“It’s fine, Sebastian,” Isabella said, stepping in front of the kid as he continued to glare in their direction.
“That’s just Eric and the traitor I was telling you about.”
“How am I traitor?” Joshua asked, pouting.
“What the hell have you been doing?” Eric asked as he took in the insane amount of empty chocolate wrappers and Coke cans before his eyes landed on several computer towers hooked to the flat screen television and the two wireless keyboards on the couch.
Isabella followed his eyes and shrugged. “Making a few changes and decisions.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded, feeling a little frightened. Had she gotten into their server? Nah, that was”Your system sucks, I was able to hack into it in under two minutes,” she said in a matter-of-fact-tone.
“And your security sucks. I was able to break into it in under one minute,” Sebastian said, shooting Isabella a smug smile.
“Showoff,” she mumbled as she gave Eric her attention.
“Would someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?” he demanded, wondering if she just crashed their network again. He prayed like hell she hadn’t. Not now.
Again with that damn shrug. “I decided to accept your job offer,” she said, sitting back down and grabbing a can of Coke.
“Job offer?” he asked, frowning.
“Mmmhmm, I’ve decided that I’m going to run your IT
department from here and in return you’re going pay me an insane amount of money and keep me supplied with caffeine.”
He eyed her warily for a moment before he asked, “Will you give us Tattletale?”
“No, Tattletale is my baby,” she said, finishing off her Coke. “But I’ll use it for you as long as you don’t try putting me on an island,” she clarified and he couldn’t help but grin.
Chapter 41
He was sore, exhausted and more than ready to get the hell out of Boston and go home and try to figure out how he was going to make it without his little mate, but his father had other plans. Instead of jumping into a car and getting the hell out of town they were dragging ass through the compound, presumably looking for Joshua.
Without a word he followed his father toward the back of the compound and took the stairs that led to the heavily secured living quarters. Neither spoke as they walked up the three flights of stairs. He knew his father wanted to have a word with him and he appreciated the fact that his father had restrained himself so far. Right now he was struggling to keep moving forward.
He couldn’t believe that it was possible to miss a person he barely knew this much, but he did. All his aches and pains had nothing on the pain he was feeling from being away from her. Every time he thought about her the ache in his chest tightened.
Ephraim punched in a code and scanned his hand and in seconds the door unlocked with a loud beep. Without a word he followed his father into the barely used residential section and came to a stop when his father stepped in front of him.
“We have to talk.”
“No, no we don’t,” he said, trying to step around his father and go where, he didn’t know, but he did know that he didn’t want to have this conversation. Not now when he was barely holding it together.
He didn’t need his father to tell him that he was disappointed in him, or that he’d just f**ked up his life and Izzy’s. He sure as hell didn’t need the lecture about the baby. He wouldn’t be surprised if his father beat the shit out of him over the baby, but it wouldn’t be anything that than he didn’t deserve.
“Look,” Ephraim said, stepping in front of him while he shoved a hand through his hair, “I know I should have told you sooner. I should have called, but with everything going on I didn’t want you getting distracted and getting hurt. I-“
“Oh my god, is it Madison? Are the babies okay?” he asked, scared to death that Madison was going to suffer another miscarriage. It would break her, there was no question about that.
“No, the babies are fine,” he said and Chris couldn’t help but feel relieved, but that the relief was short lived because he realized that he wouldn’t be there to comfort his little Munchkin if their baby didn’t make it and why the hell did he have to start thinking of it as a baby and not a mistake? It was only going to make it that much harder to cope with not having Izzy.
“A few nights ago someone broke into the house,” his father started, instantly grabbing his attention. With the amount of security they had no to mention two Pytes living in the house there was no way in a hell anyone should be able to break in. “Everyone’s fine, but he went after Marc.”
“What the f**k do you mean he went after my brother?”
he asked, turning to leave the unit, the compound, the city, the state and go after the ass**le and kill him.
“It was a shifter, Chris. Our human cover was blown,”
his father said, stopping him dead in his tracks.
“What the hell are you talking about, Dad?” he asked unnecessarily. If one shifter could find them then so could others. They’d prepared for this day, dreaded it, but here it was and during a war to make it just that much more perfect.
“We’ve abandoned our old lives, Chris. We didn’t have a choice,” his father explained.
“Are we changing our last name?” he asked, praying like hell that his father said no. He liked being Chris Williams, but more importantly, that would hopefully be the last name Izzy gave his daughter. He needed to hold onto that hope and why the f**k was he allowing himself to get attached to a child that he would never see, never mind didn’t want a few hours ago?
“There’s no point in doing that yet,” his father said and Chris nodded, deciding he’d worry about that later.
Right now he had bigger problems to worry about.
“Where are they?”
“We’ve taken over this wing. As long as we’re here, this our wing of the compound,” Ephraim said, walking over to the first apartment and scanned his hand.
“Joshua and Jill have taken over those two,” he said, gesturing towards the left. “So that leaves you with the choice of the three across hall.”
He didn’t want to pick a suite. He wanted, need to go home and force his mind on his job, but he knew that would never happen. Wherever his family was, he was.
The door was barely open before Ephraim was shoved out of the way and he had a seriously pissed off female Pyte in his face. Yup, it just kept getting better and better, he thought, wondering if she’d do him a favor and just knock him the f**k out so he wouldn’t have to miss his mate.