Chapter 36 Krista
KRISTA
I woke up to an alarm blaring, waking me out of a dead sleep that I had just fallen into not more than an hour ago.
“What the hell is that?” I screamed, covering my ears.
Rob threw off the covers and stomped out of the room and down the hall. It was a good minute before the alarms stopped. My heart was still beating out of my chest from the sheer fright of it all. How the hell was I going to get used to living like this?
“What was it?” I asked as Rob walked back into the room, flopping on the bed.
“The evil robot,” he mumbled.
“Robot?”
He nodded in a roundabout way, but that didn’t answer any of my questions.
“Excuse me, but I need more than that.”
He rolled over, looking over tiredly at me. “Have you ever seen those vacuum robots?”
“The ones that are small and roll around the house?”
“Yep. Well, we all have those.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, not understanding why a vacuum would have an alarm.
“Knight programmed them to detect a threat.”
My gaze shot to the door. “Is there someone there?”
“No, it just didn’t recognize your profile,” he yawned.
“My…my profile?”
He nodded, his head falling back on the pillow. “Knight has everyone’s profile loaded in the system so that anyone who enters and doesn’t belong will basically be snuffed.”
Snuffed. Meaning, I would be killed. All because a vacuum didn’t recognize me?
“Rob…can I ask you a question?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you like living like this?”
“You mean in constant fear that a piece of technology will decide I’m a threat and kill me?” He shrugged. “I’ve seen worse.”
“Okay, but I haven’t,” I stressed, flicking the side of his head.
He popped up instantly, his eyes more alert than they were seconds ago. “Hey, no, that’s just—I didn’t mean to freak you out. I’m just tired. It was a long drive and—”
“I get it, but you do realize that normal people don’t live like this,” I practically screeched.
“You have sensors all over the place and machine guns in the peaks of your roof. There’s a vacuum out there with murder written all over his plastic face, just waiting to take a shot at me.
And what the hell was that screen that popped up last night with Knight? I mean, he just showed up!”
“He was checking in,” Rob explained.
“We were having sex!”
“Right. I can talk to him about that.”
“It’s an invasion of privacy!” I argued.
It wasn’t that Rob wasn’t upset by this stuff. I knew he was, but he just went with the flow, acting as if this was all completely normal.
None of it was. In fact, this was so not normal that I didn’t even have anything to compare it to.
“Hey, I know this is a lot to take in,” he said, sitting up to hug me. “I’m sorry about the way this was all introduced to you, but I promise, you’ll get used to it, and then you’ll hardly notice any of this stuff is around.”
I wasn’t sure that I believed him, but I didn’t want to seem like I wasn’t willing to give this a try either. “Okay.”
“And hey, that vacuum really does do a good job.”
“Bonus, right?” I said, forcing a smile.
He pressed a kiss to my lips that immediately made me soften toward the whole thing. Maybe I was being too weird about the whole thing. After all, it was an adjustment just like anything else in life. I could deal with this.
“Hey, you know what you need?”
“Food?”
“Exactly, and I know a great cook.”
“In town?”
“Nope. Right on the property. Come on. You’ll love her food.”
I rolled out of bed, quickly getting dressed. After such a long drive and fast food at every stop, I could do with some home-cooked meals. I showered in record time and was out the door before Rob.
I felt a lot better about today. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, and most importantly, nobody in town was trying to figure out what to get me for a wedding that already happened.
We drove past a long line of houses, through the country, until we came to a house that was more isolated.
“I thought you said they lived on the property?”
“Cazzo’s at the edge of the property.”
“It’s a big property,” I muttered. “Is that his house, too?” I asked, pointing to the second, smaller house further back.”
“Uh, yeah. Vanessa’s mother lives there.”
“Wow.”
Color me impressed. For being in security, everyone seemed to do really well for themselves.
Which reminded me of a comment that Derek made while we were at DeLuca’s apartment.
He said something about Rob being rich, but I didn’t buy it.
Rob certainly didn’t dress like he had money.
