Page 9 of Sheltered By Love

Chapter Two

Zane

Even if the yard is a mess, and she seems to be trying to plant a vegetable garden or something, the house is tidy. I’ll give her that.

And it smells like vanilla and cinnamon.

Just like it did when Mom spent the day baking.

All in all, from what I can see she’s keeping the place in good order.

I haul my step ladder inside the front door and climb up it so I can take a look at the system.

I frown as I unscrew the front plate of the alarm. “Where did you get this thing?”

She bites her lip as she answers. “Nicki bought it for me off E-bay.”

Of course, she did. Everyone gets everything off E-bay. “Who installed it?”

Her face pales a little. “I did with a little help from Nicki. But the guy who sold it to us was very helpful.”

I’ll bet he was. I hate to guess how much she paid for a metal box with a few wires to connect. “He ripped you off. It’s just the shell of an alarm with a flashing red light.”

She lets out a groan and slaps a hand on her forehead. “I’m such an idiot.”

“Lots of people get taken in by scams like this.”

She peeps at me through her fingers. “Really?”

I nod as I climb down, the useless piece of junk in my hand. “I’ll pass this on to Garrett and see if we can’t stop him from doing it to anyone else.”

Her lips curve into a grateful smile. “That would be great. I’d hate to see anyone else think they were safe when they weren’t.”

I give her a vague nod, distracted by what she just said. There’s bound to be an upswing in security systems sold when burglaries are on the rise.

People will buy anything when they’re scared.

I store that away and gesture to her fake alarm. “You buy anything else off of this clown on E-Bay?”

“Uh, there’s another one at the back door, let me, just tidy up a bit first…” she says.

Before I can say this isn’t an inspection, she scoots off down the hall. Since I have nothing to do, I take a cautious step down the hall and take a look inside the living room.

It’s filled with an assortment of antique-style furniture that somehow matches the pastel floral print wallpaper Mom loved.

Before she can catch me snooping, I duck back into the hall and wait for her to return.

When she appears, her cheeks are flushed, and she can’t meet my eye.

I’m half expecting to find a guy in the kitchen, but when I walk in, ladder under my arm, all I find is the same outdated oak-paneled kitchen my mom used to nag my Dad to replace.

Felicity points at the useless black box right over the back door and takes a seat at a retro Formica table she’s moved in here.

I never got around to asking her why she wanted so much space, I was too busy packing up, and I can’t exactly invade her privacy, so I skirt around it.

“Do you or anyone else open the windows upstairs at night? I need to know where to install the sensors.”

Her eyebrows rise. “You’re installing sensors upstairs? What if I set them off?”

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