Ezra cleared his throat. “I could hear a twang, but I didn’t know for sure,” he said.
“Oh, you’re American,” she said with laugh. “I thought you were... Chinese.”
“Korean,” he said. “Half Korean and half American, white. So you were close.”
Marcie let out this awful squeal. “Gosh, I’ve put my damn foot in it. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have even tried to guess. Well, it’s nice to meet you.”
I continued to give Ezra the necessary reassuring arm and shoulder squeezes, and we stood there as they left. Once they were gone, he looked at me and laughed.
“You okay?” I asked.
He wrapped his arms around me and held me for a moment. “It’s fine,” he said. “I just didn’t want her to test me on my Korean, it’s rough.”
“I guess she won’t be coming back around asking questions, though,” I said.
“I think she was just being nice,” he grumbled.
“Hey,” I whispered. “Don’t diminish yourself or your feelings. People need boundaries.”
His eyes as they turned to a squint looked wickedly at me. “Even you?”
“Sometimes me,” I said, but that didn’t count for the stalking I did. That was the most necessary think I’d done for us, and without it... I didn’t want to think what would’ve happened without it. For one, I wouldn’t have coped in that hospital bed for all that time being rubbed down with lotions for my skin, or their poison pills. “How about we go inside?”
“It looks nice from the outside,” Ezra said. “Oh, wait. Before we go in. Need to get Mr. Thimble. We’re not coming all this way for him to be stolen out of the passenger seat.”
“Good call.”
This place, like every place I owned, was outfitted with a central nervous system of technology that made sure I was warned if anyone got to close, or even broke in. It gave people in a five meter radius around the property sixty seconds before alerting me. Mostly because of the wildlife setting it off when it was first installed.
The metal on the door handle slipped across to reveal a fingerprint scanner. With my thumb pressed against it the door unlocked, and two mechanical crunches sounded.
Ezra stepped back. “Jeez,” he grumbled. “You did all this?”
“I hired a team,” I said. And thankfully, not Sanctum. I’d bought this after questioning all the information Sanctum had on me. I didn’t mind them knowing most of what I did, but there were parts that had to be hidden—especially when all I wanted sometimes was to be left alone.
Inside, the house was a regular home. We walked into a hallway that led to a large open room with a lounge, kitchen, and dining area all in one, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows looking out at the river. It was one-way glass; the other side was reflective. There were two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a secret tech room, much like the one on the island.
“It’s so nice,” Ezra said in whispers as we walked around. “It’s gorgeous.”
“And that’s a real log fire,” I said. “We’ve got a hutch around the side for wood. Or you can help me collect it, and watch me chop it.”
He bit his lip gently. “Are you going to become a lumberjack for me?”
I flexed my arms for him as he went to wrap a single hand around one—and failed miserably. “Gotta put these muscles to use somehow.”
He giggled. “I know another way you can. Those bedrooms looked comfy.”
14. EZRA
We were having fun, but the seriousness of everything came down on me all at once. It had been a couple of days since we arrived in Vermont and nobody knew we’d crossed state lines. From what I assumed, everyone thought we’d left the country. I couldn’t even tell my legal team, all they knew was that I was ready whenever they needed me, and the FBI agent, Dina, had been instructed to share all information with them.
We were building my defense, because now I was massively on the defense. I’d never had such a huge negative force coming for me, the most hate I’d had was for myself, for not being good enough at the sports my folks wanted. They’d always told me I could go to the Olympics with my gymnastics, but every single time they did, I didn’t want to do it anymore.
It was another morning where Jacques was awake before me. I woke with him sometimes, but today I kept my eyes screwed shut as I allowed my brain to bash and beat me up. I was all about the train of what bad things could happen—I could’ve been arrested and thrown into prison for theft—stealing IP, or whatever they’d say.
Jacques was a light through it all, cutting away at my negative thoughts like he was wielding some super sword. He brought through a tray of food. I had oats, bacon, toast, waffles, it was like he was trying to fatten me up. “We’re sharing,” he said before my big eyes could get carried away. I was already salivating. “Let me get the drinks. I made a pot of tea. Some... I don’t know, it’s the one with the fancy packaging.”
It turned out there was even more food in this place. A lot of it was tinned, but there were boxes of fruity tea sealed away beside large commercial containers of coffee. I wondered how long we might be here to get through it all, or why he had somuch in the first place. Jacques liked his coffee black, and very bitter, so perhaps it would be easy for him to get through.
