The Lies That We Tell

Chapter 30

“This isn’t right,” I say to myself. Something seems off as we pull up to the main gate at the driveway. It should be closed, an electric gate opener was installed days ago. Yet, the gate is wide open.

“Maybe Adrian left it open for us.” Rhyann shrugs. “Do you even have a remote for it?”

Shit. I do have remotes for the gate. I had four of them made. One for each of us, but they’re currently in the Jeep, and the Jeep is with Tate and Liam. “Not with me,” I admit.

Rhyann takes my hand as the Uber driver inches up the gravel drive toward the house. She lets out a strangled moan when she sees the charred remains of the cherry red classic Mustang her grandfather left her. I’ve never laid a finger on a woman before, but if Aubree did this to hurt Rhyann, I may consider slapping the blonde bitch across her spoiled debutant face.

Other than her car and the gate, everything seems normal at first glance. “We should call Kathleen and Phil,” Rhyann says. “Check on them and let them know we’re home.”

“That’s a good idea,” I tell her. We walk up to the front door and I punch in the new door code. It’s nothing special, just a random number I picked after the last time her house was broken into. I haven’t even given her the code yet.

The house is eerily quiet when we walk in. It has an abandoned feel to it. “It seems like it’s been a lifetime since I was home,” Rhyann says, obviously getting the same haunted house vibe as me. “Even though it’s only been a few days.”

We walk past the living room. It’s clean, nothing seems out of place, which means Kathleen had to come in and clean before my crew came to do their job. We walk into the kitchen next and Rhyann opens the fridge. There are stacks of tupperware on the shelves with fresh food, an obvious sign of Kathleen’s presence. “Hungry?” Rhyann asks.

“Famished, baby girl.” I say. I walk around to stand behind her, my hands sliding down her waist and gripping her hips. “But not for anything in there.”

“Stop that, Dev.” Rhyann turns and bats at my shoulder when I try to nibble her neck. “I’m starving. We didn’t have room service brought up before we left this morning.”

“Yeah, about that.” I sigh. “Someone had roses delivered to you at the hotel this morning. So, Liam and Tate didn’t want to risk anything. Someone besides us and Aubree knew we were there.”

Rhyann”s eyes grow wide, shock streaking across her face. “Who did they say they were from?” Her voice is soft.

“Liam told me the girl at the front desk said the only name on the card was yours.”

“Hmm,” Rhyann chews on the inside of her cheek. I smirk at her, the little unconscious action makes me want to kiss her pretty little lips until she stops.

“What’s on your mind, Rhyann?”

She shakes her head, “Nothing. Let’s eat.” Rhyann pulls out a few containers then she goes to the pantry and grabs a container of bread rolls. She makes us both sandwiches and sits down at the counter beside me. “I just realized I don’t have my phone,” she tells me as we finish eating.

“We can walk down to their house if you want.”

“It’s fine. I can call her when the guys get here,” she says with a smile.

I nod. “I have to make sure the team set up the monitors properly in your office. Wanna come with me?” I hold out my hand to her as I stand. The idea of leaving Rhyann alone in any room in this house has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. I can’t kick this feeling that something isn’t right. The house is too quiet, there’s something wrong that I can’t put my finger on.

The office is just as clean and organized as the rest of the house. Kathleen must have come in and fixed everything after the break in a few nights ago. I sit down at the desk in the middle of the room and turn on the computer. If my team did their job right, then I should be able to pull up the camera feed for each of the cameras on her property.

“Sit with me.” I turn the chair so Rhyann can sit on my lap. “So, you open this file here,” I tell her as I click on a little icon on her home screen. “It’ll pull up a grid of smaller screens. There’s twenty two in all.” She nods, again gnawing on the inside of her cheek, her eyes locked on the monitor. I minimize the screen and click on a padlock icon. “This one takes a password to open. It’s the program I designed to control your entire security system.”

“What’s the password?” she asks. “And what if I’m not home and need to access it.”

I laugh and kiss her cheek. “The password is T, D, L, the plus symbol, and R.” I tell her as I type the password and open the program. “When Tate and Liam get here, I’ll show you how to access it from your phone. I need to install it on my phone and the guys too.”

“Oh,” she breathes.

I look at her with concern. “Is that okay, Rhyann? If you don’t want us to have access to it, we’ll understand.”

She laughs, taking my face between her hands, she lifts off my lap and kisses me. “Of course I want you guys to have it. I was actually hoping you three would want to move in. If it’s not too soon.” She sighs. “I just don’t want to be in this big house alone.”

