Chapter Sixteen

The progress on Mya’s home was substantial. However, the progress on her romance with Nate was not. They’d try to get together every night, but something always seemed to come up, and they weren’t able to spend the time together they craved. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought the universe was conspiring to keep them apart.

Deciding to take matters into her own hands, she packed up lunch and walked over to the stairs leading to the attic where the guys were working that day. “Hey, Brent,” she yelled up to him. Waiting for him to reply, she looked around at the progress that had been made on the second level. With each passing day her house was more secure, and she could command more by either voice or one of the control panels.

“What do you need?”

“I just wanted to let you know that I’m out for a bit. I’m going to bring Nate some lunch.”

“No problem. I’d better get back to work before the boss shows up.” He winked at her, and a second later his head disappeared.

The ride to town was uneventful, and she hoped Nate hadn’t changed his plans. He always worked in the office on Tuesdays. Her plan was for him to be able to spend at least an hour with her. He had to eat—might as well do it with her.

Pulling into the parking lot of the sleek, modern building that had Vault Security in a dark red over the door, she felt a sense of pride for her friend and his sister. When she was doing her research, all she’d uncovered was the excellent, professional job they did.

Opening the door, she was greeted by a perky blonde sitting behind the reception desk.

“Welcome to Vault Security, how may I help you?”

“Hello, can I see Nate please?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, he’s not available right now.” She smiled at Mya.

Mya looked down at the nameplate on the desk. “Okay, Traci, can you at least let him know I’m here?”

“Oh, no, no, no,” the receptionist said. “I’m not supposed to interrupt him. For anything.”

Mya frowned. There was something she didn’t like about this other woman. “Okay, then is Karina here?”

“Nope.” Traci smiled. “She’s not available either. Maybe you could come back another time?”

“Can I leave a message?” Mya was confused as to why it seemed like Traci was making things difficult for her.

Sighing, Traci picked up a pen and got ready to write. “I suppose I could.”

“Can you please let Nate know Mya Lawson stopped by to see him and—”

Traci frowned. “Can you spell that for me?”

“Mya, M-Y-A. Lawson, L-A-W-S-O-N.”

“Got it, bye.” Traci gave her a little wave. “Thanks for stopping by.”

Tilting her head to the side, Mya tried to figure out why this woman seemed hostile to her for no apparent reason. She also didn’t want to leave just yet; the need to see Nate was overwhelming. “You know what? I’m just going to have a seat over there.” She gestured to the chairs along the wall. Without waiting for permission, she went over and settled in to wait. Once she sat down, she texted Nate to let him know she was there.

“No.” Traci shook her head. “You cannot just sit there all day waiting for Nate to come out. That’s a problem.”

“I really don’t think you need to be schooling me about what is proper.” Mya leveled her unblinking gaze at the woman, letting her know she meant business.

“Whatever. Five minutes and then I call the sheriff.”

“Traci? Want to explain what the problem is?” Karina’s voice was stern as she came around the corner.

“This woman—” Traci waved her hand towards Mya. “—won’t leave. I was told you and Nate didn’t want to be disturbed at all today, for any reason. And she would be interrupting you. So I was just following orders.” She nodded and folded her arms across her chest.

Karina sighed. “Traci, I heard Mya give you her name. That alone should have been enough for you to come to either me or Nate. You’ve handled the paperwork and know she is a client of ours. Also, I know you’ve heard us talking about the fact that she is a high school friend of ours. Even if you didn’t know all of that, the way you spoke to her was unacceptable.”

“I’m…I’m so sorry, Karina.” Traci’s chin quivered and a tear ran down her cheek. “I didn’t put two and two together. I didn’t know it was her.”

“I know, Traci.” Karina patted her shoulder. “You need to pay closer attention to details, please.” She turned and walked over to Mya. “I was walking down the hall and heard your voice, so I thought I’d come out and see what you needed.”

Mya stood up. “It seems like Nate and I are always getting interrupted, so I thought I’d bring him some lunch and maybe we’d be able to spend some time together. Not to mention, I wanted to see the place the two of you built.”

“I know he’ll love that. Unfortunately, he’s on a call right now. I can give you a tour of the place while he finishes up, if you’d like.”

“I’d love that. Thanks, Karina.”

