At Peace (The 'Burg #2)(94)
“That good?” Joe asked, his eyes on me.
Keira grabbed his hand and tugged him in, lying, “Yeah, definitely.”
“Hey Joe,” Kate greeted.
“Hey girl,” Joe greeted back.
“You can sit on my stool,” Keira offered.
“We should sit at the table, seein’ as there’s so many of us, I’ll get the plates,” Kate decided.
“Girl –” Joe started but Kate was on the move and Keira had dropped his hand and was charging into the kitchen to help Kate.
I was still staring at Joe.
The girls exited the room balancing plates, cutlery, napkins, butter and maple syrup as Joe came to me.
“Can your girls take over pancakes?” he asked, his face serious and seeing it, something ugly slid through me.
I nodded.
“Kate,” he called, looking into the dining area, “take over here, yeah?”
She looked through the opening of the bar at Joe then at me then she nodded to Joe.
Joe took the spatula out of my hand, put it on the counter and then he took my hand and dragged me to my bedroom.
He closed the door and looked down at me.
Then he lifted his hands, both of them, and settled them where my shoulders met my neck.
“I’m not here for pancakes,” he told me.
I nodded, staring up at him.
“But I’m stayin’ for pancakes.”
I nodded again, still staring.
“Went out, looked to your house, you had a box at the steps to your front door.”
Damn. I knew it.
“White?” I asked. “Big purple bow?”
I watched as his face went hard then he nodded. “Big bow, big box.”
“Did you get it gone?”
“Yeah, it’s in my house. Called Colt.”
I nodded again.
“That his thing?” Joe asked.
“Yeah.”
“It’s Sunday,” he told me.
“Yeah.”
“He ever do his thing on Sunday?”
“No.” His hands gave me a squeeze and I asked, “What’s that mean?”
“Don’t know.” He was watching me closely then he asked, “How solid are you right now?”
“Not very.”
He hesitated then nodded and said, “All right.”
“Why?”
“Later.”
“No, I need it to hit me all at once so I can deal with it and move on, not spread it out. Spreading it out is bad so, even though I’m freaked, I want to know.”
“Sure?”
I nodded.
His hands at my neck slid up to my jaws and he pulled me close, dipping his chin so he was close too.
“Box was just out of sensor range,” Joe told me.
“What?” I asked.
“Box was out of sensor range. I got sensors set so even if someone approaches the door, you know in the house, a preliminary alarm goes off so you’re aware. Remember, I told you that.”
I nodded, I remembered.
“You set the alarms for sleep, which I’m guessing you did when you came to me last night…” he let that hang and I nodded again.
He had bunches of settings for the sensors, including one for when we were awake but in the house so, say, the postman came, or perhaps Kenzie Elise, we didn’t jump out of our skins because the preliminary alarm went off. But, in the middle of the night, no one should be lurking at our doors, so we had what he called a sleep setting too. It set off an alarm that we could hear, and Joe and Colt could too so they could investigate (and the bad guy could get the hint and go away), but only sent a message to dispatch if the doors and windows were breached or one of us didn’t turn the alarm off before the timer ran down on the message being sent to dispatch.
Joe went on. “Anyone got close, the sensors would trip. Whoever put that box out there knows how the sensors are set.”
“But you can see them,” I reminded him.
“Box was just out of sensor range,” he repeated.
“You said that.”
“You can see them, buddy, but you can’t see the range.”
I sucked in breath, realizing what this meant.
“It’s a message, Vi,” Joe whispered, like whispering would soften the blow. “He’s tellin’ you he knows my system.”
In other words, Daniel Hart was telling me he could get to me.
“Joe,” I whispered.
“He can’t bypass it,” Joe stated.
“He knows it then he can bypass it.”
“He can’t.”
“But, Joe, he knows –”
“Vi, he’d have to shut down the electrical grid for the entire f**kin’ county to bypass my system.”
I blinked at him then I asked, “Really?”
“Yeah. That wirin’ Chip f**ked up?” he asked and I nodded yet again. “There you go,” he finished secretively, not enlightening me any further to the method to his madness that made him Security to the Stars.
“Why has he not done anything for weeks and now a box?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Joe answered.
“Should I tell my girls?”
“Don’t know.”