Page 52 of Overstaying His Welcome

An alarm rang out just as Ronan opened his mouth to speak. Frowning, he pulled his phone from his pocket.

“What is it?” Memphis asked, only to be silenced by another ringing noise. This time it was Orion who grabbed for his phone.

The same noise happened twice more, once for Memphis, and then for Cohen. It was as if they all synced up their phones at one, even though I had a feeling it wasn’t that type of alarm.

“Does someone want to tell me what the hell is going on?” I asked.

“Those sounds are all the security alarms in our homes. I have them all set up to one main server. And if you’ll look to the wall, you’ll see what I can see.”

We turned as a group to face the big wall as Memphis displayed his screen. I saw multiple flashing dots, each with a different alert.

“Is that saying —?”

“Yes, it is. Flood alarm. Power outage. Glass break. Fire alarm. All set to go off within a minute of each other.”

My jaw dropped at the precision of such a strike. “Are they real? Do you guys need to go check on your homes?”

Memphis shook his head quickly. “There’s nothing wrong. I can see someone tapped into the systems from here. It was all triggered remotely. Besides, I can pull up the cameras at my place and see that everything is fine.”

“Yeah, and everything that’s most important to me is here,” Ronan added. “Not going to worry about a building when my heart is safe.”

My own heart melted at the love in his voice. Damari was a lucky man.

Then again, so was I.

“What now? Why something like this? It doesn’t make sense.” I pondered aloud.

Arick hummed, though he was too busy on his computer to answer as well. Orion was cuddled up beside him, his gaze on the screen as well. He hadn’t said a word, even though I knew he likely had insight we could use.

Godric had also been quiet. I looked to the big, stoic man. He shrugged, then said, “Seems to me Lune might want more of our attention now that Tank is out of the hospital. Maybe he’s ramping up his attacks toward us.”

“With false alarms?” Cohen asked. “That seems like a reach.”

“Hey guys!” a new voice called out as he stepped in the door. I spun to see Sinclair walking in with two trays of coffee and a brown bag precariously balanced in his arms.

“Let me help!” Memphis rushed forward, stealing the bag and dropping it on the table. He took the coffee trays next, handing them over to Archie and Takeshi, who smiled at themove. Then Memphis was wrapped around Sinclair, kissing him like they’d been apart for weeks.

“Good to see you too,” Sinclair said once he was let up for air.

The lot of us laughed at his teasing tone as Memphis snarled and tried for another. Sinclair dodged him as he moved to pass out the drinks.

“Sorry, Chance. I didn’t know what you liked so you’ve got a black coffee.”

I took the drink happily. “Not to worry. I’ll be fine. Any caffeine is good at this rate.”

“What snacks did you bring us?” Cohen leaned closer to the bag, sniffing as if he could get to the pastries.

Sinclair raised his hands. “Oh, no. That’s not from me. There was a guy delivering it to the front desk when I got here. I told him I’d take it back.”

CHAPTER 16

RONAN

At Sinclair’s words,a wave of silence covered the room. He gave us all wide-eyed stares as he tucked himself closer to Memphis.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Not at all, sweetheart. We didn’t order anything yet. It’s strange to find out there was a bag at the desk is all,” Memphis tells him in a somewhat calm tone.

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