Page 36 of Byte

Edge chuckled. “It’s your house. Start wherever you’d like. Frankly, it’ll be nice to have you here to provide some guidance.”

“I guess I’ll start in the living room and work my way through the rest of the house.”

As it turned out, the damage wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. It was still bad, just not as bad. Initially, I thought virtually everything was going to be a loss. While some items were broken beyond repair, most things were only knocked over or strewn about. The kitchen definitely bore the brunt of the assault, with my bedroom coming in second.

I was in my room sorting through my clothes covering the floor when Byte interrupted me. “Are you hungry?”

“Now that you mention it, I could eat.”

“Diesel’s going to pick up something from the Mexican restaurant beside the grocery store. Do you want something from there or somewhere else?”

“I love that place. I’ll have a taco salad, no tomato and no guacamole,” I told him and walked over to the bed to get my purse.

“I got it,” he said and closed the door before I could argue.

I looked at Shadow, who was resting on my bed, and shrugged. “Well, okay then.”

Despite the extensive mess, cleaning up my room was much easier than I thought. Every single item of clothing I owned had been removed from a drawer or hanger and thrown on the floor. Since there was no way I was going to wear anything until it had been washed, all I had to do was gather the clothes and stuff them into laundry baskets and boxes.

I’d worked my way to my closet when Byte returned to tell me the food had arrived. “One second,” I said and opened the hidden door in my closet. I’m not sure why I opened it, but it was a good thing I did.

“Byte,” I gasped. “Look.”

He quickly crossed the room and read the words spray-painted on the wall behind the false door. “I’ll find you next time, bitch.”

He pulled out his phone and snapped a few pictures. “We need to add this to the police report.”

“Yeah,” I agreed quietly. I tried not to let the words get to me, but I couldn’t help it. The place that kept me safe had been discovered. It was the last semblance of security I had, and it was gone. What would I do if someone broke in again? Or when someone broke in again, according to the words written on the wall.

“Gabby,” Byte said sternly. “They won’t get to you.”

“We don’t even know who it is,” I countered.

“Doesn’t matter. You’ll have someone with you at all times. No one will get to you,” he assured me.

“I know,” I said and swallowed thickly. “It was just a little jarring to see that my safe space has been discovered.”

“Let’s go eat,” he said and gently led me out of the room, with Shadow following along behind us.

I stopped abruptly before entering the hall. “Is it okay for him to be out here?”

“It should be. We’ve gone over the floors at least twice with the vacuum.”

We joined the guys in the kitchen for dinner. I looked around in awe. With the exception of the dishes waiting to be washed, my house looked almost normal. “You guys are awesome. I can’t believe how great this place looks.”

“We were glad to help,” Edge said. “Have you been able to figure out if anything’s missing?”

“From what I can tell, they didn’t take anything.”

“But they did leave a message in the hiding space in her closet,” Byte said and slid his phone over to Edge.

Edge looked at the picture and passed the phone to Diesel, then to Ink. “They’re going to find a lot more than they bargained for if they show up here again.”

After dinner, I finished up in the bedroom while Byte loaded my baskets and boxes of clothes into the truck. Then we said our goodbyes and headed back to Croftridge. I was exhausted and had a long day of laundry to look forward to.

12

GABBY

---