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There was nothing out of place as far as I could see.
With a nod, I turned away from the desk and took a step towards my bedroom when I heard a buzzing sound.
A phone.
Strange.
No one I knew would be calling this late.
I glanced down. Stuck a hand into my pocket. Pulled out my phone. It was the latest model… with a few ramifications for security. Camera privacy shutter. Single use key encryption password. I took no chances.
A cursory skim informed me that my phone was blank.
Had I imagined the sound?
No. I didn’t make such mistakes.
Alarm bells clanged in my head. My shoulders taunt, I spun and surveyed the room again, more carefully this time.
Insects chirped outside. A curtain fluttered with the breeze, the white cloth dancing like a ghostly finger beckoning ignorant men to their deaths.
My breathing slowed.
My body coiled.
I listened to the silence but heard nothing out of place.
Suddenly, the buzzing sounded again.
My eyes flitted to the office nook.
It was coming from there.
I advanced, my heartbeat slowing. The closer I drew to the desk, the more certain I became. A phone was going off, but it wasn’t the cell I used for business.
It was that phone. The one I didn’t need but always kept charged because, even though I’d said goodbye to that life, a tenuous string still held me bound.
I stopped in front of the custom-made mahogany desk. It curved into the wall, forming a short ‘L’. I’d commissioned it a year ago, after Reid started crawling all over the place and I realized I needed to move us both out of the bedroom so we didn’t drive each other crazy.
The carpenter, a local Rasta artist named Trevor, hadn’t asked any questions when I asked for the last drawer to be reinforced with steel and fitted with a touch pad and a charger.
I’d tipped him heavily for his discretion.
Tonight was the first time I’d opened that drawer in years.
My hands dove to the keypad and pressed the numbers to the code.
Reid’s birthday.
It was too simple. Too obvious.
Which was why I had another safety measure.
The drawer popped open, revealing a locked surface with a tiny keyhole. Pooling my hands beneath my T-shirt, I grabbed the chain I kept around my neck and slid it off.
The key on the end glistened in the silver moonlight, flashing me a smug look as if to say ‘I knew you’d come’.
My lips twitched into a frown.
