Page 44 of Shrouded in the Dark

“Don’t worry about it. Let’s get started. It’ll take a few minutes. Go to the security panel….”

I tuned out the conversation as I finished cleaning the dishes. Seth came to stand next to me as he grabbed another towel to help dry them.

“I think there’s more to this Gary than meets the eye.” He made sure to keep quiet, barely whispering at all so that Becca didn’t hear us.

“I agree. Even if he’s one of those apocalyptic preparers, this house is extreme. There’s got to be more to his story. Becca seems open minded, but I don’t think she really believes in it all.”

“She believes that he believes in it. That’s all she needs to trust him. She’s got a good soul.”

A loud beeping went throughout the house that had all of us clutching our ears. It lasted for about thirty seconds before shutting off.

“Sorry, guys! I had to reset it for the voice activation!”

Cody came into the kitchen to grab what remained of his bottle of water. “Don’t worry about it, maiden. You just do your thing.” He turned his back on me pointedly.

My lip lifted in a silent growl. Seth slapped my back before squeezing my shoulder. “You kind of asked for it, bear.” I could hear his tiger in his snicker.

“I’ll teach the pup some manners later.” I pinched Cody’s ass as I walked around him to go help Becca.

Chapter 9

Becca

The day passed quickly as Gary walked me through setting up the security system to react to voice commands, but he also had me activate a few extra features I hadn’t known were even installed. On top of the bullet resistant glass and security shutters, he had me activate a high frequency alert that would blare inside. I couldn’t hear anything, but Gary had said that the high frequency would knock down, temporarily, anything that could hear it.

I doubted we’d have to use that at all. I turned it on so Gary felt better about me being in the house without the rest of the family. I could hear Mom in the background giving the twins a hard time during part of our call. I missed them. I wasn’t going home, I had to get my portfolio filled with more if I was going to hit my goal. I wouldn’t be able to do that if we all went back home.

The last feature was weird, even for Gary. He had me move to my bathroom to find a hidden panel that was located next to the light switch. I’d had to press hard on the wall to get it to reveal the panel.

“This is in case there’s a break-in. It operates on its own system, so if someone manages to cut the power, this will still work. It runs off of a different power line that’s hidden. You’ll get in here, press the red button first. That will activate a lockdown of the two doors. If the doors are somehow gone, security bars and security screens will descend as a last resort. The orange button is the second one you push. It will send an alert to me and to a friend who will be able to get to you within a day. I know it’s a long time, but it’ll be ok if you stay in there. The white button at the bottom will allow you to get out of the room if the threat is gone. If you ever have to use this, you get into the bathtub and lay down as flat as you can, alright?”

“Ok.” This was a lot. “Red button, orange button next, and only press the white button when it’s safe. How will I know your friend is who he says he is?”

“That’s my smart girl. He’ll tell you a poem. The one I recited to your mother at our wedding. You remember it?”

Oh, did I. It’d been beautiful.

“I remember.”

“Good. That should do it. You can key the men to the voice activation, but not for this room, alright?”

“Why not them? If there’s an attack here, they need to be safe too.”

“Trust me. If they are who I think they are, your ‘guys’ can take care of themselves.”

What?

“Now, I’ve got to go help your mom before she burns down the house. Call me at any time of day or night, got it, kid? I’m only letting you stay there since you have those guys with you. Night, kiddo.”

He hung up before I could ask him what he’d meant by if the guys were who he thought they were. That was such a strange thing to say. Did he know them? I’d have to ask them.

“Knock knock.” Cody stood in the bathroom doorway that led to the twin’s room where he was staying. “You’re all done with your stepdad?”

“Mmm. Yeah. All done.” I hid the phone in my back pocket. “And it’s locked so you can’t get at those pictures. You guys went outside for a bit, did you go swimming again?”

Cody’s grey eyes caught my attention as he stepped into the bathroom, coming to stand in front of me with barely an inch of space between us. “Something like that. We didn’t want to interrupt when you activated that high frequency alert. I’m a little sensitive to noise.”

“Oh! I didn’t even think to ask. I’d noticed before that you didn’t like super loud noise, I’m sorry, Cody! Are you okay?”