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The front doorbell rings and I freeze.
Everett instinctively jumps up, grabs his gun, clicks a bullet into the chamber and motions that he’s going to check it out and for me to stay in place. He goes into full action mode, holding his gun with both hands, sweeping the hall before silently moving towards the front door.
I would get up and follow him, but fear has paralyzed me in place. I can’t move, even if I wanted to. I shut my eyes and press my hands over them. The silence is so loud. My pulse is pounding in my ears and all of my body feels numb.
Then Everett shouts back to me. “Laina, it’s okay. It’s just Ainsley.” Ainsley? There’s the click of the gun decocking followed by rasp of the front door unlocking.
“Hello, Evvy,” Ainsley’s voice rings out loud and clear down the hall.
My adrenaline makes me feel like I’m bleeding on the inside of my skin and even though I know the suspense has passed, I don’t trust myself to get off the couch. There are footsteps down the hall towards me, then Ainsley comes into the den, brandishing a neoprene laptop case. Everett is glowering behind her, all trace of laughter gone.
“What’s up?” I say, my voice cracking.
“You are supposed to still be on vacation,” says Ainsley, handing me the laptop in its case.
This is it? It’s such a slim, skinny thing. I was expecting a steel briefcase or a fireproof safe or something. And I can barely wrap my mind around the fact that Ainsley, my personal assistant and secretary of three years, has been holding on to this in secret.
“Just wanted to make sure you had everything you need over the weekend,” she adds.
I look over at Everett and he seems equally shocked. He’s running his thumb over his mouth again, his other arm folded across his chest. We’re both trying to piece this together.
“Is this everything?” I ask.
“Yup, should all be there,” says Ainsley.
“All this time-”
Ainsley cuts me off, waving her hands across her throat.
“I don’t know what that is and I don’t need to. But I’m here for you if you need anything,” she adds. “Oh, and Everett, Boss finally did the paperwork and that contract is in your inbox.”
Everett clenches his jaw and opens his mouth, probably about to say something scathing to Ainsley, but with a quick squeeze to his tiger tattoo, she waltzes down the hall and out the front door. Everett follows and locks up after her.
“What was that?” I shriek when he comes back.
Everett shrugs. “I think she’s a co-agent of mine.”
“She’s like a sleeper cell bodyguard?”
His furrowed forehead and flashing eyes tell me he’s clearly unamused about being kept in the dark. “I didn’t know. That one totally surprised me. I’m going to have to talk to my boss about it.”
The way Ainsley talked to him as she left, the one word she said keeps running through my head.
“What contract?” I ask Everett.
“Hmm?”
“Ainsley said there’s a contract for you.”
“We can talk about it later. Let’s deal with the laptop.”
I want to push him to talk about it now, but my curiosity and drive to help Dad win out. I turn the laptop over in my hands and pull it out of the case. It’s thin and cold, space gray, smooth as I run my hand over it.
“Wow, this is it. It’s a lot lighter than I thought it would be.”
I check my watch, trying to judge how much daylight we have left. Everything always feels more tense in the night, so if there’s any way to get this done before the sun goes down, I’m all for it. I wonder if just opening the laptop triggers another beacon or if there’s a message or if I put in a fingerprint or something.
“Is that beacon that you noticed from the closet still going?” I ask, opening the laptop.
