AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“See what?”
“That he was going to forgive me.”
“And that’s so bad why?” I asked.
“Because what I did was unforgivable.” His voice was so thick with regret I felt my own throat tighten in response.
“Nate-”
“It’s Nathan!” Nathan snapped, his voice raw. “Are we done?” he asked as his pain-filled eyes turned to meet mine.
I wasn’t done, but I knew he was. “We’re done,” I acknowledged.
He didn’t say anything; he just turned his gaze back out the window. We didn’t speak again until I pulled the car past the heavy iron gate at the end of my driveway.
Chapter 7
Nathan
Vincent’s house wasn’t anything like I expected. For starters, I’d expected a log cabin or something since the house was located deep in the woods. But the structure looked quite modern and although it wasn’t huge, it was a decent size and had two stories from what I could see. The iron gate at the end of the driveway was actually the first of two gates, and I noticed they were timed so that the second gate didn’t open until the first one closed. I had to wonder if it was some kind of additional security measure. There were keypads and security cameras for both gates and I could see that, like with the gates, there were two fences running along the front of the property. The fences were made of the same iron as the gates.
Vincent pulled the car into one of the stalls in the attached three-car garage and immediately closed the door behind us. Lights came on above us as the door closed so I could easily see a big SUV parked in the second stall. The third stall had a motorcycle in it.
“Do you…do you live alone?” I asked.
Vincent merely nodded and got out of the car. As I grabbed my bag from the back seat, Vincent pulled his own bag plus a much larger one from the trunk. Up a short flight of stairs were several wooden workbenches along the front of the garage. I followed Vincent and watched him set the bag on one of the workbenches next to a large metal cabinet. The bag was open enough that I could see it was filled with all sorts of guns. Vincent went to the cabinet, placed his finger on a small keypad next to the handle, and waited. Seconds later, the entire front of the cabinet slid up to reveal a slew of guns, knives, and other weapons I couldn’t identify hanging from brackets on the wall.
What the hell?
Vincent put the bag in the cabinet and then pressed a button on the inside of it which caused the door to slide back down again.
I glanced at the two identical cabinets next to the first one, but kept from asking if they were filled to the brim with weapons too. I kind of didn’t want to know.
I followed Vincent to the only door in the garage. He used his finger on the keypad to open that door, too, and then he motioned me inside.
“What, no alarm?” I asked jokingly once I stepped inside and was met with silence.
Vincent shot me a glance and then pulled out his phone and showed me the screen. The phone was vibrating as my image appeared on the screen. I automatically looked up to try and find the security camera that was watching me, but I couldn’t see it.
“Alarms that make a lot of noise are meant to scare an intruder off. Where’s the fun in that?” he asked. I noticed Vincent’s watch was flashing and I could hear the slightest vibration emanating from it. There was a letter and number flashing on the watch’s digital screen.
“What does it mean?” I asked as I pointed to the watch.
“Tells me where my guest – wanted or unwanted – is.”
“Doesn’t that get old?” I asked. “Having it go off every time you move?”
“It knows I belong here,” was all he said, and then he was leading me down a short hallway. We entered a large kitchen with white granite countertops, white cabinets, and black appliances.
No sooner had Vincent put his bag down than a large orange tabby cat jumped up on the counter and immediately put his paws against Vincent’s chest. The sight of the man’s big fingers affectionately rubbing the animal’s cheeks had my insides warming.
“Mickey,” Vincent said as he motioned to the cat. “And Minnie,” he added as he glanced to our right. Sure enough, a second cat that looked almost identical to the first except for a small patch of white on its forehead was watching us from the entryway that appeared to lead to the rest of the house.
“Mickey and Minnie?” I asked with a smile.
“My boyfriend had a thing for all things Disney when we got them,” he said simply. The mention of a boyfriend caught me off guard, especially since he’d said he lived alone. But the dark look that flashed in his eyes for the briefest of moments had me keeping silent.