I don’t have the words to describe the emotions coursing through me right now. The love I have for this tiny firecracker of a woman has my heart bursting from my chest. “Baby doll, I don’t plan to let you out of my sight for the rest of my life.” I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her against my chest. Her long red hair covers my face as I rest my head on her shoulder. I take a deep breath and breathe in the scent of the hotel bath products. Crisp apple, and to be honest, I prefer the cinnamon and vanilla that is typically how Rhyann smells.

Rhyann makes me growl when she nips at my earlobe with her teeth. Then her soft lips kiss the tender spot of flesh over my pulse. I lift my head, giving her access to the rest of my neck as she leaves a trail of kisses down the length of muscle until she reaches the collar of my black t-shirt. My cock hardens in my pants, pushing against her firm little ass. There’s no way she can’t feel my erection through the thin gray leggings she’s wearing, but I thrust my hips slightly to let her know what she’s doing to me.

“You’re distracting me,” I tell her as her hands slide down my chest. “Let me finish showing you your new system.”

“Fine.” She pouts and turns back to the screen, rolling her eyes as she does.

“Did you just roll your eyes?”

Rhyann laughs softly. “What are you gonna do if I did?” God dammit. This woman is going to be the death of me.

“Maybe I’d spank that pretty little ass of yours.” I growl, but I’m smiling. I love the idea of putting her over my knee and spanking her ass until its pink before fucking her senseless.

“Maybe I’d like it,” she replies. I move her from my lap onto my thigh before I show her how to switch between camera feeds. My cock is so hard right now, it could cut glass. She lets out a soft giggle, knowing exactly what she’s doing to me. Yep, she is absolutely getting spanked later.

When I click on the camera icon once more, the twenty-two square grid pulls up. Each square should show a different live video of a certain place on the property. Only two cameras are active though, the other twenty screens show a camera symbol with a line through it and the words offline under it. “What the hell?”

“What’s wrong?” Rhyan asks. She turns her head to look at me, her eyebrows furrowed.

“You see these black screens?” I point with the mouse to the sea of black on the monitor. “They should be showing different angles of various sides of the property. But they’re offline.”

“Why are they offline?” I wish I had an answer to her question. Adrian told Tate the house was secure this morning, so why would the cameras be offline now?

“I don’t know Rhyann. But the camera at the gate is working, and so is the one at Kathleen and Phil’s.” I move the cursor between the two small squares and click on the one that shows the front of the small house at the edge of her property.

The house looks normal, nothing seems out of place from this angle. But, I instructed the guy I had install it to make sure it was visible but still give the older couple some privacy. Kathleen’s little red Nissan and Phil’s old blue Chevy truck are parked out front. Nothing suspicious.

I move the cursor over to the black square that’s labeled front porch and click on it. “Wait. Go back to Kathleen’s,” Rhyann says. I silently do as she asks, clicking on the small screen again. “Can you zoom in?”

“Yes,” I say and click on the small plus sign on the bottom corner. “This will let you zoom in and out of any feed.” She nods her head. I move the cursor to the other bottom corner. “This will let you move the cameras left, right, up and down.” I click on the four arrows, showing her how to move the camera.

“Oh my god,” Rhyann gasps, seeing something on the screen.

I look for something out of place, missing whatever it is that’s alarmed her. “What’s wrong?”

“Their tires,” Rhyann says pointing at the screen. “They’re all flat. Look.”

I zoom in on the two vehicles. From the angle the camera is mounted on, I can only see two of the car’s tires and one of the truck’s. All three flattened. “That is odd. I never thought of Phil as the kind of guy to let a tire go completely flat. Let alone three.”

“He’s not Dev. We have to call them.” Rhyann jumps up from my lap. “Where’s your cell phone?”

“Calm down, Rhyann.” I pull my cell from the front pocket of my jeans. “I’m sure they’re fine. Adrian was here this morning.”

I hand her my phone and watch as she taps furiously on the screen, dialing one of their cell phones. “I know but I need to be sure.” She puts the phone up to her ear for a minute. “No answer. I’m going to try Phil,” she says as she pulls the phone away and dials again. This time she puts it on speaker and lets it ring. The call goes to voicemail after the fifth ring and Rhyann hits the red end button.

When she hands the phone back to me there are tears in her eyes. “Do you want to walk down there, baby doll? Check on them?” I ask as I take my phone back and slide it into my pocket.

“Can we?” Concern is written all over her beautiful features. “Just to be sure they’re okay. If something happened to them, Dev, I don’t know what I would do.”