She should be in for the night. I have an alert that goes off when she comes and goes, along with two guards that keep a close eye on her. Cosima is never out of my sight or without a guard close.
I’m not sure if she has spotted them or not, but so far at least it’s working out for the time being. I’ve been trying to give her the illusion of freedom. I’d been so close to ripping it all away from her.
If she thought she and Marks got away with their sneaky plan, then she really had no clue about all the things I’ve done and do when it comes to how close I keep my eyes on her. She’d lose her shit. I smile thinking about her throwing a fit.
I was tempted to go after her and drag her back, but I let her land in Italy. We have a lot of contacts there. Keeping track of her there isn’t an issue, and as soon as the plane was wheels down, I already had one person en route to watch over her. She had Marks with her, too, which I found extremely interesting.
Marks is clever, and I knew she too would have eyes on everything when it came to their security. I am also confident that if things did go to shit, she’d let us all know. She’d given us a head start the last time things had gone sideways.
I gave Cosima a week to calm down and then tried to message her. When she didn’t respond, I tried calling, but I gotthe same cold shoulder. I’d even watched her little ass send me to voicemail or roll her eyes from random surveillance I would hack into when I’d text her.
I enter the house through the back, not wanting to run into anyone, but of course War is standing right there when I walk in. I’m sure he got an alert when I pulled up. Should have turned it off, but my mind was on Cosima.
“Waiting for me?” I ask. He’s leaning up against the wall on the staircase landing.
“Just checking to make sure you’re okay.” I keep heading up the stairs. War falls into step next to me. I knew this discussion was coming based on the last interaction I had with him, barging into his room.
“I’m good,” I tell him.
“You weren't good the last time I saw you.”
“I am sorry about that.” I’d sent him a message saying as much. “It was an accident.”
War shrugs it off. A fucking lucky accident, if you ask me. I’d been on a drunken search for Cosima. Who knows how that would have played out. She was already pissed at me.
“I’m also sorry I took off so quickly after everything.” There was a mess that had been made, and I wasn’t here to help clean it up. Though it appears everything is fine; in fact, it’s going to end up making an assload of cash when all’s said and done.
"I knew something big must have been going on, and if I had needed you to handle anything, you would have done it from wherever you were. You tracked down our sister before I knew she'd snuck out."
"Not my sister," I mutter before I can catch myself.
"That is the second time you've said that to me." War follows me all the way to my bedroom. I pause at my door.
"What's up? You need something?"
"I can't talk to my brother? Or am I not your brother anymore?"
"Warren—"
"That's what I thought. Now go." War nods and gestures for me to enter my room, then follows me inside. Everything is as I left it. I don't want people in my bedroom, even staff, unless I'm here. Not with my computer system. "How are you and Cosima?" he asks as I turn on all my shit.
"She's not talking to me, so I suppose we’re normal." I turn back around to face him. "Is she talking to you?"
"Not at the moment. She and I had an argument." I can guess over what. I also might have heard the call for myself. I don’t give a shit that it was between her and War. She’s mine before she’s his.
"Marks, in herself, is harmless." For now, anyway. Marks is damn smart, and I'm sure her knowledge will only grow.
"What do you mean, ‘in herself is harmless’?" War asks, folding his arms over his chest.
"She is curious, and that curiosity is what has gotten her to where she is today, but you know what they say about curiosity."
"She'll bring trouble to her own door," War fills in.
"And she hasn't surrounded herself in favors when it comes to the government."
"You found more information on her?" Marks is good at hiding her past. Too good, in fact, which leads me to believe wherever she came from, it was mostly off the grid. Where that is, I have no fucking clue. She keeps that part of her life squeaky clean.
"I asked my handler about her. She was supposed to work on the same project I was, but she bailed." That had pissed her own handler off. I'm pretty sure we have the same one, only I have a closer relationship with Bruce. He gives me more information than others, but I do have a higher security clearance than most.
