“No.”
An awkward silence filled the air until Eve intervened. “Well, there’ll be plenty of time for proper introductions later.” She crossed the carpet in front of Jamie and palming the pink cane leaning against the bedside table, she handed it to him. “You can sleep in Jay’s room across the hall if you like. He hasn’t been using it.”
“Oh,” Summer blurted. “Jamie should have his own bed. I can grab a baby monitor and sleep in Jay’s room tonight. Tomorrow we’ll—”
“No. You’ll sleep in here.”
“Excuse me?” The bite in his tone ruffled her feathers, and she responded by straightening her backbone.
“You heard me,” he said. “You’ll sleep in my bed until I say otherwise.”
“Excuse me?” Agitation raising the pitch of her voice to what did you just say levels, she met his eyes, and her knees damn near buckled at the anger his held.
He wiped a hand over his face, obscuring his expression for the briefest of moments. When he reappeared, he had his features rearranged into a mask of false calm. “Can we have a minute here?” He didn’t spare a glance at Adam or Eve, who both turned and looked her way.
“I’m fine,” she responded to their unasked questions. Screw him. If Jamie Snow thought he could walk into her life and dictate how things would go…no…hell, no. He may be Halia’s father, but she was done with letting strangers intimidate her. Done with giving others control because she believed she had no other choice. The decision about where she’d sleep? Hers to make. Not his. Hers. “Jamie and I can sort out the sleeping arrangements together. No problem.”
Adam cocked a brow. “You sure?” She nodded, and he continued. “Alright, if you need anything, or this asshole gives you a hard time, let me know, and I’ll take care of it.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Summer swept her gaze from Adam to Jamie and back again. “I can manage him.” A snort from across the room had her fingers tightening around the iron pick. “Really, I’ll be fine.”
“Then we’ll leave you to it,” Eve said, and after a quick hug and a whispered exchange with Jamie, she lifted onto her toes and kissed him on the cheek. “I’m glad you’re home, Doc. Don’t be a dick to Summer. She’s family, and we need her.”
He grunted, the couple departed, and she was left alone with the man who’d been spooning her—naked—less than fifteen minutes ago. Awareness prickled over her as they stood facing each other. The space between them charged with tension.
She took a deep breath to calm the butterflies in her chest and opened her mouth to speak.
He cut her off before she could get any words out. “You’re not leaving this room.”
“It’s not a prob—”
“You’re not leaving this room.”
“But it’s yours, and you should be near—”
“You. Are. Not. Leaving. This. Room.”
“But—”
“Stop arguing, Summer.” He pointed the end of his cane toward her side of the rumpled bed. “Put your brain basher back under the mattress. And from now on,” he growled. “Lock the fucking bolt before you get in bed.”
Orders given, he departed through the open door, and closing it quietly behind him, he shut her and Halia in together, never once asking about the daughter he hadn’t met yet.
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
After a restless nighton the cot in his office, Jamie sat in the boardroom surrounded by the members of the JTT, staring at the brain scans of the three Boston massacre shooters up on the big screen.
The first time he had access to the pictures, he had to admit, being on the same team as the best hacker on the planet had its benefits.
“So what do you think?” Adam asked from his position at the head of the conference table.
“You got the autopsy reports?” Post-mortem images all showed the same thing. A black smudge about the size of a quarter at the base of the brain stem where the medulla or central processor should be. Definitely not normal.
“Jay will send them to you. Any early theories?”
“Looks like an aneurysm on screen, but that makes no sense. Nobody with a brain bleed the size of a walnut survives long enough to commit mass murder. And three at the same time, in the same place, on different individuals, defies the odds. What did the medical examiner say?”
“Same as you,” Jay answered. “Aneurysms possibly brought on by prolonged opioid use.”
