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“You should be able to manage it. You were always freakishly flexible in gym.”
“There’s flexible and then there’s defying the laws of physics. Besides,” I slam my palm into an invisible panel on the wall. A dial pad and receiver slide out. “We don’t need your phone. This is a secret line. No one can tap it.”
“Impressive.” There’s a dark edge to Noah’s voice I don’t like. “Howard Malloy thinks of everything.”
I grab the phone on the wall and punch in a number. “Antony? I need your ass over here, now.”
“At your Barbie Dreamhouse? Why? Someone giving you trouble again?”
“Close. What happened to Tiberius? Someone shot Barbie’s Dreamhouse to hell, and I need you to take care of it. ”
Even in the low light, I can see Noah’s eyebrows shoot way up.
“I’ll find out,” Antony growls, and the fury in his voice is terrifying. “I’m on my way. Stay where you are.”
I burst out laughing. It’s a joke we have – he can see from his phone’s ID that I’m calling from the panic room. I’m not going anywhere.
I hang up the phone. Noah cups his hand on my shoulder, his fingers digging into my collarbone. It hurts. Maybe the situation has my head all fucked up, because I don’t want him to stop. “What do you mean, take care of it?”
“It’s better you don’t know. Antony will call when he’s assessed the situation. He’s the only person who has this number.”
“And who is this Antony? He’s the guy you had Gabe text in Alec’s car. You don’t seem the type to trust a boyfriend, especially one you’re sleeping around on.”
“Fuck you, Noah. He’s my…” I search for the right word to describe him. ‘Bodyguard’ doesn’t cut it, and ‘enforcer’ is just going raise questions with Noah I’m not answering. Finally, I settle on something that approaches the truth. “…cousin.”
“Your cousin who’s somehow going to sort out a fucking shooter? What is he, a mob boss?”
I smile. Time to change the subject. “Did you know my father didn’t even tell me about this panic room?” Yet another secret they kept from me. “If this guy came to the house while Daddy was away on business, I’d have been fucked.”
There’s a dark tone in Noah’s voice. “Knowing what I do about your old man, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
“I found this one day when I was searching for something new to read. I pulled that book off the shelf and this door swung open. I pushed all the buttons and figured it all out.” I kick the steel cabinet behind me. “There are guns in here, but I don’t know how to use them.”
Another lie.
“Who knew your weird obsession with Ancient Rome would save our asses.” Noah’s words strain against the darkness. “Can I use your magical phone to make a call? I was supposed to meet Eli. I was already late, but I thought I’d try to talk to you first. I thought if I could get answers I could tell him… something to cheer him up. Joke’s on me.”
A panicked thought hits me. “Do you think he’d try to come here? What if he was outside when they started shooting—”
Noah shakes his head. Strands of his hair flick against my skin, leaving lines of fire like the welts of a whip. “He’s somewhere safe. There’s a place Eli and I go when we need… peace or some shit. We’ve been using it since… well, since you left. Our families don’t know about it. That’s where he is now.”
I hand him the receiver. “Call him. But I don’t want him anywhere near the house until Antony’s cleared the place.”
Noah takes the phone. He cups his hand over the receiver. “Eli? I’m me… I’m not going to be able to make it back. Yeah, I’m with her right now, but it’s…”
As he relates what happened, I hear Eli swearing on the other end. I lean my back against the cool steel and try to calm my pattering heart. Noah sucks all the air out of this metal cupboard.
He said he came to talk about Eli, and something else. So what’s the other thing?
Noah hangs up the phone. “Eli and Gabriel are coming. They’ll hang back until we give them the okay. Gabriel’s bringing pizza because apparently that’s what you need after you’ve just been shot at. What do we do now?”
I wipe a bead of sweat from my cheek. How did it get so hot in here? “We wait. Antony will call.”
“I don’t suppose your dad put a gaming console in here?” Noah runs his fingers along the walls. “A movie screen, a magnetic chess board, anything?”
“You want to play magnetic chess with me?” My chest feels tight, and I’m not sure if it has anything to do with the confined space.
“You haven’t made any other suggestions,” Noah fires back.
