CHAPTER 33 FIZ
FIZ
I get back from my job of the day and after feeding Bob, I set out to go check on Caden.
I see a couple dudes from work in the computer room, screwing in a little device in the top corner.
I smirk to myself as I move through the mansion.
I’ll have to get the login from Caden so I can watch Elodie whenever I want. Preferably when she bathes.
I find Caden in the office going through some papers.
I’m not surprised, but I still say, “Should you not be resting?”
“Need to keep stimulated,” he says, not looking up from the desk, “being alone in a house with Elodie is enough to send me off the rails. God help me if I break my celibacy this close to the finish line.”
I chuckle, knowing I’d be exactly the same. Cade doesn’t have Alfie as a buffer today; he’s still out doing whatever job he was sent on.
I sit with him until one of the Blackwood employees knocks on the open door.
Cade waves him in, and we listen to him explain how the camera app works, how we can save footage or delete it.
Caden didn’t opt for audio with it, too paranoid about the conversations we have within these walls.
We do have a very good hacker living in this house, after all.
But it’s not that much of a worry. If we ever go down, we’d take her with us, but it’d probably only take her a couple of clicks to send one piece of audio to the police and get us shut down and sent to prison for a dozen lifetimes.
Despite our connections with the police and justice systems, we don’t have sway over the entire service. So, we had to take some precautions.
Caden thanks the man, and after he leaves, he swivels round in his chair, scrubbing a hand down his wan face.
“Better go tell her the good news. She’s got another job to do anyway.” He pushes up from the desk. The guy looks fucking knackered.
“She hasn’t done it yet?”
“I have to supervise her. I couldn’t be alone in a room with her, man.”
Gees, this is a man teetering on the edge of risking it all. Wounded, exhausted, and he still wants to rip into her. He’s got it bad.
“Alright, let’s go.”
He sets the pace down the hall, which is pathetically slow and limped. He says he’s eaten; Maggie’s kept his plate full of protein and kept him dosed up on painkillers. Now I’m here, hopefully he can get some rest.
We get to his bedroom and walk round to the side of the bed. Cade perches on the end like he’s desperate to take any little break.
She’s lying on the floor with her arms flung over her face.
“Time to clock in, Sleeping Beauty,” I say, clapping my hands.
She groans and drops her arms, fixing us with those evil blue eyes.
“Come on,” Cade says weakly, “I don’t have the time nor the patience to deal with your defiance today. Just come get the transaction done and you can come back here.”
She huffs and sits upright. “I’m so fucking bored in this house.”
I arch an eyebrow and look at Caden, who just sighs.
“Maybe if you were a good little girl, Caden would give you some entertainment. He could put a TV up in here for you, give you some colouring books, whatever you wanted. But you want to be a little brat. Brats don’t get anything.”
She bites her lip and studies me, trying to determine if I’m fucking with her or not.
I don’t think she’s realised yet that it really is that simple. She could get anything she wanted from the broken man beside me, if she just behaved herself.
Finally, she gets up and walks out of the room ahead of us.
She goes to the office and sets herself up. Caden and I go sit on the sofa in the corner behind her, with a perfect view of the screens.
I lose interest after about thirty seconds and pull out my phone. Caden’s eyes stay glued to her and the monitors.
Caden leans across to me and quietly says, “Do you understand what she’s doing on there?”
I look up from my phone and study the screens. “Not one thing.”
“So she could be doing anything, right? You wouldn’t have a single clue.”
I shrug. “You gotta have some trust. She’s still here, isn’t she? She could be doing a lot worse than feeding my dog and riding your cock while you’re unconscious. As annoying as she is, she is kind of complying. She makes money off these things too, remember.”
Caden tucks in his top lip, biting it.
I give his knee a tap. “Bro, you’re going to have a heart attack as well as a hole in your gut if you don’t take some deep breaths. She’s cool, don’t worry.”
He sits bouncing his leg and biting his fingernails. The man needs to meditate or some shit before his head explodes.
Eventually, Elodie prints some papers and brings them over to us. I take it for Caden and fold it up.
“All done?”
She nods, then walks out the room.
We follow her back to Caden’s bedroom, and she twirls on her feet, folding her arms at us. “Do the cameras have to stay on all the time?” she asks sheepishly. “Like when I wash and stuff?”
I flick my gaze onto Caden, who remains stoic.
“Yes,” he says. “You did this to yourself, Elodie. You’ll be watched like a hawk.
” He steps forward, raising a finger at her.
“And if you even think for one second about hacking into them and shutting them off, I’ll hack into you.
With the sharpest object available to me. Got it?”
I see her twitch at the threat, but she nods. “Yes. Fine.”
I almost stagger back. No argument? No stomping her foot and throwing fists?
Caden just takes a long breath in. “Good.” He drops his hand and straightens up. “I can… I’ll bring you a book to read. I have some.”
I throw a hand towards Caden, eyes widening in a See?! gesture. She complies – he rewards. So simple.
She looks so taken aback by this. I can see her waiting for a catch or a “Sike.”
A few seconds pass, and Caden arches an eyebrow at her. “Is that okay with you?”
She stutters. “Yes. Thank you.”
Jesus, I feel like the whole fucking world just shifted on its axis. There’s been a glitch in the goddamn matrix because was that just a civil conversation passed between Caden Blackwood and Elodie Valor?
Caden nods and leaves, so I leave her standing dumbfounded at the end of the bed.
“Good for you, bro. Proud of you.” I slap his shoulder.
He winces. “If it keeps her quiet and away from me for the next few days, it’s more for my benefit than hers.”
He’s such a liar. But that’s his prerogative. I bet I know which book he gives her too.
These two would make such a great couple.