“Of course not. I'm going to sit right here andnap.”
I laughed at him and threw my blankets over to him, disturbing Shakespeare in the process. He growled at me andran.
I bounced up, leaving my book in the chair. On my way to Ellion, I peeked into Griffin's open bedroom door. He wasn't there, but I took a second to look around. It was exactly the same as the last time I was in it, but the picture of Amanda and Andee from his bedside table was in the middle of his bed. He must've been studying it sometime after all theexcitement.
Ellion's hurt expression flashed through my mind, so I left Griffin's room and headed to the lab. I knocked sharply on the door and heard Ellion call, “Comein.”
The door opened silently. I poked my head in, embarrassed. “Can I comein?”
Ellion nodded, much the same way I’d nodded mine when Chandler asked to join me in the library—begrudgingly.
“You okay?” Iasked.
“I'm fine,” he said. “Watching for signs of Hunter oncamera.”
“Have you found anything?” I sat in the chair I'd been in earlier and rolled over to help him stare at thescreens.
“A little. He stayed warm by opening the barn door to let exhaust out and then running the heat in the cars. I can't believe we didn't have the alarm set. We would've found him in about thirtyseconds.”
“It’s okay, Ellion. Why would you ever suspect a crazy person attacking in this terrible storm?” I put my hand on hisshoulder.
“I should expect everything. That's myjob.”
His job? I thought his job was running a toy company. I tugged gently on his shoulder so he'd face me. “Yourjob?”
He turned slowly, reluctant to look me in theeye.
“I thought you did the tech side of Griffin's company? How does that correlate into having to predict what every crazy mightdo?”
“It's also a part of my job description to help guard Griffin and his properties.” He wouldn't meet my eyes as he explained. “Chandler’s,too.”
Bullshit. Something far more interesting was going on. I was about to call him out on it when the monitors caught my eye. I leaned around Ellion to stare at the screen until I figured out what was bothering me. He'd left one of the monitors on the view of each hallway. It was playing in real time, but one of the cameras was blinking every ten seconds orso.
“I've only seen stuff like this on TV, but should it look like that?” I pointed to the blinky screen. “On TV, when someone puts a camera on a loop, it blinks likethat.”
Ellion leaned forward, and my breasts brushed against his arm. I sat back with force, surprised by the shot of desire I felt with the slighttouch.
He took the screens into the programming side of the system and quickly lost me in code and technical language. I was smart and could keep up with most people in conversations, but he was doing some next-level sort ofstuff.
“Son of a bitch!” he exclaimed several minuteslater.
I was leaning back in my chair, eyes glazed over. His outburst startled me, and I jerked upright again. “What?” Iasked.
“You were right. It was on a loop.” His fingers flew over thekeyboard.
“What's up, Ellion?” Chandler’s voice filled theroom.
“He's hacked my internal network,” Ellion said, voice frantic. His keystrokesquickened.
“How’d he do that? Is he still in it?” Chandlerasked.
“No, he's gone now, and I have no clue how. I didn't think anyone could hack me—I'm too damn good.” Ellion was close to bursting intotears.
“Don't be upset,” I said. “There's always the possibility of being hacked no matter who you are, and it's especially high given how much money Griffin has, right?” Not to mention whatever it was they werehiding.
Ellion spoke to me without looking away from the monitors. “No, you don’t understand. I'm the best. I've been recruited by everyone imaginable. Turned most of them down. Anonymous, every government in the world. Every large corporation wants me to do their security. Every bank and casino has called me. I've done a few of those side jobs if the money and timing was right, but this? This isbullshit.”
He was smarter than I’d realized. Sexy, smart, shy? I wanted to climb in his lap and kiss him until he forgot he was upset but unfortunately I didn't have the first idea what to actually say to console him, since the kisses weren’t the bestidea.
