Page 83 of The Light to My Darkness (The Light to My Darkness 1)

Chapter 28

Sunday

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. The words weren't flowing today. All I could seem to do was stare at my clicking cursor. I turned off my computer and checked my phone for what felt like the hundredth time. James still hadn't called me back. His plane must have landed hours ago. I had called him a few more times this morning, but hadn't left any more messages. What was taking him so long to call me?

My eyes wandered to the camera mounted in the corner of the room. It used to make me uncomfortable, knowing that our security detail could see me at all times. But James assured me that they didn't watch us when we shed our clothes. The cameras were just a precaution. After everything that had happened to us, James didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. And that meant putting cameras in every room, despite my insistence that I didn't want them. I begged him to at least not put them in the bathrooms or our bedroom. James' response to my request was that we had sex just as often outside our bedroom. Which was true.

I clicked on Porter's name in my phone and held it to my ear.

He answered after one ring. "Yes, Mrs. Hunter?"

"Cole?" I knew he still preferred when I called him by his last name. But sometimes I just needed that sense of familiarity. And whenever I called him Cole instead, he knew something was bothering me.

"Is everything alright, Penny?"

I smiled at him calling me by my first name. "When did James' plane land?" I heard the shuffling of papers.

"At 8:51."

I bit the inside of my lip. That was hours ago. "Do you know what his itinerary is?"

"He just said it was business."

"Could you call Briggs and see if James is available for a call?"

Porter cleared his throat. "Briggs is with me."

"Briggs didn't go with James?" For some reason, I was starting to feel uneasy. James knew how I felt about him traveling without a member of our security detail.

"Despite my requests, no. You know how Mr. Hunter is."

I sighed. I did know. He worried about his family when he went away on business. He wanted to keep Scarlett and me safe, even though it put him at risk. "Do you think maybe we should hire one more person?"

"I think that's a great idea. I'll pull some resumes of recommendations and bring them to you tomorrow."

Over the past few years, the members of our staff had gotten used to catering to my requests. I cringed at the fact that I had used the term staff. They didn't feel like staff to me. They felt like family. I relied on them endlessly. Originally, I hadn't been able to ask them questions without them skirting around the answers. Apparently because of James' high standards and odd rules about what I was allowed to know. But now they let me make decisions as if I was an extension of James.

"Do you want me to try to call him?" Porter asked.

"No, I'll just keep trying."

"Alright. Is there anything else you need?"

I looked up at the camera and then quickly turned away. I was embarrassed by what I was about to ask. "Actually, yes. Could you maybe check Scarlett's room for snakes?" A part of me thought that maybe that was why I couldn't focus on writing. I was worried a snake was going to come out of nowhere and bite me.

"Snakes?"

"She's been obsessed with them after seeing this Harry Potter movie. And I knew we shouldn't have let her see it. But now she won't stop talking about snakes."

"Snakes huh? I thought she'd be more of a bunny collector if anything."

I laughed. "I know. But she has this strange fascination with them. And she keeps saying they're going to take me away."

"What do you mean by that?" There was suddenly a sense of urgency in his voice.

"That they're going to kill me, I guess? I don't know. She keeps saying stuff like that to me and it's freaking me out."

There was a knock on the front door. I slowly stood up and ended the call. I knew it was Porter. A few seconds later, I opened up the door for him, even though I knew perfectly well that he had a key.

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