Chapter 4
“ I s there a different system we can put in?” Sabina asked.
Chad racked his brain at her question as he studied the documents spread across the table. Together, they were studying the architectural plans for the server room being built on the new premise.
“Maybe we can install it on the walls rather than the ceiling?” he suggested, then quickly shook his head. That wasn’t a good option.
“What about putting it behind glass, like the old-school fire alarms?” she countered.
He leaned down to get a closer look at the wall depth. It wasn’t a bad idea.
“What are you all doing?”
Chad straightened as Ethan, one of his cousins, sauntered into their temporary digs.
In four weeks, they’d be moving into their permanent offices.
But in the meantime, they’d set up shop in the prior owner’s cabin rather than Chad’s house.
The building was a bit primitive, but he was grateful for the neutral meeting ground.
Not only did it allow him to separate work from home, but it also meant he hadn’t had to experience Sabina making herself comfortable in his private space.
“Ethan, good to see you,” Sabina said with a bright smile. As if his arrival was a pleasant surprise. Which it wasn’t. It might be pleasant, but it was hardly a surprise. The security system had let them know he was on his way up the drive five minutes earlier.
“You too, Sabina. What are you two up to?” he asked again.
Chad was certain his cousin hadn’t stopped by to talk construction, but he shifted to the side and gestured to the papers. Ethan, a former naval officer and current sergeant with the Mystery Lake Police, stepped up to the table.
“We’re trying to decide where to put the universal kill switch for the server room,” Chad answered. “Each server has its own, of course. But in the event that something catastrophic happens, and we need to kill all servers at once, we need a way to do that.”
Ethan looked down at the plans and frowned. “What’s the problem?”
“The fire suppression system is the problem,” Sabina answered. “We don’t want the universal switch located anywhere near where that system might—or could—interfere with it.”
Ethan studied the documents, his arms crossed over his chest. Dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved Henley, it was almost as if Chad were looking into a mirror.
His cousin might be seven years younger, but all the Warwick men seemed to have the same look about them.
Athletic builds, six feet tall—give or take an inch—dark hair, and their grandfather’s sharp facial structure.
The only thing that really set the eight Warwick males in his generation apart was their eye color.
Chad’s were dark brown, whereas Ethan’s were a deep green.
The rest of his cousins and brothers fell at various places on the spectrum.
For as similar as they looked, it was an oddity that not a single one of them had the same eye color.
As for his female cousins, Ethan’s twin sisters Joey and Charley, they shared their brother’s green eyes.
And although they were as athletic as their male relatives, both were petite—barely five foot five—with their mother’s Mediterranean skin tone and auburn hair.
A color that had more red than brown and that no one knew from where it had come.
“What if you moved this part of the wall out about six inches? If you did, you’d be able to create a small room, like an entryway, here,” Ethan said, pointing to the east wall.
“Then you could put in two doors—one to enter the small room and one to enter the server room—and put the kill switch in that space? With nothing in there, you wouldn’t need to run fire suppression to it at all. ”
Chad and Sabina dropped their attention to the plans.
In his mind, Chad reconfigured the wall and saw what Ethan was suggesting.
To enter the server room, a person would walk through one door, which could close behind them, then a second door would open to the server room.
Ethan was right. If they did that, they wouldn’t need to run any suppression system into the small space and there’d be no risk of it interfering with the kill switch.
“You are a genius!” Sabina exclaimed. “What do you think, Chad?”
“I think he solved a problem in less than five minutes that we’ve been discussing for an hour,” he responded.
Sabina grinned then started to roll up the plans. “Let’s sleep on it. If we still agree in the morning, I can take the plans to Josh and go over the change.”
Chad nodded. Josh was his brother, only two years younger. He owned the construction company Stella and Hunter had hired to do the work on the new facility. He was the best in the area, but he’d also done work for the DOD over the years and had the right security clearance.
Ethan and Chad remained silent as Sabina gathered the plans and the rest of her things. It was close to six, and they were done for the day. Overall, he was happy with how the facility was coming along. Barring any unforeseen issues, they’d be settling in in four short weeks.
Sabina gave them a wave before walking out the door, and Chad and Ethan nodded in response. His heart tweaked at not knowing where she was going. But he forced himself to breathe through it as she climbed into one of the company Jeeps and pulled out of her parking spot.
“You still don’t have any idea where she’s living?” Ethan asked.
Chad shook his head and led his cousin into a room off the kitchen that he was using for his office. “I asked, she said downtown. I left it at that. If she doesn’t want to tell me, I’m not going to force the issue.”
“Even though you want to?” Ethan said with a grin, taking a seat in a wooden chair. Chad shot him a look as he circled back behind his desk and took his own seat. He hoped his cousin would get the message.
But the thing about cousins is that even if they got the message, they usually didn’t heed it. “All I’m saying is you two work well together. You have this seamless way of being around each other. I know that doesn’t always amount to more, but in your case, I think it does.”
“Next time you see her, ask her something personal,” Chad said.
Ethan frowned. “Ask her if she’s going home for Thanksgiving, or what her favorite Halloween memories are.
If you’re half as smart as you think you are, you’ll see why I’m keeping my distance.
” For now, at least. He’d been living and breathing the new facility since they’d arrived four weeks ago, and he hadn’t had the time to consider what he’d do about Sabina.
He knew the smart thing was to leave it—leave her—alone.
If she didn’t want to trust him, he couldn’t make her.
But something deep inside him wouldn’t let it lie.
Still, he had no desire to make her uncomfortable or make her feel that he was putting her back up against a wall.
He needed a subtle strategy, and he hadn’t had the time or energy to come up with one.
“I can’t imagine you came here to talk about Sabina,” Chad said. Ethan shifted in his seat and ran a hand over his face before he let out a deep sigh. “Ethan?” Chad pressed.
His cousin raised his gaze, took a breath, then asked, “Do you think HICC will be hiring once you get the facility up and running?”
That was not what Chad had expected. As far as he knew, his brother Ryan, and Ethan, liked working for Mystery Lake PD.
At least they’d never said anything about not liking it.
Like him, they’d both done time in the military—Ethan in the navy and Ryan in the air force—before settling into something a little tamer.
Granted some of the ops HICC ran weren’t exactly tame.
And he was also sure that not every day as a police officer in their hometown was quiet.
But both jobs were a far cry from the danger and near-constant stress of their first careers.
“Yes, we will be. You interested?” Chad asked. Ethan would be a great addition. Provided he was making the decision for the right reasons. HICC wasn’t the military, but it did take a different level of commitment than most jobs. Including the Mystery Lake PD.
Ethan hesitated then nodded.
“I have to ask, what brought this on?”
Ethan’s expression turned grim, but he straightened in his seat then answered.
“Being a cop is sucking the life out of me. I know that sounds dramatic, but that’s how it feels.
Contrary to what most people think about police work, it’s pretty routine and, even in our small town, layered with bureaucracy.
I have to drag myself out of bed every day to go in, and I don’t like that feeling.
I need change, and I need some autonomy.
I also need flexibility and think I do better, mentally and physically, if every day isn’t like the next.
“I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure of the scope of what HICC does, but I know you like it.
I know you like it way more than you liked being an FBI agent.
And I know you well enough to know that’s probably because you’ve found purpose in the work you’re doing.
A lot of people might find that in police work, but I haven’t and I’m craving it.
Don’t worry, I don’t have any visions of sporting an HICC cape and saving the world, but I need to have some purpose.
Ryan might have found it with the police—and I’m happy for him—but that’s not for me. ”