AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She closed the laptop and ran down the stairs to the kitchen to finish her last-minute preparations. Tom and Pete were coming up for lasagna, bread sticks, and a green salad. She opened the last “love in a bottle” pinot noir left from the Christmas party, then set the kitchen table and added a wreath of pine branches and candles. Normally, she wouldn’t bother with decorations, but she’d gathered the branches earlier, and the candles were left over from Christmas, so why not use them?
Decorating couldn’t keep her from trying to figure out how her ex found out about her business. She certainly didn’t tell him, Ryan didn’t tell him, she hadn’t kept in touch with anyone else, and she’d been careful to keep her name separate from her company, using a professional business management service. There was no way Jeff had the money to bribe them.
Perhaps it was a fluke. Her business wasn’t a top-secret military operation; not if she wanted new customers. Maybe a mutual acquaintance told Jeff she was moving to Montana. While the house was owned by a holding company, if someone dug into the records hard enough, they’d find her. Plus, she hadn’t been exactly quiet once she arrived. Well, not as quiet as she was in Washington anyway. Still, it was puzzling. None of her old friends would tell Jeff anything. Her enemies didn’t know she’d moved or started a business.
But it didn’t matter. She’d ignore the idiot, and the three of them would have a good time during dinner, and she could forget all about Jeff. She had people who cared about her, and she cared about them—a found family and they were so much better. She was on the edge of true happiness, and her selfish ex couldn’t take that away. She wouldn’t let him.
Later that evening, Pete sat back, patting his stomach. “Well, I gotta say that you really know how to make lasagna. Delicious.”
Tom nodded. “Very, very good. Of course, this was a huge mistake on your part because now we’ll expect you to cook on a regular basis. You’re stuck.” He grinned.
She smiled. “That’s okay. You’ve been feeding me and taking me riding. I don’t mind cooking. But I don’t have a big or fancy repertoire. I can make lasagna, pizza, a few other pasta dishes, and I can grill stuff. That’s about it.”
Tom chuckled “I can promise we’ll be up here all the time in the summer. That patio grill you’ve got is irresistible. Especially to a man. You know, fire and meat.” He shrugged. “Who needs green stuff?”
She chuckled with them, then sobered. She wasn’t sure how they’d take her offer. “Since you’ll be up here a lot more, I thought I should give you codes for the gates and front door. That way, you don’t have to call or text me, you can just let yourselves in.” Pete and Tom stared at her with raised brows, then they looked at each other and back at her. “You look so shocked.”
“Because we are.” Pete frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I wouldn’t want to do something that makes you feel unsafe.” Tom nodded.
“I offered. It’s not like you asked.” She shrugged. “Besides, it’s limited access. You can get in the gates, and the front and back doors, and the main level of the house. And the program notifies me when you use your code, so I won’t be surprised.”
“As long as you feel safe, that would be very convenient.” Tom smiled gently.
“I’ll program it into your smart phone, Tom.” She held out her hand. “Pete, since you won’t get a smart phone, you’ll have to put the code in manually, but I’m sure that won’t matter to you. Let’s make yours, hmmm, your Blackhorse M-16 serial number, maybe? Or some other number you know well, at least eight digits.” She picked up her phone, pulled up the house security and the profile she’d called “Pete,” then handed him her phone. “Here, enter it, hit the tab, and repeat it.”
Pete did, then she brought up Tom’s profile and handed him her phone. “At least eight numbers. Don’t use anything that someone can easily find out about you, like your phone number or current address.”
“How about parts of old phone numbers?”
“Perfect.”
He entered everything and handed her phone back to her, along with his, unlocked. She downloaded the app and entered her credentials and his profile, then handed the phone back to Tom. “It’s pretty simple. You pull up the icon labeled Wiz, put in your code, and then there’s three buttons, with the current status of the gates or doors, and you just press to unlock or lock.” She tapped on Tom’s phone, demonstrating. “If there’s something wrong, but you still need to get inside, like if someone’s got a gun to your head, put in your code but add a double star to the end. The gates and doors will open, but I’ll be notified there’s a problem. And if you need to send out an emergency call, without it being secret, just enter 999. That sends an alarm to my monitoring company, and they roll the sheriff, fire, and ambulance.”
“Double star?” Pete asked.
“Oh, sorry. Just press the asterisk key on the entry pad twice after you enter your code. It looks just like a phone.”
“Got it.”
“Isn’t three nines the equivalent of 911 overseas?” Tom asked.
She nodded. “In many countries, yes. And the double star is a duress code. If I’m not here, and someone wants my stuff bad enough to hold a gun on you, let them have it.” She shrugged. “But it’s not likely. It’s more likely someone will be after me specifically. Someone who’s been caught because of my software.”
Tom leaned forward, brow wrinkling with concern. “People are threatening you?”
Wiz shook her head. “Not actively, but you know me. I’m paranoid. I keep myself separate from my company, but it’s not perfect.” She held up her phone. “Plus, somehow my ex got my email and my actual phone number, not the public number I put on my cards, and if he got that, well, he probably knows where I live now.”
Tom scowled. “Maybe you should show us a picture of the guy, in case he shows up. Not that we’d tell anybody anything about you, but...”
Tom had a determined, intent expression, like he would protect her. Which was nice, although she was probably better at protecting herself. She scrolled through her pictures and pulled the last Jeff picture she had. “This is from, let’s see, four years ago. He probably has longer hair now, I heard he got out of the military.” She handed her phone to Tom, and he held it so Pete could see it too.
Pete pulled the phone closer. “Pretty good-looking guy. How big is he?”
Wiz snickered. “He’s skinny and only five-seven. He wears boots a lot, so he looks taller.”
Tom and Pete both snorted. “Unless he’s got stilts, he’s just a short stuff to me. And we’ll just tip him over.” Tom poked his pointer finger to the side once.
She giggled. When had she become a giggler? “Anyway, there are a couple of other emergency protocols you should know about. If the triple nine gets put in, and it’s summer season, and/or two or more of the fire sensors on the horse fence go off, sprinklers start automatically in the horse fence area and on the roof.”
