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"What the hell?" I dig the heel of my hand into my eyes.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
It's not a text message. Peeling one lid open, I squint at my phone slowly moving across the nightstand.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
What is that? Groaning, I lean up on one elbow and reach for the device before it can tumble off the edge it's getting dangerously close to. I unplug it from its charger and flop back onto the pillow. Blinking my second eye open, I stare at the screen.
ALERT: Lilly subroutine activated. Message sent.
Huh? Oh.
"Oh!" A rush of adrenaline hits me like a cross punch to the jaw. It worked. Holy crap, it really worked!
Sitting up, I throw back the covers and take three steps at a time down the stairs, almost running into George, who's on his way to the first-floor staircase.
"Miss Lilly? Is something wro—" His confused question drifts after me as I speed-walk with my phone still in hand past him.
I drop into my chair and pull the keyboard close. With the computers hooked into Nate's private network, I don't have to go through the same motions as when I hacked into the security feed to his LA. house. I simply open the app for the system at the vineyard and select the camera to my bedroom.
There he is. My brother sits on the foot of my bed, staring at his phone.
A broad grin spreads across my face. I did it. I jump up and down in my seat, doing a little happy dance. Yessss!
"Miss Lilly?" George's voice startles me, and my head jerks toward the door, a blush heating my face.
"Sorry," I mumble, sitting down on my hands.
George chuckles. "No need. I enjoy seeing you happy."
At that moment, an incoming call pops up with my brother's name. I peer over at the security feed, and he is now standing in front of the bed, phone pressed to his ear and staring at the camera in the ceiling. He mouths, "Pick up!" and I bark out a laugh, accepting the call.
"How did you know I’d be watching?"
Nate smirks. "You’re not the only one with alerts, little sister. I got a notification as soon as you activated the camera."
"Hey, no fair," I explain in mock outrage.
"That was quite a surprise." He ignores my pretend anger.
"Well, you told me to write a routine that gets activated by a voice command," I justify myself.
"I did," my brother confirms. He looks back up and smiles. "Thank you."
Warmth floods my body, and my mouth turns upward as well. "You're welcome."
When Nate kept me busy at the vineyard, one of his exercises was a subroutine for the camera and mic in my room. I chose to write a voice-triggered notification alert for the mic. He probably assumed I'd program something and test it myself to see if it worked. But instead, I set the trigger for "little sister," hoping Nate would eventually cause the alert to go off. Obviously, I had no idea when or if it would ever happen. When the words were spoken inside my room, it would send a text message to him: How dare you enter my room without my permission! JK, big brother. (; Just wanted to tell you that I am glad we are finally a family again. XO, your little sister. L.
Words I felt at the time but wasn't able to admit out loud yet.
My brow furrows. "Wait, what are you doing at the vineyard?"
Nate sighs. "Margot wanted our lunch with J and Cece to be up here on the terrace, so we took the jet for the day."
