucking tell him, I will.”
He released my arm suddenly, and suddenly, I wasn’t feeling so friendly toward Knight anymore.
“Don’t fucking threaten me.”
His face turned dark and stormy before he turned away and completely ignored me. He went about putting in sensors and hooking things up to his computer as if I wasn’t even there.
“So, is there something I need to know about all these systems?”
“Yeah, don’t do anything to get yourself killed.”
He snapped a case closed and hauled it out to his SUV. When he came back, Rocco was walking in behind him. He gave a slight nod of acknowledgement, but that was it.
“Alright, let’s go over the new updates to your house,” Knight said, stalking off in the direction of Evie’s room. “I’ve updated Ruby and Robert. They now recognize Brooke as someone that is in the house. Since you’re no longer attached to Reed Security, obviously the baby bunker and sling is gone. However, Cap put measures in place as the house was being built so that anyone could have access to the panic room if needed.”
He walked over to the closet, which had a freaking pin pad and hand scanner. He punched in a code and placed his hand on the scanner. “The code of the day is your pin. I took the liberty of injecting Brooke with one also, just in case. If you want it deactivated, it’s easy enough to dig it out of her wrist,” he said with a slight grin. I covered my wrist instantly, thinking that one or both of them would walk toward me at any moment with a knife and start digging into my wrist.
“That’s fine. She’ll most likely never be left alone with Evie, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.”
Knight pressed a green button on the pin pad as he completed the steps in whatever sequence he was doing, and then the doors whooshed open. This was way more than a fucking baby closet. I mean, yeah, it stored all of Rocco’s baby shit, but the room extended further in to be a walk-in closet of sorts. Only the room was fucking huge.
“Um…I’m pretty sure that this room is way too big for the house. How is it that I didn’t know this was here when I walked around the house?”
“Cloaking technology,” Rocco muttered as he walked over to another pin pad.
I jumped when the doors whooshed closed behind me and moved further into the creepy baby chamber.
“Cloaking technology. That’s all you’re giving me?”
Again, Rocco answered, but didn’t look at me. “When we rebuilt Reed Security, we had certain measures put into place to help protect us. One of them is a new cloaking technology for rooms or buildings we don’t want seen. When you walked around the outside of the house, you saw a shed. But you can’t actually get into the shed. There’s a padlock on the outside.”
“What happens if I touch it?”
His head slowly moved up until it looked at me. “Then you touch the outside of the shed.” His brows furrowed like he didn’t understand the question. Was I insane? How could a building be there, but be cloaked by another building, but it wasn’t actually a building that you could touch? It didn’t make any sense.
Knight walked over to the same pin pad that Rocco was looking at and punched in a series of numbers, and again, placed his hand on the scanner. Only this time, he also had to do a retina scan. It was all so cool. They could be part of the CIA and no one would know. More doors popped open and a whole arsenal of weapons appeared before me. My eyes widened and my fingers itched to go grab one and see what it felt like to hold one. Florrie hadn’t let me get too far with the guns. She said I had to work my way up to the big ones. But now they were all here at my disposal.
“This door will lead you down underground and to the panic room. There are supplies in the tunnel for anything you would need. Same pin of the day to enter. Now, in the event that your pin has been compromised, you’ll need to enter a different pin. This will be the pin of the day, but backwards. When punched into the system, an alarm will immediately be triggered, alerting everyone at Reed Se
curity that there has been a breach and where that breach has happened. You should have help within minutes, if not under a minute.”
“What will happen? Will bars fall from the ceiling and trap them? Or I press a button and knives fly out of the walls?”
“No,” Knight said slowly. “People from Reed Security show up and defend you.”
“That’s it?”
“What more do you want?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Something exciting? You have all this fun weaponry, but you didn’t think to add in a floor that opens up to a moat underground with alligators or little ninjas that slide down ropes from the ceiling and kick ass?”
“Is she fucking serious?” Knight asked Rocco.
“She doesn’t fucking know,” he said calmly.
“Wow, you guys seriously need some chill time. I mean, they’re just suggestions. It’s not like I expect you to implement all my ideas.”
Knight took a step forward, but Rocco put a hand across his chest, stopping him from advancing. “She doesn’t fucking know. Just relax. I’ll tell her.”
Knight took a deep breath and blew it out. “Let’s finish, shall we?” He stormed past me for the door, entering the same sequence he had already and walked out when the doors opened. “I’ve upgraded all the security measures to include having eyes on your woman wherever she goes. You can access all information from the app on your phone, and I’ve embedded a tracker in her also. Never trust the fucking government.”
“So, I can slip off the property without the police knowing, right?”
“I’ve also taken all the profiles of the men and women at Reed Security that I’ve gathered recently and uploaded them into the system. I have it down to their gaites, so you’ll be notified if the gait doesn’t match the facial recognition. Anyone walking around the property at any time has their body profile tracking through the systems. It should notify us if anyone’s profile has suddenly changed. The likelihood of someone making it to your door without us being alerted is something like .0001 percent.”
“That’s good. I was a little worried being out here, away from the bunker,” Rocco nodded.
“I’ve also got your system hooked up to the tech room. If anyone is showing distress for any reason, someone in the control room can intervene if necessary.”
“I see you’ve done away with the poop bags,” Rocco said.
“Well, I didn’t want to, but considering the state of the art closet you’ve got, I didn’t see that it was really necessary. However, I did add one finishing touch that I think you’ll appreciate,” Knight said with a maniacal grin. He jerked his head, so we followed. Walking outside, he walked about halfway down the sidewalk before turning back to the house. “If you’ll look at the eaves of the house, you’ll see what looks like ventilation. If you open your app, you are now able to have your house defend you. Upon request, machine guns come out of the eaves and you can fire from the safety of your house, never having to step near the window. While you’re firing upon your enemy, you can be making your way to Evie’s closet and getting your ass to safety.”