As they walked past the front desk, Mya looked over at Traci, who turned her nose up and looked away. The woman was young, mid-twenties at the latest, but even then she was juvenile. Mya knew they were having problems with her performance, but didn’t know why they kept her around if she was making so many mistakes.

They walked down a short hall that opened up into a large area with two conference rooms and offices, all very modern with glass walls and state-of-the-art technology.

“As you can see, we like our toys.”

They walked over to the larger conference room, where one wall was lined with displays cycling through the services and products they offered.

“Too bad you didn’t come in for the full show when you were looking for an estimate. We have a pretty good presentation.”

“It sure seems like you’ve put together a great business, and are in high demand.”

“We’re fortunate. You know Nate and I loved coming up here as kids, and then this area started coming back and it was the logical choice to start our home base here. Now, not only are we on the leading edge of combining renewable energy with the technology, we are also in a prime spot to help all the companies relocating to this area to set up their particular needs and make sure the environment isn’t ruined.”

Mya nodded. “I really admire what you’re doing. There’s no reason why we can’t have both—the technology we want and making sure we don’t destroy what we need in order to survive.”

“Exactly.” Karina started walking again. “Down that hall is where Nate and I have our offices, but I want to show you this first.” She walked up to a big heavy door and entered a code. When she opened the door, they walked into a large room filled with a bluish tint. Equipment lined the walls, and the hum of their quiet motors together was actually quite loud. “This is where we monitor everything. There is always someone on staff, twenty-four hours a day, to keep human eyes on everything—in addition to the particular computer program we have designed to monitor the system itself, along with the security cameras at our customers’ locations, for any anomalies that might be a risk to either person or property.”

“Wow,” was all Mya could say.

“Right?” Karina laughed. “I want you to meet Ryan.” They walked over to the desk that was in front of the wall of monitors. “Ryan, this is Mya Lawson, client and old friend.”

Ryan stood and Mya had to look way up. The man had to be at least six feet five inches tall. “Hello,” she said.

“Nice to meet you.” His deep voice reverberated through the room. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.” Ryan nodded and sat back down.

“This is quite an impressive system you have here,” Mya said.

“Thanks. We’ve spent a lot of time to get things to this point, working out bugs along the way, but I really feel like we’ve got the perfect team to be successful. Plus, we all take shifts in here to make sure the systems we’ve installed are running at an optimal level. If we need to, we are proactive and go out and make adjustments to systems before a problem arises. Also, by doing this we are always thinking of new ways to improve our services. You’d be surprised how many times one of us has come up with something while sitting here watching the monitors at three in the morning.”

“Sleep—sleep is good at three in the morning,” Mya said.

Karina laughed. “It most certainly is. Down this way we have our break room.”

They walked into a large room which looked like it had everything a kitchen in a home would have, along with a few extra tables to eat at.

“I bet this also helps for the middle-of-the-night munchies, along with keeping you supplied with coffee.”

“Yes, we go through a lot of coffee here, regardless of the time of day. Hi, James,” Karina said as the man entered the room.

James paused and looked at the women and smiled. “Hi, Mya, it’s good to see you again.”

“Hi, James. I was wondering why you weren’t at the house today.”

“Nate needed me here to help him with a new design he’s bidding.” He poured himself a cup of coffee.

“I made more chocolate chip muffins this morning.”

“Are there any left? Or did Brent eat them all?” He winked at her.

“There’s a few—at least when I left to come into town. If you’re coming out tomorrow, I’ll make sure to set aside whatever is left.”

“Great! Thanks, Mya. See you in the morning then.” James waved and walked out of the room.

“You’re spoiling our crew, Mya Lawson,” Karina teased.

“You know I love to cook.”

“Do I need to point out you’re spoiling my employees and Nate, and I, on the other hand ,am getting nothing?” She crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot.

Mya laughed. “I’ll take that as a hint. Chocolate cake good?”

“Yes, yes it will be.” Karina smiled.

They walked out of the room and down the hall to her office.

“Wow,” Mya said, and went over to the wall of windows overlooking the town. “This is a great view.”

“Right? I love being able to watch what’s going on in town. Sometimes when I’m stuck on a problem, I let my mind wander while people-watching, and before I know it I’ve solved what I was stuck on. But now, I think Nate is off the phone if you still want to see him. You can always bail now and start baking that cake for me.”

“Nah, I’ll still have time once I get home to do that.”

“Damn.”

They laughed as they walked out of Karina’s office and into Nate’s.