“Harper too.”
“No,” she shook her head. “That will only make things so much worse.”
His nostrils flared. “Skye, do you trust me?”
She blinked up at him, the question strange, and the answer stranger. Because she did trust him. Though they’d only known each other a few days, in a thousand little ways, he’d shown her that he was worthy of trust, he’d shown her that he was decent and good.
“I don’t understand. Why?”
“Because I can,” he said after a moment. “Let me help you, Skye.”
Leandro in action mode was a hurricane of activity. He made calls while Skye packed a suitcase for herself and Harper and when they emerged twenty minutes later, Alec was standing grimly on the footpath holding two white devices.
“You were right,” Alec confirmed to Leandro.
“About what?” Skye asked, clutching Harper’s little hand in her own.
“Do these belong to your parents?”
She frowned. “I’ve never seen those before in my life. What are they?”
“Surveillance cameras. He’s been watching you.”
Skye stared at Leandro and then, out of nowhere, nausea assaulted her. She turned quickly and vomited into one of her mother’s favourite potted plants. The thought of Jay setting up cameras so he could watch her made Skye feel sick, but it was so much worse because what if this wasn’t the extent of it? What if there were more cameras? What if they were in her bedroom? Leandro’s hand patted her back, his perfectly tailored shoes just visible.
“How could he do that?” She whispered, when she’d recovered.
“It’s very easy,” Alec said with sympathy. “He would just have needed to hook into the Wi-Fi signal and then he could monitor the cameras from anywhere.”
“I can’t believe it,” she groaned.
“Would he have the Wi-Fi details, cara?” Leandro asked solicitously.
She thought about that and then remembered a day over a year ago when he’d been collecting Harper and had said he needed to download a big file. He’d asked for them then. “Yes,” she whispered. “But Leandro…he’s had them for over a year.”
“Then he has probably been watching you for as long.”
“Oh my God,” she groaned. “I can’t believe this.”
“Can’t you?” Leandro prompted, running a hand over her hair. She shivered. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
By the time they arrived at Leandro’s spacious penthouse, two men in suits were waiting in the lounge room.
“Bradley and Michael,” Leandro introduced. “Family lawyers. We’re going to have a chat to them about your situation,” he said. “And this,” he gestured to a woman that Skye hadn’t seen at first. “Is Jane. She’s a very qualified nanny, highly recommended by a friend of mine. She’s going to play with Harper while we have this meeting.”
Skye’s eyes went wide. Now she knew what he’d been doing on the phone. But how could he have organized all this so quickly? Her head was spinning.
She looked down at Harper, who was a little tremulous after the day she’d had. Skye picked her up and hugged her tight, carrying her towards the nanny—a pretty woman in perhaps her thirties with red hair and matching lipstick.
“Hello, honey,” Jane’s smile encompassed both Skye and Harper. “How are you?”
“Actually, she’s a little fragile. I’m not sure she’ll want to leave me.”
“I understand.” Jane crouched down. “Harper, I’ve been trying to build a tower in the other room, but I can’t make the blocks fit together. Do you think you could come help me?”
Harper looked up at Skye, who smiled encouragingly and squeezed her hand. After a moment, Harper nodded. “Okay then.”
“Great,” Jane said, putting her hand down to take Harper’s. She said to Skye, “I’ll take good care of her, I promise.”