Page 48 of Defending Love
“I have the name of the owner. That’s not important. According to an application they filed with the homeowner’s association, the owner rents the house out six months a year. I can only assume, that because it’s rented, the owner wanted a more dependable security.”
“Not Ring,” I said.
“Ring isn’t bad, but what this house has is high end, as good as Guardian’s.” He looked at me with a sexy grin and winked. “It is Guardian’s.”
That bubble of hope grew larger in my chest. “That’s good, right?”
“It’s very good. The frequency that was used to scramble the Ring monitors didn’t disable the Guardian one.”
“Can Guardian’s security cameras not be disabled?”
“They can,” he said. “You must know what you’re dealing with. I contacted Ben and he was able to get the footage I needed. Let me show you…”
Eli spun his chair toward another keyboard and his long fingers flew, click after click. “Look.”
I followed him to the next screen. The vision before me was a long-distance view of the front of Mom’s house. The black SUV in the driveway could be any SUV. “I see a license plate.”
“Very good. Ben is running that now. Here…watch the people coming and going.”
I did. Their uniforms were exactly like the two men who visited us tonight, and as Carol said, dark but not marked with a department. The uniforms of the sheriff’s deputies who had stopped by were clearly marked as county. “They’re the same people.”
“The same group. It’s hard to get facial recognition, but I’m still trying.”
“What do these people want with Dad’s journals?”
Eli leaned back and reached out, tugging my hands until I came right to the side of his chair. “This is something. It’s not the answer, but it’s an answer.”
I crossed my arms over my breasts and leaned against the desk. “If they knew Dad had a safe, why didn’t they access it then?”
“Another good question.”
“Thank you.” I bent down, lowering my lips to his. The connection warmed my circulation in the opposite way the doorbell had earlier caused my blood to cool.
Eli’s hands roamed under both of my shirts. “Where were we?”
I shook my head. “The mood is…”
“Gone?”
“For now.”
He scooted back his chair and tugged me forward until I was sitting across his lap. With his stunning stare only a few millimeters away, he teased rogue stray hairs away from my face. “Sex can wait. But having you close with my rules out the window…” He kissed my nose. “I fucking love touching you whenever I want.”
I laid my hand over his wide chest, feeling the strong rhythmic beat of his heart. “As long as that goes both ways.”
Reaching for my hand, Eli kissed my palm. “I could get used to that.” He tilted his head as he stared into my eyes. “Is there something else bothering you?”
“You mean, besides my dad and whoever those men were?”
“That’s what I mean.”
I laid my cheek against his hard shoulder and inhaled, soaking in his warmth and inhaling the remnants of his cologne. Eli wrapped his arm around me, holding me to him with his strong embrace. I tried to recall my recent phone conversation. “Stephen said something I didn’t know.” I looked up, meeting Eli’s gaze. “He said that during the dark Darius days, he’d been tasked with investigating Chapter 11.”
“Business was that bad?”
I shrugged. “I didn’t realize. Maybe Damien is right to hate Darius.”
“What happened?”
