Page 80 of Levi
Thinking I’m done, I move to leave the office but see one more piece of paper sticking out from under the closet door.Wanting to make sure everything is picked up, I walk over to pick it up, but my foot pushes it completely under.Twisting the knob, I open the closet door and place my hand against the inner wall to steady myself to grab the paper.But what I find couldn’t prepare me for everything that happens next.
The wall gives and slides open, revealing another room off the closet.What’s strange is that I don’t remember ever seeing this room when I was here years ago.Maybe Dad needed a place to store his guns, or maybe he put a safe with valuables in it.Curiosity gets the better of me and I take a peek in.There’s a light switch on the wall right when you enter and I flip it on.
“Oh.My.God!”I whisper.
It’s not a safe room, or a place to hold guns or valuables.It’s like somewhere you hold a command base meeting.What is Dad doing in here that he had to have a secret room?Maybe he has a customer who wants a more private consult?Is this part of his work that keeps him gone for months on end?
There’s a large table in the middle of the room and the walls are covered with papers and diagrams.On one side of the room, he’s got four laptops and what looks to be three satellite phones.What is going on?Is Dad back in the military and working on a special mission?If that is the case, I know I shouldn’t be in here.I need to leave but as I start to walk out, something in the far corner catches my eye and my legs move on their own accord, to see if my mind is playing tricks on me.
The closer I get the more I’m positive that my eyes are seeing it and I’m not imagining this.Not only do I see a diagram of a car that looks to be the exact replica of my husband’s pride and joy, but there next to it is a handful of pictures of me and Halo in different stages of being in Montana.
This can’t be happening.The photos look to be taken from far away.Was he watching us?Did he know where we were this entire time?My confusion is short lived, as Zeus starts to bark up a storm outside and from the sound, he’s on high alert.Something inside of me knows that this doesn’t sit well, and I’m not sure what to do with all of this.I quickly look over the other papers on the walls and see many different locations.There’s the LAPD building layout, the blueprints of our penthouse in LA and Thorne Law Firm, another diagram of a warehouse, and maps of Los Angeles and Montana.
My mind starts to wonder and look at the other papers but Zeus’s bark is getting more frantic, then goes eerily silent.Something’s happened.I abandon the room and go to the window in the office.Dad is stepping out of the shop and briskly walks towards the house.He’s got his phone in his hand, talking to someone.
I’m not sure what to make of this room, or what to do with it.If it’s nothing, then I’ve just violated my dad’s privacy.But why does he have all that information on Levi’s work, home and car that blew up?Should I speak to Ryan about it, or face my dad first?It might be nothing and then I’d be making a fool of myself.Maybe I’m just being paranoid because we just received a threat?Surely there is a reasonable explanation for all of this.Maybe he was helping find out who the threat was that was targeting our family?That would seem like the logical choice, right?
I hear the back door shut and I hightail it out of the office, then towards the living room.Dad is stuffing his phone in the back pocket of his jeans when we come into the same room together.He looks as though he’s sweating from the moisture on his forehead and the beginnings of a sweat ring under his arms.
“Hey, Dad,” I say, but it comes out like I’ve just run a marathon.“Want some coffee or tea?Halo is down for the count for a while.”I try to calm my heartrate.
“Sure, honey, coffee would be great.I’ve got some things I need to look at that need my attention for work.”
“Okay,” I say and turn to walk to the kitchen.“Oh, the window was open in the office and papers got blown everywhere.I tried to pick them up and organize them for you,” I say over my shoulder.
I watch in my peripheral as he stops right before the entry of the hallway.
“I’m going to go out and ask the guys if they need anything to drink while I brew your coffee.”My legs work their way to the back door.
“They all went to walk the perimeter,” Dad says sharply.
“Oh.”I finally turn to face Dad and find him in the middle of the room standing tall.“Well, I’m sure Zeus is itching to get back in here.”
“Zeus went with them.”
I know something isn’t right because Zeus would never just go with someone else and leave my sight.Not to mention, Ryan would never allow us to be separated when there is a threat on us.Zeus and Ginger are our last line of defense, in the event that something happens to security.The hairs on the back of my neck start to stand at attention.
“You saw it, didn’t you?”he asks calmly.Too calmly.
“What?”I question, but everyone knows I’m a shit liar.
“Sweetheart,” he says in warning, like I’m a little girl again who just marked up one of his books with a highlighter.
“Why do you have a hidden room behind the closet of your office?Why is there all this paperwork on Levi?His house?Work?How do you have photos of Halo and me for the last two years when I just gave you some for the first time?”
Dad’s stance goes rigid, like he’s about to go to war.
“I did what any other father in my position would do,” he defends.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I’ve been trying to clean up the worst decision you ever made.And to resolve what my parents should’ve done decades ago.”
“Clean up?Dad, Levi is the best thing to ever happen to me.There isn’t anyone else I’d want to spend the rest of my life with.”
He gives a slight mocking laugh, and I have to wonder where the hell this is coming from.
“Saylor, listen,” he steps closer, eliminating the distance between us.“I know you think you might love him, he is your first real boyfriend and all, but he and his family are not what you think they are.I should’ve put a stop to this over twenty years ago and then we’d never be put in this position.When I found out you started dating the chump, I thought it would sizzle out.I never thought you’d marry the guy and then have a baby with him in such a short amount of time.”
