Page 59 of Keep You Close

The phone thing, though, that was niggling at me.

How had he found the number?

And, no, I didn’t think it was possible for him to trace a burner. That was the whole point of them. But there was something somewhere with that number on it, and I was worried that it might point in the direction of Navesink Bank.

In which case, changing the phone wouldn’t make a difference.

“Can I make a suggestion and have you give it some actual thought?” I asked.

“Sure,” she said, brows furrowing.

“I’d like to have King come in and set up a security system on the house. Just as a precaution.”

“That’s not necessary,” she insisted. “I mean, that’s a big expen—“

“I’m not worried about the money,” I cut her off. “Is that the only objection?”

“I just… I don’t know if I want them all to—“

“Sweetheart, that’s not my story to tell anyone,” I said. “King doesn’t need to know that to set up the house. I can just say that I want the place more secure in case I’m not in town.”

That seemed to be the wrong thing to say, though.

Her hand pulled from mine, resting in her lap instead.

“I’m obviously not going anywhere,” I added, trying to play it off. “Not for months. Even then, who knows. But once I have a boot on, I will be more mobile. And the house might be sitting empty.”

“But why would he think that you’d want a system now when you’ve been thinking the house was empty for months and months without one?”

“Fair point. But now that I’ve been here for a while, I give more of a shit about the place than I used to. He’d get that.”

“It’s your house,” she said, getting up and gathering the dishes to take to the sink.

This was one of the times I cursed my body for not healing faster.

Because I wanted to get up. I wanted to reach for her.

I had to settle for staying put and watching her tense back as I spoke. “It’s not just my house,” I reminded her. “Which is why I’m asking you to think it through, not telling you I’m doing it.”

“What would it be? Door alarms?” she asked, turning to look at me.

“And window,” I said. “Flood lights with cameras facing the driveway and backyard. Then a doorbell with a video feed as well.”

“That’s a lot.”

“It sounds like it. But, trust me, King does way more complicated shit all the time.”

It used to amaze me how far personal security had come. Shit you put inside your vents in your house. Balcony sensors. Reinforced walls and bullet-resistant windows.

“There was one client. Guy had pockets deep as Midas,” I told AJ, just to make it clear how crazy personal security could get. “He was building a doomsday bunker. But he wanted a moat. Not just any moat, mind you. One that could be ignited and have flames that burned high enough to create a literal fire wall.”

“Oh my God,” she said, mouth falling open a little. “That’s crazy.”

“He was a complete dick. I imagined if I worked for his ass, even an actual fire wall wouldn’t stop me from heading to his house on Purge day.”

“Is that the kind of work Kingston usually does?” she asked.

“It’s a big mix. There’s the clients like that here and there, sure. But it’s a lot of personal home security for average Joes. And a lot of businesses, for obvious reasons.”

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