Page 68 of Somebody's Watching Me
He first noticed the shift in her behavior at the hospital. When he tried to hold her hand, and she deftly avoided his touch, it hurt. Physically hurt. Nothing like that had ever happened to him before, and he was at a loss on how to proceed. Their relationship had forever been effortless. Neither hid their intentions or true colors from the other. At least he hadn’t. With other women, sure, but never Annabeth.
So, when she pulled away, he felt it right in his gut. A pain that continued throughout the day and into the night, leaving him frustrated.
With a few more tweaks, he tested the system, and once satisfied, used his phone to complete the setup. Any wrong code entered into any of Haven’s entry points would alert not only him, but Liam and Samuel, too. Ben wanted the house to essentially be locked down until things were settled, and that’s exactly what he was getting.
Samuel’s SUV came to a stop behind his bike as he finished up the last bit of programming.
“Almost done.” Rowan didn’t need to explain what he was doing. He and Samuel were in constant communication. “Did you get my text?”
Samuel stuck his head out the window. “I did, but I swear if you don’t get out of my way so I can have a cup of coffee, I’ll murder you right where you stand.”
Small female voices chanted the word murder from somewhere in the car, and even from this far away, Rowan could see Samuel’s eye twitch. “Don’t you have a wife, Fairweather?” he asked, baiting his friend. “Why didn’t she make you any coffee?”
The chanting ceased abruptly, and Samuel smirked as he rolled the car forward until it stopped parallel to where Rowan stood.
From the passenger seat, Evie glared past her husband at him. “Did you just ask why I didn’t make him any coffee?”
Oh, shit. “I’m sorry, I was only joking.”
Evie’s eyes narrowed as Samuel’s grin grew. “Like everyone else, I’m tired after yesterday. But do you know why I’m even more tired than everyone else?” she snarled, her voice reaching shouting levels. “It’s because I’m growingmy husband’slarge babyinside my body! A baby that likes to kickbox my internal organs every hour on the hour.”
Rowan quickly tapped in the new code to let them pass, and the damn gates had the audacity to open at a snail’s pace. “I will never make another joke for the rest of my life, Evie. Promise.”
Ignoring him, she unbuckled her seatbelt and was halfway across Samuel’s lap as she continued to shout. “Let me shock you even more. The kids haven’t had breakfast. That’s right! I’m letting my children starve!”
Scared for his life, Rowan looked at Samuel for help, but the asshole remained silent.
“Annabeth will hear about this,” Evie promised, returning to her seat as the SUV’s rear window rolled down and two more sets of angry female eyes sized him up.
Harper clucked her tongue like Simone often did. “Yeah.”
“Wees tells her.” Theo hunched comically around her sister, pulling her hot pink sunglasses down low on her nose to glare at him. “Yous girlyfriend gonna be mads.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“How is she not your girlfriend?” Harper asked, her head tilting. “I looked up voyeurism yesterday, and it said that—”
“Do not finish that sentence.” Samuel hit the gas, and the SUV cleared the gates just as they began to close.
Rowan stood for a minute in the dust, letting Samuel’s branch of the Fairweather circus get inside before he joined them. It would be insane this morning, and he wasn’t in a hurry to engage with Evie again until she calmed down.
After running two more checks, he made his way to the house, parking next to Simone’s red sports car. On the front path, the Fairweather security team mingled with some local cops and what looked like one or two federal agents. It appeared to be a full house for the time being.
Or perhaps not.
Going inside, he paused in the foyer at the silence. In all the years he’d hung around Haven House, he’d never known it to be overly quiet. Straining to listen, Rowan picked up an inaudible murmur of voices coming from down the hall, and he followed the sound into the kitchen.
Theo and Harper sat at the bar, chewing loudly on their cereal while their parents stood behind them, listening to Abe.
“There’s no news on what happened,” Abe was saying from his spot at the kitchen table as he scrolled through what looked like social media pages of news outlets on his laptop. “I guess having Liam in charge isn’t such a bad idea.”
At the stove, Annabeth was making omelets with a colorful spread of vegetables and other fillings laid out next to her on the counter. Rowan couldn’t stop his heart from aching at the sight. His girl always took care of others before herself.
“Need an assistant?” he asked, coming up behind her. “I’m not much of a cook, but I can help.”
Her battered and beautiful face turned toward him, and she nodded, not quite meeting his gaze. “Get me the chopped ham out of the fridge.”
Theo eyeballed him warily as he passed. “Yous not her boyfriend.”
