Page 51 of The Lies That Shatter
As soon as we reach the house, she insists on going straight to her bedroom, and I’m so fucking grateful. If she’d wanted to check on her dad, I’d have seen Mac, and the last couple of hours would’ve been for nothing, as I’m not sure I’d be able to go through with this after seeing her face.
Instead, Mel leads me straight to her bedroom, which is really more of a suite. She’s got a living area with matching couches and armchairs, a small dining table with chairs, and even a bar. And that’s all before you get to the bedroom and matching en-suite.
The style matches the grandeur of the whole house, and I don’t pay much attention to anything, other than to note that it’s not really to my taste. It looks more like a showhouse than one that’s been lived in by a family. There’s nothing personal…no family photos, no random ornament collections, no hints at what things Mel likes. It’s all just standard and expensive, which I guess is a statement on its own.
“I’m going to freshen up for a second, if you want to make yourself more comfortable,” she says, pointing towards the large cream fabric sofa in the centre of the living room.
“Shall I make us a little drink to enjoy first?” I ask, scanning my eyes over to the small bar area she has in the corner of the room.
Nodding, she walks towards the connected bathroom. “Yes, that would be lovely. I will have a glass of red, please.”
As soon as I hear her lock the bathroom door, I run over to the bar and pull out the glasses. A wine glass for her, that I fill with the red wine she requested, and a short glass for me, that I add a good three fingers of whiskey to, along with some ice cubes that are sitting on the bar.
For a second I wonder when someone puts fresh ice cubes on the bar, and how the hell they top them up. We’ve been out at the restaurant for a couple of hours, and they’ve not melted, so it can’t be Mel. Then, with a shake of my head, I remember that rich people live a very different lifestyle than anything I’m used to.
With our drinks made, I place them on the coffee table beside the sofa and wait for Mel, taking small sips of my whiskey as I wait. It takes her a lot longer to get ready than I expect, and when she comes out, she looks exactly the same as before, but I don’t question it.
As she sits on the sofa beside me, I reach over and hand her the wine glass I prepared. She takes it from me, swirling it around a little before she takes a discreet sniff of the liquid. I’ve seen her do this in restaurants, as she assesses the quality of the wine, so I just leave her to it.
When she’s finished, I raise my glass in a toast. “To us, and what I’m sure will be a very good night.”
A bright smile lights up her face as she clinks her glass with mine. I expect her to take a small sip of her wine, like she normally does, so when she takes a healthy gulp, I’m fairly surprised. The shock must have been written on my face, as she looks embarrassed, taking a smaller sip the next time.
“It’s been a while. I guess I just needed a little Dutch courage,” she admits, her voice low, sounding almost like she’s confessing to a secret.
“It’s okay. We don’t have to rush. We have all night,” I reply, keeping my voice deep and sexy, the way women like.
We sip our drinks for a few minutes, but as soon as Mel’s finished her wine, and the glass is discarded on the table, she leans over to take the glass from my hands. As she does, her fingers start to shake, and she blinks her eyes open and shut a few times. I notice her wobble slightly, despite being seated still, and I quickly put my glass down in time to grab the back of her head as she falls.
Laying her down on the sofa, I take a moment to look her over. She’s breathing normally, her heart rate continues to beat steadily, though she looks completely still with her eyes closed—almost like she’s sleeping. I pinch her arm to see if she responds. When she doesn’t move at all, I breathe a sigh of relief.
“That worked fast,” says a soft voice from behind me.
I turn around to see McKenna leaning against the doorframe, mostly hidden from view by the shadows, but I’d know her anywhere.
She looks around the room suspiciously before asking, “Are there any of Whitlock’s cameras in here?”
I look up and shake my head. “No. Mel values her privacy more. There’s some in the hall and the corridors, as well as in her father’s room, but none in her main rooms.” With a smile, she advances towards me.
“The drug worked quicker than I thought. But she gulped the wine faster than I expected her to,” I say, as I pull Mac against my body, wrapping my arms around her in a way that feels completely natural. Like we’ve been doing this forever, instead of just a few days.
My instinct is to lean in to kiss her, but I hold back. There’s a chance she may have just seen me with Mel, as I’ve no idea how long she’s been there, so I respect how she might be feeling right now. McKenna obviously doesn’t have the same thoughts as she stands on her tip-toes and captures my lips in a short but bruising kiss.
“We should get a move on. We don’t really know how long she will be out for, do we?” she says, pointing over at Mel’s unconscious form that’s laying on the sofa like she just fell asleep there.
With a nod, and a great deal of reluctance, I take my hands off McKenna and pull out my phone. It only rings once before Kellan answers. “Hey, Bro.”
“We’re ready to go, Kel. Are you?” I ask.
Mortimer Whitlock has an extensive security system, and it’s nearly impossible to hack. He changes the codes at midnight every night, and he’s the only person who knows them. He has a complex algorithm that sweeps the system at the start of each new day, looking for any signs of a breach. It’s a system so complex it even rivals Kellan’s set up, which is why we need our own security cameras.
In order to monitor Whitlock’s own cameras successfully, Kel would have to hack in at the start of the day after the sweep, and then log out before the end of the day when the codes change. He would have to repeat that every day, and there would still be times we wouldn’t have access, and some areas in the house—like Mel’s rooms—don’t have cameras. So, to avoid detection, and to get a better set up, we’re installing our own secret devices. We just need Kellan to hack into Whitlock’s system this one time to keep watch for us.
Silence fills the air, but I can hear the telltale clicking of his computer keyboard, so I wait for him to finish whatever he’s doing. It’s not long before he speaks. “Okay, I’m in. Stick to the route we discussed, and you should be fine. Do you have the earpieces I gave you?”
McKenna holds out her hand, two tiny ear plugs sitting on her palm. I take one and place it inside my ear and she does the same.
“Yes, we’ve just put them in,” I reply.
