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“Surprised that an idiot heiress would do something as intellectual as use a computer?” Her attempt at biting sarcasm fell flat and she just sounded tired, like she didn’t even have the energy to make up ridiculous arguments anymore.
“More surprised that your laptop is so heavily encrypted that Kasey is interested.” Where she was having issues hiding her emotions, mine were firmly locked down behind my mask of stoicism. For now.
Lake’s head shot up to glare at me from her seat behind the desk, and I immediately knew that my hard and empty tone had been the wrong approach. “Not even going to pretend I don’t know how he knows that.” She stood up grabbing her laptop and glasses. It was clear she was preparing to make an escape, but my position halted her progress, leaving her standing in front of me, chest heaving as she worked to calm her irritated breaths. “You may have been hired to protect me, but consider this fucking computer already protected, and leave it at that. You aren’t paid to pry, Lieutenant, nor are you paid to break federal laws under the guise of protection. If you’re going to blatantly skirt the law, don’t do it in front of a law maker’s daughter.”
She turned sideways, sliding along the door frame to attempt to scoot past me, but I reached out, holding onto her elbow forcing her to look back up at me. I’d expected her to pull away and berate me for touching her, but she just looked up at me expectantly, all traces of anger gone.
I wanted to apologize for the invasion. I wanted to demand answers. Hell, in that very moment I wanted to lean closer and breathe her in. So many reactions to her that I couldn’t pick any one to go with. So instead I ignored them all and held her phone up to her eye level. My paltry attempt at an olive branch.
Lake reached up hesitantly and wrapped her fingers around the smartphone, the touch between our fingers sparking an electricity that was unlike any other jolt I’d taken to my body before. It surged from the contact point of our skin and radiated through my arm and into my chest. Not an actual electric jolt, but an alertness that made the room grow heavy with anticipation. Her eyes cut to where our fingers overlapped on the phone, clearly broadcasting that she felt it too, before she pulled the phone from my hand and let out a long sigh. Instantly that current from her fingertips to my very core was gone, and I felt robbed and irrationally angered by it in a second.
“Thanks. I promise not to blast my location and details of my security all over social media.” I said nothing in response as she turned and walked down the hall, disappearing around the corner that led to the stairs up to her bedroom.
I let out a sigh of my own and leaned heavily against the frame of the doorway. I’d expected to have my work cut out for me with the investigation into the people threatening the Harringtons as well as coordinating two specific teams to protect them both, but I hadn’t expected Lake. I honestly thought I had her pegged from the second I took the job, but I was starting to realize I might have gotten every detail wrong about her and her life. She was a mystery in her own right. Encrypted computers, compassion for others that she kept hidden from the media, a random affinity for planes that still seemed weird to me. All wrapped in a stunning package that made me want to dig deeper, to get closer, to let her push all of my damn buttons.
Shaking my head I pushed off the door frame and made my way down the same hallway Lake had disappeared down, only to turn the opposite direction and head out the front door to check on the men working the grounds of the estate. At least I could focus on the one thing I did seem to have control over: keeping this enigma of a woman safe.
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LAKE
SL:How long will you be in the Hamptons?
LH:Until the warden deems it safe enough to move me to yet another location.
SL:Who might the warden be in this case? Your father or Decker Mullins?
LH:I’m finding them interchangeable currently.
SL:Yikes. That bad? Monica and Bailey have been hounding me about your location.
I loosed the pent up sigh of frustration, and let my head fall back against the headboard. I hadn’t heard a single word from those two since the message had been sent by Mullins, and I had a sneaking suspicion it was all thanks to his personal hacker and busybody, Jack Kasey. But bringing Scout into this when they made a point to ignore her very existence, meant they were on the warpath. A location meant they wanted to make sure their retaliation was done in person. I had to give it to them; it was ballsy for sure.
I reached out to grab the glass of wine sitting on the nightstand. I’d brought my computer back to my room, stopping to grab a bottle of wine and glass from what I’d always called the wine nook. From the size and shape of the small area, not to mention its position just off the main dining room, I knew it had probably been hidden away previously, to be used by servants when this house still employed them.
Now here I sat, a glass of wine in one hand and typing awkwardly with the other to the only person I trusted with my secrets. Probably because this one person had helped me bury my work under shell companies and mountains of paperwork. Not that I was doing anything illegal. No, I was just proud of what I’d done for myself and refused to share it with the world. Taking a talent and turning it into a career was fine, but through that I’d built even more, behind the scenes and more important than I’d ever shared with Robert. In a world where every accomplishment or achievement had only been acknowledged for a photo op, I wasn’t letting my life unravel for public consumption.
Setting the glass back down on the nightstand, I glanced down at the archaic looking messenger app in the corner of my laptop screen. I’d been assured the communications and work done on the computer were completely secure, but it had taken the comments from Mullins to give me a sense of satisfaction that I had indeed kept parts of myself completely my own. All thanks to the help of the woman currently waiting for an answer from me on said archaic looking messenger app.
LH:I haven’t even turned my phone back on after earning it back for good behavior.
SL:Are you fucking kidding me? Good behavior?!
LH:I am, in fact, fucking kidding. I think it was more that he realized he shouldn’t have had it in the first place. Either way I don’t feel like dealing with anyone, so it's still off.
SL:Yeah, I figured,especially when Bailey said you were kidnapped and her friend finding app couldn’t locate your phone.
LH:I’d like to argue that I wasn’t kidnapped, but that could be debated.
SL:No debate, you’re an adult. At your age, it’s just an abduction.
I couldn’t have helped the laugh that sprang from me if I’d tried. Even in the face of my life completely turning on its head, Scout had the ability to turn the tide with a single well placed joke. The easy laugh became a choked cry of surprise at the loud hammering at my bedroom door. I slammed the laptop closed and made my way to the door, ready for some emergency, wondering if I had time to pack the laptop back up before we had to take some sort of action. I swung the door wide to find Evan Turner holding a tray overflowing with at least three different countries of food represented. His face held no alarm, just slight discomfort and an awkward attempt at a smile twitching the corner of his mouth.
Once my heart had calmed and my breathing was closer to normal, I raised an eyebrow at him. “Is there a reason you came knocking like you had a warrant?” I didn’t even pause to judge the tray, just moved aside to let him enter, stomach tightening in desire of the food laid out before me. I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. This entire day had dragged on to the point that I couldn’t believe it had only been this morning that I’d been sitting in Robert Harrington’s office having my life locked down around me.
Evan set the tray on the coffee table in the corner and gave a sheepish shrug. “I technically didn’t knock, I kicked. Sorry, my hands were full.”
“I see that. Are you feeding an army or attempting to fatten me up so I’m too slow to slip my detail?” I couldn’t help but smile at the tint of red that rose from the collar of his button-down shirt, up his neck and seemed to settle at the tips of his ears. Cute, Evan Turner could blush.
