He stops in the middle of the walk-in closet. “Do you see it, sweetheart?”
I look around. “No.”
“Good. That’s what I want to hear.” He crosses to the row of clothes along one wall, pushes the hangers to one side, and sweeps a hand out. “Voilà.”
I giggle at his slight silliness. “How do you open it?”
He points to a switch on the wall at the main entrance to the closet. “That looks like an ordinary light switch, and it is. If you lift it, the lights come on. But look underneath the switch. See the little pad that’s flush with the plate?”
I step closer and nod.
Adam sets his thumb on it.
I hear a popping noise similar to the one I heard in the main house when Adam opened the secret door in the same way. Sure enough, the wall opens up, and Adam gives a pull to widen the entrance. It’s smaller than an ordinary door, and Adam has to duck to get inside, but once he’s in, he holds out a hand for me to follow.
There’s a light fixture in the ceiling. It must have come on automatically with the door opening.
The room is small. It’s not a room at all. It’s a small cubby hole. Long enough that I could stretch out if I were to lie on the floor, but not very wide. Probably three feet by seven feet. There’s a large box in one corner and a pile of blankets and a pillow next to it.
“It’s not the sort of place you would want to be forced to hang out in for very long,” Adam explains, “but it would keep you safe if you needed to hide. It’s also fireproof. The box has water, some packaged food, a flashlight, and a gun. I’ll reprogram the pad so that your thumbprint works on it, too.”
I shudder. I never want to have to use this saferoom. I might go crazy in here.
Adam continues, “If anything ever happens that makes you feel uneasy, come in here, shut the door, and lock it from the inside.”
“What about you?” I ask.
“You don’t worry about me, sweetheart. Nothing is going to happen to me.”
I shake my head. “There’s no way I would lock myself in here alone. I’d be scared to death.”
He lifts my chin. “Imagine how scared I’d be if I thought you wouldn’t do everything possible to save your life in the case of an emergency?”
I take a deep breath and relax my shoulders.
Adam steps closer. “Hopefully, neither of us will ever need this room. It will be a long fucking time before I leave you in the house long enough that you would need it without me. So don’t fret.”
It’s hard, but I try to push my concerns out of my head.
Adam guides me out of the claustrophobic rectangle, closes it, and arranges the clothes to cover the entrance once again. When he’s done, he leads me into the bedroom.
All the air leaves my lungs when he suddenly bends, catches me in the tummy with his shoulder, and lifts me off the floor. Before I know it, I’m tossed on the bed, and he’s climbing over me.
He tips his head toward my stomach, drags my shirt up several inches with his teeth, and kisses me below my belly button. “What if my child is already growing inside you?” he asks, his voice deep and low.
I swallow.
“What if a few years from now, when we have three kids in those other bedrooms, something happens to scare you? Would you gather up our babies and hide them, or would you decide to wait until I got home?”
I whimper as he nuzzles my tummy.
He lifts his head. “It will never be just you anymore, sweetheart. Starting right now. You could be pregnant as we speak. Would you risk our baby because you don’t want to go in the saferoom without me?”
Shoot. He’s right. “No,” I whisper. My hand comes to my tummy. Is it possible there’s already a baby growing inside me?
“Look at me, Rebekah.”
I meet his gaze.