“Wow,” Rocco said in awe. I had to agree. It was so fucking cool. The house could actually defend us while we made our escape. This house was super high tech, but I had to wonder if Knight put everything in that he could have. Personally, I wouldn’t mind adding in a few more security measures, not that I knew what those would be, but I had ideas. Maybe I’d run them past him some other time.
Knight left a few minutes later after giving me a hard glare, and Rocco and I made our way back inside.
“He really doesn’t like me.”
“He doesn’t like anyone,” Rocco said, pulling a bottle of water out of his fridge.
“Yeah, but he really doesn’t like me.”
“Not true. If he really didn’t like you, he’d just shoot you. And since you’re still standing, I’m guessing that it’s something you could overcome eventually.”
“Whew,” I mocked, pretending to be really concerned. “Because I was really worried about him actually shooting me.”
Rocco walked away, leaving me alone in the kitchen. I had the feeling that all of these guys had that side to them, where they could just walk away and not give a shit what you thought. There were no social niceties that I could see, and maybe they preferred it that way. They seemed to be a close-knit family that didn’t invite others into their realm. Well, they had sort of invited me, but it was a very limited invitation and only because of Reese.
Rocco returned a few minutes later and handed me a stack of papers that could only be one thing. His rule book. He handed it over with a raised eyebrow, as he expected me to challenge him. It wasn’t like I really could. I was living at his mercy right now. And while I didn’t think he would actually go to the judge and have me kicked out of his house, I wasn’t really willing to test that theory out right now. That is, until I read the damn document.
Snatching the papers out of his hands, I started to read.
“Rule One…”
I paused and looked up at him. “You know, you’re very original with your rulebooks.” He didn’t say anything, so I continued.
“You will not go near my daughter at any time.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Not that this is a problem for me, you know I don’t like kids, but seriously? I can’t go by her at any time?”
“Not without me present, and only with my permission.”
“What are you going to do when she goes off to school and has to interact with other people?”
“She’s not going to school. We have our own school here. She’ll never come in contact with someone I don’t approve of.”
“So, what you’re saying is that you’re going to pick out her boyfriends and decide who she can sleep with. Are you going to take them for a test run to make sure they’re good in bed too?”
His jaw clenched, but he didn’t say anything, so I continued.
“Rule Two: You will at no time enter my bedroom unless you have a strict invitation from me. If I do invite you, refer back to the first rule book for further instruction.”
“Wow, such a charmer. I already feel like there’s something magical brewing between us.”
“There is nothing between us and there never will be. I’m doing you a favor because my boss is making me. Don’t go making shit up in your head.”
“Like what?” I asked as innocently as possible.
“Like that I’ve come to the rescue and I’m here to save you.”
I tilted my head to the side and gave a small smile, dying inside at the fact that I was about to freak him the fuck out. “But you already did save me. If you hadn’t offered up your home to me, I would be in prison right now. You’re literally my savior.”
I saw him swallow hard as I approached. He backed up a step and shoved the papers back in my face. “Just finish reading the damn rules.”
I laughed a little before finding the next rule on the sheet.
“Rule Three: All girly shit will be stored in bins under the sink. Only toothbrushes are allowed on the counter.”
“But we don’t even use the same bathroom.”
“I don’t care. This is my house and I don’t want to see it out. First it’s the countertops and then it’s shit laying around in my living room. It’s best if we just get this shit straight now.”
“Sure. I can do that. I can keep my…girly shit…out of your way.”
Although I was already thinking of how I could leave drying bras and panties hanging around for him to find.
“Rule Four: You must use your own bathroom at all times.”
“Rule Five: If it’s that time of the month, I will NOT be making any midnight runs for chocolate or tampons. If you run out, you’ll just have to sit on the fucking toilet.”
“I hope that you don’t get like this for your daughter. You do realize that at some point she’s going to need tampons too. And you’re going to have to be the one to buy them.”
> “There are other women here for that.”
“Right, and you’re going to allow them to have the talk with your daughter? You’ll allow someone else to tell her all about sex and what to do? Because women can be very…graphic.”
He snatched the papers out of my hands and grabbed a pen off the counter, scribbling in something else. When he handed it back, I almost burst out laughing.
“No sex talks with Evie. Um…I’m pretty sure that she won’t be old enough for that kind of talk before I leave.”
“Doesn’t hurt to be prepared.”
I threw the papers down on the table and walked away.
“Where are you going?” he shouted after me.
I spun around to face him. “Look, while I’m sure you put a lot of effort into making your damn rulebook, it’s a little too much for one sitting. Go do your man thing, and I’ll stay out of your way.”
I walked into my room and slammed the door. Men could be such asses.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Rocco
I had gone back to work after Knight stopped by. But Cara needed me to take Evie, so I quit work early and came home. Brooke was in one hell of a pissy mood and only came out about an hour ago to start dinner. I hated dealing with temperamental women, which was one of the reasons that I kept them away from me. If she wasn’t the one for me, I shouldn’t have to deal with her shit. To make matters worse, Evie was cranky as hell. She refused to take a nap today, so I was basically screwed. If I laid her down for a nap now, she either would be down for the night and wake up at some ungodly hour, or she would be up until midnight. Neither option was a good one, so my best bet was to deal with it as best I could.
Evie threw herself on the ground and started screaming when I wouldn’t let her have a snack before dinner, and she’d been screaming ever since. “Evie, sweetie pie, you’ve got to stop screaming. You’re hurting Daddy’s ears.”
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