The boy brushed against him to enter. “Did you give Lucifer the new door codes? Is that how she got in this morning?”
Shep followed behind him. “She’s on the list, yes.”
Elijah pivoted, almost running into Shep’s chest. He gazed up at him with those big blue eyes. “Could you make her not on the list?”
I could make her disappear entirely if it pleases you.“I could change the codes. Would that make you happy?”
The question seemed to confuse Elijah. “Happy?” he asked, like it was an entirely foreign word. “No, but I might sleep for a change.”
Shep frowned. “She keeps you from sleeping?”
Elijah’s brows crinkled, a small smile playing on his face. “No. She doesn’t physically bar me from sleep. But knowing she can barge in here whenever she likes gives me anxiety.”
“And that keeps you from sleeping?” Shep asked, curious.
Elijah snorted a laugh. “You’re really weird. Sometimes you seem so normal and then other times you’re like a Terminator.”
A small smile played at Shep’s lips. His brother had once made the same joke after they’d snuck into the movie as children. “You think I’m a cyborg?”
Elijah shrugged. “I mean, yeah. Kinda. No offense.”
Shep grinned. “None taken.”
Elijah had such good instincts. He would have made a great spy. He was excellent at reading people,anticipating what they wanted and adjusting accordingly. Shep had expected the boy would try to read him too, and he was right. Elijah was starting to see that Shep wore a mask too, that he was taking it off around him. Would Elijah continue to do the same? Let Shep see the real him?
Elijah didn’t head straight for his bedroom as Shep thought he would. Instead, he lingered, gazing up at Shep with wide eyes, his pink tongue darting out to wet his lower lip. He was hesitating. He didn’t want to leave Shep. Another unfamiliar sensation bloomed in Shep’s chest, but he couldn’t quite place it.
“So why don’t you sleep? If it’s not because of your scary manager?” Shep asked, struck by an urge to run the rough pad of his thumb over the boy’s slick lower lip, to feel his skin beneath his finger. This want was so foreign to him, but he wouldn’t dismiss it. He forced himself to keep his hands where they were. “Are you worried about the threats?”
The boy paled. “Threats?”
“The death threats, online. The reason the studio hired me to watch over you.”
Elijah’s shoulders sagged, and he waved his hand. “Oh. No, not really. They sorta come with the territory nowadays, I guess.” His expression grew apprehensive, his shoulders hunching. “I just don’t sleep well. It’s hard to shut my brain off and even when I do, I have nightmares.”
Interesting. “About what?”
Elijah’s gaze skirted away from him. “I don’t remember.”
Lie. His rabbit was lying. But why? What demons chased this boy down in the middle of the night? Were they tied to the card in the kitchen that had sent him spiraling into a full-blown panic attack? Elijah was barely old enough to drink. How could anybody so young look so… haunted?
“Shep?”
Shep pulled himself from his thoughts. “Yeah, rabbit?” he said again.
“The cameras I saw on your laptop this morning… are they in every room?”
Shep frowned. Elijah was definitely afraid of something. Or someone. “The cameras are always recording. Every access point is secure. Nobody can get to you without going through me.”
Elijah pushed an errant strand of hair from his eyes. “You can see me then… in any room in the house?”
“There are no cameras in the bathrooms.”
He seemed to dismiss Shep’s statement, laser-focused on… something. “But there is one... in my bedroom.”
“Yes.”
“One you could access anytime you wanted?”
