Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 103033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
“There’s only one apartment at Gael’s address, so aside from him and mail carriers, no one’s supposed to have access,” Santiago explained. “Somehow, Caleb got in anyway. I don’t believe he actually has a key, but I’m thinking he waited for the mail to arrive one day and snuck in.”
Colt nodded. “Nothin’ so far on the surveillance?”
“No, he didn’t go near the door upstairs,” Santiago confirmed. “Caleb’s supposedly tech-savvy—”
“Somewhat,” I interjected. “He does code and stuff, but it’s not like he’s a hacker. He’s into creating apps and software.”
“But he’s smart enough to know there might be cameras,” Colt deduced. “He’s not completely reckless.”
That was correct.
Santiago sat forward and clasped his hands loosely on the table. “I reckon it’s a balancing act between caution and thinking the cops won’t do anything even if he gets caught. Every time Gael’s pressed charges, Caleb’s gotten away with a fine.”
The topic tightened a knot of unease in my stomach, and I could only hope this went away soon. If it didn’t… How long would Santiago stick around before he got sick of my baggage? My chances of convincing Dean to play with Santiago weren’t great either. Because that had to happen. My Daddy was smitten with the professor—I mean, who wasn’t?—so I wanted to help them like Santiago was helping me. But Dean didn’t strike me as someone who wanted to get too close to drama.
“So what kind of bait do you wanna throw out?” Colt wondered.
“You were talking about those security doors.”
What doors?
Santiago went on. “If Caleb thinks it’s funny to know he’s getting to Gael, he should get a big laugh if he sees a newly installed security door—”
“Um, excuse me, Sir, I do not want to make that douchebag laugh,” I felt the need to say. “I want him out of my life.”
“That’s the goal, querido.” He grabbed my hand and squeezed it.
Colt smirked a little. “Seeing the door will prompt a next move,” he explained to me. “It might even make him bolder to think you’re hidin’ behind a bunch of security. It’s a good plan.”
Oh. Okay, maybe that made sense. In the past, Caleb had found it super funny when I tried to push back. When I’d begged him to stop, when I’d gotten angry with him.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “I don’t think I can afford a thing like that, though.”
A door sounded expensive.
“You don’t have to worry about money,” Daddy told me. “I’ll handle this.”
“Actually, we will,” Colt said, clearing his throat. “The door is a prototype, so what we’ll do is we’ll install it as soon as possible. It’s yours for the next six months, and in return, you leave us a rave review. If you wanna keep it once that piece’a shit is hopefully locked up, we can work somethin’ out.”
Heavens, that was generous—but I truly hoped it wouldn’t take six months to get Caleb back to the West Coast!
“Is there a landlord we gotta reach out to, or…?” Colt looked at us.
I shook my head. “No, Sir.” It was my entrance—or my mom and dad’s, technically. It was part of the place they’d bought for me. I paid the mortgage instead of rent.
Santiago squeezed my hand again. “You know the next step now. You can go talk to Kit while Colt and I sort this out if you want.”
That was a relief, because I was starting to get overwhelmed. “Thank you, Sir.” I pressed a quick kiss to his cheek, then hurried out.
Phew. Security was so not my field of expertise.
Maybe it was selfish, but I truly wanted Santiago to handle all this. I didn’t have the energy. I was so, so, so tired of Caleb’s harassment. Last time it’d happened, I’d cried for two days and barely left my apartment. His popping up whenever I’d started to relax wore me down more than I could describe.
I almost ran into Kit outside the conference room, and I laughed nervously and sidestepped. “Oops, sorry.”
“My bad! I’ll be right back—just gonna give this to Colt and Santiago,” he said. Then he went into the room with two cups of coffee.
I blew out a breath and unzipped my jacket.
A radio was playing country music somewhere. Otherwise, you could hear a pin drop in here—and it would probably echo too.
Kit returned in seconds, and he seemed so happy to see me that it dragged me out of my Caleb funk before it could really grab hold of me like it usually did. Kit took care of my jacket and offered me a Sprite Zero, and then he said he wanted my input on the cake they’d been testing.
“It’s for Valentine’s,” he explained. “Lucas, Colt, and I are having a big cake-tasting date, so we’ve narrowed it down to twenty kinds. We have ten here, and Lucas has another ten at home. The goal is to have our final ten for Valentine’s, and then somehow agree on the three winners for the wedding.”