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I let go of his shirt but keep my hand on his chest in case he loses his mind. “Has she been like this since the shooting?”
“Yes. She had the first one in the car.”
“Thefirstone? How many have there been?”
“This is the fifth.”
“Okay.” I can’t fucking breathe. This is not the job I agreed to. This is not the job Zeus thought he was sending me on. “Shane, did she give you specific orders not to tell her dad about this?”
“Yes. She did.”
“Anybody else?”
“Her mother. Her uncles. Her aunts.”
“She left her cousins out of your deal, then?”
“She didn’t mention any of her other relatives.”
Shane’s not only scared shitless. He’s at the worst possible crossroads of loyalty and duty. He has an equal obligation to protect her secrets and her life, and in this situation, he’s equally fucked. It’s a lonely place to be.
He takes a deep breath. “It was my understanding that you’re taking over inside the house. If you’ve changed your mind, or if you’re not equipped—”
“Shane.”
“Yes?”
“You’re relieved. You and your guys have the perimeter. I’ll take it from here.”
He blinks down at his phone in my hand like he’s never seen it before, then shakes himself out of it. “You’ll need this. Get your phone out.”
A couple swipes on his screen, and a window pops up on my phone.Do you want to accept this download?I’d like this to be not fucking happening, but I accept the download along with his contact information. We go through the obnoxious process of letting Shane thumbprint into my phone, then adding my print to the app. Jesus, it takes forever.
“Sometimes the patch throws a false alarm, but you’ll be able to tell,” he says.
“How?”
“Because if it’s a false alarm, she doesn’t look likethat.”
“Got it.”
Shane shoves a hand through his hair, then steps to the side of Daisy’s bed. He pats her shoulder, a brief, professional touch, and straightens up.
“Gatehouse at the end of the driveway. Call ifanything—” His voice breaks. “Call if you need anything.”
Then he brushes past me. A few seconds later, the app pops up another notification. Her front door is open. Now it’s closed.
I pull up my recent calls and dial Zeus’s number. It’s only hundreds of hours in hostile territory that’s keeping my mind in check.
“Hercules? Is everything—”
“Are you alone?”
“Brigit’s with me.”
“You need to be alone.”
Fuck, fuck,fuck. This is not the call I thought I’d be making. I thought I would be overkill. That I’d stroll in, identify any flaws in her security and fix them. I thought I’d be telling my not-Dad that he and his brothers could relax, that I’d neutralized any threat. Not announcing that she’s a threat to herself.
