Defiance (The Protectors #9)(22)

“Do you…do you live alone?” I asked.

Vincent merely nodded and got out of the car. As I grabbed my bag from the back seat, Vincent pulled his own bag plus a much larger one from the trunk. Up a short flight of stairs were several wooden workbenches along the front of the garage. I followed Vincent and watched him set the bag on one of the workbenches next to a large metal cabinet. The bag was open enough that I could see it was filled with all sorts of guns. Vincent went to the cabinet, placed his finger on a small keypad next to the handle, and waited. Seconds later, the entire front of the cabinet slid up to reveal a slew of guns, knives, and other weapons I couldn’t identify hanging from brackets on the wall.

What the hell?

Vincent put the bag in the cabinet and then pressed a button on the inside of it which caused the door to slide back down again.

I glanced at the two identical cabinets next to the first one, but kept from asking if they were filled to the brim with weapons too. I kind of didn’t want to know.

I followed Vincent to the only door in the garage. He used his finger on the keypad to open that door, too, and then he motioned me inside.

“What, no alarm?” I asked jokingly once I stepped inside and was met with silence.

Vincent shot me a glance and then pulled out his phone and showed me the screen. The phone was vibrating as my image appeared on the screen. I automatically looked up to try and find the security camera that was watching me, but I couldn’t see it.

“Alarms that make a lot of noise are meant to scare an intruder off. Where’s the fun in that?” he asked. I noticed Vincent’s watch was flashing and I could hear the slightest vibration emanating from it. There was a letter and number flashing on the watch’s digital screen.

“What does it mean?” I asked as I pointed to the watch.

“Tells me where my guest – wanted or unwanted – is.”

“Doesn’t that get old?” I asked. “Having it go off every time you move?”

“It knows I belong here,” was all he said, and then he was leading me down a short hallway. We entered a large kitchen with white granite countertops, white cabinets, and black appliances.

No sooner had Vincent put his bag down than a large orange tabby cat jumped up on the counter and immediately put his paws against Vincent’s chest. The sight of the man’s big fingers affectionately rubbing the animal’s cheeks had my insides warming.

“Mickey,” Vincent said as he motioned to the cat. “And Minnie,” he added as he glanced to our right. Sure enough, a second cat that looked almost identical to the first except for a small patch of white on its forehead was watching us from the entryway that appeared to lead to the rest of the house.

“Mickey and Minnie?” I asked with a smile.

“My boyfriend had a thing for all things Disney when we got them,” he said simply. The mention of a boyfriend caught me off guard, especially since he’d said he lived alone. But the dark look that flashed in his eyes for the briefest of moments had me keeping silent.

“Outer fence is electrified 24/7, inner fence is only at night,” Vincent began as he grabbed his bag and headed towards the doorway where the cat was still sitting. He stopped long enough to run his fingers over the cat’s head. I reached for my own bag and followed. The kitchen opened into a large, open floor concept living room with black leather furniture, and a flat screen TV hung above the huge fireplace. Light streamed in through the large windows facing the back of the property as well as through the skylights in the vaulted ceiling. “Glass is bulletproof,” Vincent continued as we walked. He stepped into a room just past the living room. It was a spacious office with several computer monitors on the wall along one desk, and a single monitor and desktop computer on the other side of the desk. Vincent went to one of the drawers and pulled something out. He tapped some keys on the keyboard of the computer, then did something with his phone before coming to me. I finally realized it was a watch similar to the one he was wearing.

“Leave this on. It’s waterproof,” he said as he handed it to me. “It has a tracking device in it so I’ll know where you are even when you’re not in the house.”

“I’m allowed outside?” I asked snidely.

He sent me a dark look. “If there’s a threat from the air or along the perimeter, the watch will notify you. Get your ass back in the house if that happens. I’ll show you the entry points once we’re outside.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Is all this really necessary?” I asked. “Surely he can’t find me here.”

But Vincent didn’t respond, and it occurred to me why. “It’s not about me, is it?” I asked as I once again looked at the monitors.

“The bedrooms are upstairs. If something happens, we go into lockdown mode.”

“Lockdown?” I asked, but before I could even ask what he meant, he hit a button on his watch and I jumped as a heavy piece of metal slid over the only window in the room as well as the skylight above us, pitching us into darkness. Similar sounds rattled outside the room and when I followed Vincent out the door, I saw the house was almost completely dark except for lights along the floorboards that came on and turned off as we moved, illuminating only a few feet in front of and behind us at a time.

“Jesus,” I muttered. “Who the hell are you?”