After dinner was over, I read several books to Zee and helped her get ready for bed. The poor girl was completely exhausted, and I hoped she would sleep through the night. I stayed with her until she fell asleep and then quietly closed her door.

The house felt strangely quiet, and I felt unease settle in my stomach. I knew the house was secure, and SOS had a security team outside, but that did nothing to make me feel better. Something was off, and I couldn’t tell what it was.

I walked downstairs and into the living room where I clicked on the gas fireplace and grabbed a book by one of my favorite authors, hoping to lose myself in the story.

It was early fall in Yarmouth and the Maine evenings grew cool quickly. The days were beautiful and often warm, but the nights could be chilly. The stars seemed to shine more brightly, happy that the earth was growing cooler.

I tried, but I couldn’t shake the fact that something felt wrong. I picked up my cell and dialed Fran’s number. She had told me to call anytime I needed to, and I decided that even if this was a false alarm, I wasn’t going to ignore the feeling that something was off. Not when Mackenzie’s life was potentially in danger, too.

Fran picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Thea.”

“Hey, Fran.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know. Something feels off. I hate to bother you, and I don’t want to seem like an alarmist, but I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right.”

“You did the right thing, Thea. Stay inside with the doors locked, and I’ll check in with the team, then call you back, okay?”

“Okay, thanks.”

Two minutes passed, and Fran still hadn’t called back. I decided to try to figure out if I could access Gabriel’s security system.

I entered his office and turned the light on, walking toward the bookcase. There must be a trigger here somewhere. I felt along the edge of the bookcase, but nothing moved. My fingers pressed along the wall to the left of the bookcase, and I found a small square section of the wall. Was that a seam? It wasn’t visible, but I could feel it. I tried to pry it open, but it wouldn’t budge, so I pushed on it and the bookcase started to move.

My eyes lit up; I may not have had what it took to join the CIA, but I loved the idea of being a spy—I’d had romantic notions about it since I was a teenager. That is until I realized I’d potentially have to shoot and kill someone in the line of duty. After graduate school, they’d tried to convince me that they could train me, but that only solidified my decision that it wasn’t the right career path for me.

I didn’t want to be trained to go against my conscience. I wanted to follow my heart.

My thoughts wandered to my cousin who had worked for the CIA as a translator, he’d been fluent in six languages, but after three years, he’d had to get out. I didn’t know the details, because he wouldn’t say anything, or they’d have to kill him, right? But I had the sense that the contents of the documents my cousin had been translating were graphic—so much so that he seemed to reach a point where he couldn’t handle transcribing those details any longer.

That had been a factor in my decision as well.

I felt a glimmer of excitement as the bookcase continued to move. Suddenly I forgot all about my feeling that something was off, wowed by the technology in front of me. That is—until I realized that the cameras covered far more than just the entrances to the house. That little shit…

I looked from screen to screen to confirm that there were no cameras in any private areas or the bedrooms, and there weren’t, but there appeared to be audio enabled, and… what was this? The lower right screen contained a main menu. I clicked it, and the screen filled with options:

Remote App: Enabled. That creep, he can see everything when he’s traveling, too?

Infrared: Enabled. Well, that’s good, at least. I scrutinized the screens to see if I could see anyone on the monitors. No movement. Okay, phew.

Audio: Enabled. My eyes narrowed. Double creep.

Suddenly I was grateful I’d done all of my work-related research at the library instead of home.

Was he listening in to every conversation I had with Mackenzie?

I did another review of all the screens, and all systems seemed fine, so I closed the menu and pushed the square section to see if that would close the bookcase. It started sliding back into place.

Now I was left with deciding how to handle the fact that Gabriel that little shit had been spying on me, without my knowledge.

Okay, maybe he’d disclosed after the fact that he had cameras, but he had never mentioned audio, or remote capability, or the truth behind how extensive the cameras were.

My phone vibrated in my jeans pocket. I glanced at the display, Fran.

“Hey, Fran.”

“Hey, Thea. Cox is on the ground, and he said everything looks fine from what he can tell. Are you okay?”

“Interesting question. I figured out how to gain access to Gabriel’s security system and realized he’s been spying on my every move without my knowledge. So no, I’m not okay. But if you’re asking whether there’s a serial killer in the house, or we’re in danger, not as far as I can tell. Good night.” She decisively hit End on her phone.

It wasn’t two minutes before Gabriel’s name popped up on my phone. I hit the Ignore button, walked into the kitchen, and hit Ignore again when he tried calling back a second time. If he’d talked to Fran, he knew we were safe, and beyond that, he didn’t deserve any more information, as far as I was concerned—or maybe he knew it all, anyway. I should probably go disable the “App” option on the alarm system and see how that would make him feel.

I started walking up the stairs and heard my phone buzzing on the kitchen counter for the third time. It dawned on me that he could probably hear me. “Mackenzie is safe, Gabriel,” I said as loud as I could. “My phone is in the kitchen and I’m going to bed. You’re lucky I didn’t disable the remote option on the security system.”

My phone stopped buzzing, and I continued down the hallway to check on Mackenzie before retiring to my room.