Chapter 78
Chapter seventy-eight
Christianna
“Are you going to call Coulson?” Meg asks, breaking me out of my circling thoughts.
“I suppose I should. Is it premature? Maybe the rodent just died?”
Meg lifts a shoulder. “I feel secure here. Nothing in or around the house was disturbed. It probably came over from the park. Who knows, maybe the chlorine in the pool killed it.”
I pick up my phone, open the browser, and type in the question.
I shake my head. “It wasn’t the chlorine. It could have been old age.” I lift a shoulder.
My phone pings.
Coulson: Are you ready for some perimeter cameras?
I huff softly. “He wasn’t kidding about seeing what I type. Coulson wants to know if we want perimeter cameras.” I look to Meg for her opinion. We are both living here.
She nibbles at the side of her thumb and draws her feet up onto the chair she’s curled into.
“Maybe if they point outwards,” she says. “I don’t think either of us wants to feel watched.”
“That makes sense,” I offer. She nods, looking relieved.
“Yeah, that could work. Or beams or something if someone jumps the fence?”
“Oh. Yeah. Let me see.”
I quickly text our questions.
Coulson: That is the bare minimum you should do. Do you want to hear suggestions, or just this for now?
I type back, This for now. If we find out it was killed, we can look at more then.
Meg nods as I relay that to her while I type.
“Well,” she huffs out, “now that that is out of the way, explain the tension-laced drama we walked in on.”
“Oh, did you want to talk about the “we” you are speaking of?” I tease. “You and Maestro?”
“Shut up,” she grumbles.
I lift a shoulder helplessly. “As much as I want to talk it out, it would feel like breaking a confidence. Erik is intensely private.”
“Yeah, I get that. I feel the same way about how I feel about the…” She stops herself and shakes her head. “Do we need to do anything before the guys get here tonight?”
I wrinkle my nose. “We should probably clean. I know I need to sweep and vacuum. For dogs with almost non existent hair, they create lots of dust bunnies.”