Page 63 of Hidden
Her eyes stayed fixed on his chest, then she took a deep breath, looked up, and nodded. He stared at her, taking in her presence, assuring himself she was okay. When his heart rate slowed to less dangerous levels, he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “Where do you want to sit?” he asked, keeping his hand entwined with hers.
Her gaze darted around the room. When it settled on the couch, he led her over. “Want me to build a fire?” Based on her clothes, he’d guess she’d been working out before the intruder visited. And while she wore a sweatshirt, she probably didn’t have much on underneath.
With a quick glance at her hand holding tightly to his, Ryan walked to the fireplace. “I’ll get it,” he said.
Asher nodded his thanks and took a seat, settling Ellie in his lap. She curled into him, resting her head on his shoulder, as he draped a throw blanket over her body. Sabina and Kara sat on their husband’s laps all the time, but he’d never really understood the appeal. Or draw. Until now.
By the time a fire roared, she’d stopped shaking but didn’t seem ready to talk. Asher ran a soothing hand up and down her leg, offering what comfort he could. And Ryan, being Ryan, waited patiently.
“There’s not much to say,” she finally started speaking. “I heard something. I thought it might be a bear, and I was excited to see one. I even texted Asher to make sure that looking at it through the window wasn’t a bad idea.”
Ryan glanced at him, and he nodded. He’d give his cousin the exact time of the texts when she finished.
“I heard what I thought was the animal…well, I guess itwasan animal, just not the kind I thought…come up on the porch,” she continued, her eyes fixed on the flames in the fireplace. “I pushed the curtain aside.” She nodded to the front window. “And instead of seeing a bear, there was a face looking back at me. Less than a foot away on the other side of the glass.” She shuddered in his arms, and he gave her a squeeze. Even without everything else going on with her, seeing a face appear in the window would be startling as hell.
“I screamed, and once I got my feet to move, I hit the panic button on the alarm, ran upstairs, and called 9-1-1,” she said. “That’s really all I know.”
“Are you up for some questions?” Ryan asked. Without taking her eyes from the fire, she nodded. “Could you tell if it was a man or a woman?”
She considered the question before shaking her head. “They were dressed in baggy clothes. Black ski pants, bulky black jacket with a hood, and they wore a balaclava. And gloves. The only part of them I really saw was his or her eyes.”
“Do you remember the color?” Ryan asked.
Again, she didn’t answer right away. “Blue,” she said. “Not an unusual blue, just blue.” Then she frowned.
“What?” Asher prompted when she remained silent.
“I…I can’t say for certain this means anything. But now that I think about it, while their eyes weren’t any kind of memorable color, they had long, thick eyelashes. That might make me think it was a woman, but, well, I’ve seen a lot of very pretty men—men with lashes like that—so I’m not sure how helpful that is.”
“It’s all helpful,” Ryan said. “Did you get a sense for how tall the person was?”
She shook her head. “I’m terrible with heights. They were taller than me, though. When I moved the curtain, they were kind of leaning over—and down a bit—as they looked in the window. Their eyes were level with mine at that point. I’m five-eight, so taller than that.”
Ryan nodded and wrote something in his notebook.
“Ask Chad for the feed,” Asher said to his cousin. Ellie looked up at his comment. “There are security cameras around the house. We all have them,” he said. “Between my grandfather and my dad and my aunt, we don’t like to take chances.”
She frowned. “I know about your grandfather and dad—and Cody, too, I would imagine—but what about your aunt?”
“Aunt Beth. Cody, Mitch, and Brad’s mom. Her name is Elizabeth Anne. Most people call her Annie but ‘aunt Annie’ was too hard for us to say when we were younger, so we call her aunt Beth,” Asher said. “Her father was a multi-term senator from Massachusetts. But when she was in college, she developed an algorithm that most GPS apps, including the ones used by the military, use. She’s, um…” He hated talking about this kind of stuff, and he was grateful when Ryan jumped in. Cutting to the chase, as usual.
“She’s loaded. Like billionaire-level loaded. She’s not involved in any of the businesses that license her technology, which is why she’s not well known. But on occasion, there’s been chatter about either kidnapping her for her brains, or our cousins for ransom, so we don’t take any chances.”
Ellie’s gaze bounced between Asher and Ryan. Then she rolled her eyes and gave a husky laugh. “You do realize how ridiculous your family is, right? A former president, a federal judge, a technology maverick. And that’s not even getting started on your generation.”
Asher frowned. “It’s family. When you put it like that, though, yeah, it sounds kind of…statistically unusual. Especially when you add people like Cody or Sabina in the mix. Although, not really,” he continued, giving it more thought. “We’re born with a lot of advantages. Money and access, for sure. But also connections and, maybe most importantly, a strong support structure. It’s probably not all that surprising that we have so many overachievers in the family.”
“Especially given the size of the family,” Ryan added.
Ellie didn’t look convinced, but she laid her head back against his shoulder and relaxed into him. He dropped a kiss on her head, grateful she’d stopped trembling and appeared to be winding down from the fear and adrenaline rush.
Someone knocked on the door, and Ryan rose to answer it. A few minutes later, Chad and Sabina walked in.
“How are you?” Sabina said, coming to sit beside them. Ellie started to move off his lap, but he tightened his hold. She stilled, her muscles tense, then settled back in.
“It startled me. Scared the shit out of me, to be more precise. But I’m okay,” she answered.
“I emailed you the footage, Ryan,” Chad said, taking a seat. “But I brought it, too.” He held up a tablet. While home security wasn’t HICC’s typical gig, for the family, they made an exception.
