Hopefully, Kiera was still in the building. I needed some sugar before I had a very important errand she knew nothing about. Well, she thought I had a dentist’s appointment—a lie I was already regretting. I’d come clean soon. Eventually.
In reality, I was shopping for a security system.
I could be out buying a ring, but she’d not-so-subtly hinted that “No romantic gestures are allowed” until she could wear her regular size clothes again. She’d also complained about her “sausage fingers,” but they had to be the scrawniest sausages I’d ever seen.
That said, I knew she was uncomfortable. The first two or three months of the pregnancy, she’d cruised right by the nausea and whatnot, and boom, everything came at once. Apparently, the second trimester was usually the easiest one, but not for her. She retained quite a bit of water, she was constantly a little bit nauseated, enough that it messed with her appetite, she was tired a lot, and I’d bought her a body pillow so she could sleep comfortably.
She was a champ, though. Way calmer about shit than I was.
Damn it. No reply. Maybe she was still interviewing with Doc.
Fine.
I’d catch up with her later.
Danny ambushed me in the elevator on my way down to the basement, and he gave me this tired, frustrated look—with just a pinch of amusement.
“Hyatt.”
“Rose. What’s up?”
He sighed heavily. “I’ve received new complaints about you.”
Oh. Wow. That was fast. The class ended ten fucking minutes ago. “What did I do this time? I was nice to them.”
“You treated them like children.”
“They are children.”
“Not toddlers, goddammit,” he snapped. “Is this how you’re gonna be with your own kid?”
I furrowed my brow. “Of course not. But there’s a difference. I love my kid.”
He looked like he wanted to sigh again. Unfortunately for him, we’d reached the basement, and I had shit to do.
“Gold star on this conversation.” I clapped him on the shoulder before I stepped out. “Later.”
I walked past the gym and through the martial arts studio until I reached the end of the building. It was technically an escape route underground to the garage in the next building over, but one could argue I was escaping.
I whistled to myself and dug out the car key. Options were limited for operators to just grab a vehicle; we had logistics coordinators who ran their own garage with our fleet of cars, trucks, and vans some twenty minutes from here. But we kept a few around, and I had a favorite. A black Sprinter that’d been optimized for speeding and sharp turns, despite its size. And while I usually had no use for nine fucking seats, it worked perfectly if one was picking up a security door. I’d just slide itbetween the seats and then hide the door at Hillcroft until Kiera and I got the keys to our new house next month.
She didn’t need to see the price tag. Or maybe the door was suddenly half off? She’d been horrified when I’d shown her some doors online, and I had no idea why. Security wasn’t free. But I’d be damned if I was gonna risk my family’s safety over a few hundred bucks.
I unlocked the van and got behind the wheel.
Let’s go shopping.
Kinda cool to build your security business inside an old aircraft hangar. This was the place Coach had recommended, and not only had they set up his security system at home, they’d done work at Hillcroft too.
As soon as I set foot inside, I couldn’t help but smile a little. Yeah, I liked this place. They’d turned the sides into fish-tank offices, leaving the highest part of the vaulted ceiling completely open. Everything was black, white, and steel.
Two vending machines were placed next to the door, humming quietly.
The kid at the circular front desk perked up and smiled politely as I approached.
“Welcome to MadCo. Do you have an appointment with us today?”
“Uh, yeah. Name’s Hyatt. I’m supposed to meet with one of your salespeople,” I replied. “I ordered a security door that I’m picking up too.”
