Seth shut down his laptop. “We have a few hours before the sun goes down. We need more security measures in place before we close ourselves in for the night.”
Elias brushed a kiss over Iona’s mouth. “I’ll help Seth and the others with security measures outside.”
She rose to her tiptoes and whispered in his ear, “Take your pain meds first.”
Right. He’d forgotten to take them after lunch. Elias glanced at Seth. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
“Go.”
When he returned downstairs, Echo unit trooped outside and unloaded a box of cameras they’d brought with them.
Without use of both arms, Elias teamed up with Seth and made himself useful by handing the other man cameras and tools when he needed them.
“That’s it for this one,” Seth said after a few minutes. “Find another place to set up a camera.”
He scanned the area, looking for a place that an intruder wouldn’t easily see a camera. Elias found a tree with thick branches and a good junction between a limb and the trunk. “There.”
Seth studied the tree he pointed out and nodded. “That’s a good one. The notch in the tree will be in heavy shadow when the sun goes down.” He climbed the tree and settled on the thick branch. Leaning down, he took the camera Elias handed him and secured it to the branch. “Got it.”
He slid down the tree trunk and dropped the final few feet to the ground. “Two more to go.”
“Do you think this will be enough to protect us against professional thugs?”
“Has to be. We have nothing else since this isn’t one of our safe houses. Besides, we’ll have eyes on the screen overnight, and if they slip past the cameras, Artemis is setting up security measures inside the cabin to give us at least a few seconds of warning.”
After mounting the third and fourth cameras, Seth and Elias returned to the cabin and booted up Elias’ laptop to check their camera placement.
Seth grinned. “Perfect. We rock.”
Elias chuckled. “You’re not shy about singing your own praises.”
“Check on the women’s progress, and I’ll check in with Andre, Noah, and Grant.”
As Seth loped back outside, Elias went in search of Iona. He found her in the library.
She glanced up from her work at the window. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself. How’s it going?”
“This is the last window for me.” She finished inserting a screw into the wood. “This may not stop someone from breaking in, but it will cause an intruder to make a lot of noise to get in here.”
“Simple but effective. Are you using anything else?”
“Teagan found a broom handle that she’s using to prevent someone from opening the sliding glass door. Other than that, we have nothing else on hand to use except for bells to hang from doors around the cabin.”
He nodded. “That works.”
“Are you okay?”
“I have to be.”
“It’s not your fault, you know.”
“Nope. It’s not my fault that my father believes he’s God. I couldn’t stop him as a kid, but I will stop him from wreaking havoc in my life or yours.”
“Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”
“Iona.”
