Page 35 of Rayna's Daddy

Kyler shut the door.

“Enter the numbers.”

I punched in the code.

007099

The door opened with a whoosh.

Kyler placed a hand on my lower back and guided me inside the room. When he shut the door behind us, it locked with a thud.

“Now, no one knows the code except you and me.” He stepped behind his desk. “If anything happens or you feel unsafe, you come in here and close the door. It only locks from the outside. You can always get out once you’re in.”

“What is this like, a panic room or something?” I rubbed my chest and willed myself to breathe.

“Yep.” He tapped a few keys on his laptop, but didn’t elaborate.

It only made me want to learn more.

CHAPTER10

“Why do you have a panic room?”

She sounded more curious than frightened. She walked the perimeter of the room. Talking it all in.

“It never hurts to be cautious.”

She nodded.

I skimmed through a few emails, but I couldn’t concentrate. All my senses were honed on her every move.

Rayna cut across the room, trailing her fingers along the carved edges of my mahogany desk. It had belonged to my father. She walked behind me and stopped at the credenza. I swiveled in my chair to watch her. She picked up a photo of me and my brothers.

Even with Chandler’s blonde hair and Randall’s scowl, you could tell we were brothers.

“You all have the same eyes.” She put the photo down and pick up another. “Are these your parents?” She held the photo up.

“Yes.”

“You all have your mom’s eyes.” She looked at the photo, as if memorizing it. “You have your dad’s face, though. Your father looks serious.”

“He was a stern man, too.”

“You’re not stern.” She pouted. “Firm, but not stern.”

“You haven’t seen me when I’m motivated.”

Her eyes grew wide. I tried to hide my amusement, but her reaction made me want her more. She was innocent, but so open and expressive. Maybe she wanted to see that side of me, too. I plucked the photo out of her hand and put it back.

She wandered back over to the floor to ceiling window and peered down.

“This,” she knocked on the glass and turned back to me. “Makes you kind of vulnerable. Someone could swoop in here Mission Impossible style and get you.”

I push a button behind the desk and the bullet proof shutters slide into place with a staccato rhythm.

“Yikes.” Rayna jumped back. “What was that?”

“See.” I opened the window back up. “By the time a laser cut through that, the calvary would have arrived.”

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