Nothing in his house was fancy, and his truck was just a truck. He didn’t even have leather seats.
A large man opened the door and stalked out, his thick thighs nearly bouncing with every step. Geez, did these guys take steroids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
“You know, we’re not a diner,” the man grumbled.
“Give me a break. My wife is hungry. The least you could do is feed her,” Rob said, wrapping his arm around my waist, tugging me closer to him.
The man nodded. “Cazzo.”
“That’s a nickname, right?”
“Yeah. My real name is Sam.”
That was so much better than Cazzo. “Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Krista.”
“The woman who finally snagged Rob,” he grinned. “Vanessa will be excited to meet you. Come on. She’s making Belgian waffles.”
My stomach grumbled at the mere mention of waffles. They were basically a food group all on their own, but I didn’t know how to make them, and I was too lazy to get up and get breakfast at the diner.
“Where are the kids?” Rob asked, shutting the door behind us.
“Knight has them training early this morning. He said they’re getting fat and lazy.”
I gasped in horror. “He said that to children?”
“You’ve met Knight, right?” Sam asked.
“Yeah. I mean, he’s a little gruff, but—”
“That was probably nice compared to the way he usually is. But he’s not wrong. They are getting lazy.”
A woman with long, dark hair and a body to kill for walked out of the kitchen with a cute apron tied around her waist. It wasn’t hard to figure out that she was his wife, especially when she slid her hand over his ass, then leaned in to kiss him.
“Who’s getting lazy?”
“The kids.”
“Right,” she said slowly, holding out her hand for me. “I’m Vanessa. You must be Krista.”
“Guilty as charged,” I laughed, feeling like I was missing out on something important.
“Come on. You can watch while I make breakfast,” she winked.
I wasn’t normally so uncomfortable around strangers, but this whole place was another level of crazy that I wasn’t used to. Luckily, everything seemed pretty normal here, so far. But I wasn’t letting down my guard.
“So, tell me how you met Rob,” she said as she whipped the batter.
“Oh, you know,” I laughed. “Typical situation of two people getting drugged in Vegas, then making the unfortunate decision to get married as we fled the mafia.”
Feeling awkward, I took a seat, grateful when she laughed at my humor.
“Yeah, those are pretty typical circumstances around here.”
“Many people get drugged?”
“No, just meet under interesting circumstances,” she grinned. “I’m actually surprised you agreed to come out here. It takes a lot to move away from someplace you’ve lived your whole life.”
“Well, you could say I have some issues with my father.”
A small chuckle left her lips as she poured the first of the batter into the waffle maker. “I know all about Daddy issues.”
“I don’t really get it. My sister Lizzy is the perfect child. She can do no wrong by anyone, but me? I’m a classic screwup.”
“Well, maybe moving out here will help you mend the rift with your father.”
“Did that work for you?”
She huffed out a laugh. “No. My father was basically going to sell me off to a man in marriage, all for some business deal. I ran, and Sam saved my life, then blackmailed my father to leave me alone. And when that didn’t work after a few years, all of Reed Security set up this elaborate scheme to take him down.
Now, he’s dead, and I try not to think about him,” she smiled forcefully.
I stared at her, completely in shock. “Wow, that’s…nothing at all like my daddy issues.”
“Yeah, sorry to unload like that.”
“No, it just…kind of puts my problems into perspective.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to downplay what you’re going through. We all have issues.”
“Well, it sounds like yours got better when you moved here,” I said hopefully.
“Yeah, things have been great.”
I was still worried about the danger aspect of their jobs, and with Vanessa, I felt like I could really get a straight answer. I checked over my shoulder, making sure Rob wasn’t around. I didn’t want her mincing her words just because he was watching.
“So…I mean, it’s not really dangerous here, is it?”
Cocking her head at me, she paused for a moment. “Well, not really.”
Relief flooded me at her words. Anything in life could be dangerous, but I didn’t want to live knowing that I could be murdered at any second.
