Page 116 of Shadow

He blew out a breath and backed away. “Thanks.”

They stood there, coffee steaming between them. The house quiet around them. Just the two of them awake while Roger and Destiny slept upstairs and the world outside was dark and still.

“I saw the light under your office door,” she said finally. “Were you working?”

Yes. No. “I was looking at some files.”

“I was in your office earlier—quite the bookshelf you have in there.”

“Did you see the safe room?”

Her eyes widened. “No.”

They walked down the hallway, and oh, but a terrible awareness hummed between them.

For a second, there she was, in memory, nearly in his arms.

He blew out a breath and opened the office door.

Daphne stepped inside.

He felt a little like Tony Stark when he went around his desk, felt underneath it, and pushed the button.

The door to the safe room unlocked. She pushed it open. “A bed and a refrigerator.”

“Four monitors, same as the ones in the office, and its own power supply. Enough food for two weeks.”

“You built this?”

“No. It came with the house. The guy before me was a little…paranoid.”

“I like it.”

He liked her.

He pointed to a closet as he went out. “The gun cage.”

“Of course.”

He closed the door.

She was surveying the bookshelf.

“Would you like to borrow one?”

Oh, wow, that was lame. He hadn’t realized he was such a coward until this moment.

Her eyes scanned the titles, landing on the Louis L’Amour collection.

“Wow,” she said quietly. “Someone loves Westerns.”

“My dad.”

She moved closer to the shelves. Ran her fingers along the spines. Careful. Respectful. “Complete collection?”

“Yeah. Bought each one as it came out. He read them over and over. When he died, I inherited them.”

Daphne pulled one down. Hondo. She flipped through pages, the old paper making soft rustling sounds. “I’ve never read these,” she said. “My dad was more of a thriller guy. Tom Clancy. Robert Ludlum.”