“I mean, a few years after I moved here, Chris, who works here, went back to his hometown to save his high school girlfriend from a gang. Unbeknownst to him, he had a kid. It was kind of messy at the time. Anyway, it started this war between Reed Security and the gang. Some of our houses were torched and—”
She stopped suddenly, busying herself with the waffles.
“And what?”
“Well…I was taken, along with Kate and Maggie. They held us in this horrible place, and…I don’t remember much. I was pregnant, and I had a miscarriage. I was passed out for most of it.”
“That’s horrible,” I whispered.
She shrugged, giving me a fake smile. “It’s in the past. Other than that—well, and the year we all went on the run, things are pretty slow around here.”
“The—” My eyebrows shot up at her words. “The year you went on the run?”
“Well, Chase—he’s on a different team—was working this case and…” She laughed to herself. “Wow, I sound like a broken record. You probably don’t want to hear this.”
“Oh, I really think I do.”
She continued to make the waffles, almost as if she was distracting herself from her own words.
“Well, it was another war. The Reed Security building burned down.”
I thought I remembered Cap saying something about that.
“And we had to take our families and run.”
“All of you?”
She nodded. “We went to Colorado to Knight’s house.”
“Ah, the mansion.”
“So, you’ve been there,” she smirked. “It’s something, isn’t it?”
“Not someplace I’d want to stay.”
“Well, he doesn’t stay there for the house. It’s all the privacy he has. Well, that and his gun cellar. It puts ours to shame.”
Man, this woman was just throwing grenades left and right at me. “You have a gun cellar,” I repeated.
“Sam’s a little on edge about people invading his space. Rightfully so after we were attacked.”
“But I thought you said they burned down the main building,” I clarified.
The wince on her face couldn’t be hidden. There was more. Of course, there was. Why wouldn’t there be? Twice wasn’t enough. There had to be at least three or four times at least that they all put their lives on the line.
“Look, it’s not as bad as it sounds.”
“I’m sure,” I grumbled.
“There was a virus and—”
“Wait, you were here for that?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “That’s right! You’re Parker’s sister!”
“We’re an infamous family.”
She scooped out a waffle for me, shoving the plate and syrup across the counter, along with whipped cream and fresh fruit.
“Your brother is a legend around here.”
“So, go back and tell me about what happened here with the virus.”
“You know, I think I should let Rob tell you—”
“Vanessa, I hope we can be friends,” I said with a little more bite in my voice than intended.
Slowly, she turned to face me, looking guilty as hell.
“All I want is the truth.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” she muttered.
“Just tell me what happened. How bad was it?”
“Well, I mean, we have the panic room, and it’s huge. Everyone was safe from the RPGs.”
I swallowed a thick bite of waffle, my appetite vanishing by the second.
“It was really the virus that was the biggest concern. Kate was infected, and somehow she survived.”
“How did she get infected?”
“You know,” she laughed nervously. “Crooked senator, rogue FBI agents…the usual. They tricked her and injected her.”
She nearly died. Kate—the same woman who took me in and helped Rob at the mansion in Colorado. And she seemed so normal, so well-adjusted. How did they all live like this?
“Look, I get that this is a lot to take in, but these are good guys. The best,” she said earnestly. “They fight hard and love harder. I can guarantee that you’ll never find anyone who will go the distance for their families the way these guys will.”
“I’m sure,” I said, twirling my fork in the syrup. “But see…I’m not sure I’m cut out for RPGs and kidnappings,” I chuckled, all humor fleeing my body.
How did it get to be like this? Yes, the adventure with Rob was fun and interesting, but did I really want to live like that? Not even a little. They made my small life in Montana seem like a dream.
“Rob is a great guy,” she tried again. “Honestly, he’s one of the best.”
I smiled at her, but the more she tried to talk me into it, the worse I felt. This felt like a huge mistake, and as I stared at my waffle, I tried to find any reason that I should stay out here and make this work when I already had so many reservations.
The only reason I could come up with was that I was falling for Rob.
And I wasn’t sure that was enough.