Page 39 of Breathless
“His employer sent it to him last week.”
Broderick nodded. “I was surprised when I saw him drive off this morning and you weren’t with him. I was under the impression that you have a job. He must be the one driving you around since you haven’t been contacting me to take you. Unless you are working for once of the families in the neighborhood here.”
Her mind raced on how to respond. If she lied and said she was he’d want to know which one and he could easily check on that. Besides, she didn’t want to go down that path.
“He is driving me,” she said. “But he’s off on an assignment right now. I don’t have to be at work until later.”
“I thought he was supposed to be protecting you and he just leaves you here alone to go and do another job?” Broderick crossed his arms over his chest.
“Who said what he is doing isn’t part of the same job?” She threw back at him, trying to keep her voice level.
“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it,” he said. “I don’t like the position you’ve put me in, Miss Daniels. Getting called out by your parents when I thought everything was going fine makes me look bad.”
“I’m sorry you got caught in the middle,” she said. “But I don’t need a babysitter. My parents shouldn’t have hired you do drive me around and keep tabs on me for them.”
“I thought I was keeping you safe after you were abducted. That was my understanding of the job description they gave me when I was hired,” Broderick said. “But it’s clear as the weeks have progressed, they had another agenda for my services.”
She nodded. “Yes. They are very manipulative people with their wants and demands. Resign and walk away from this job.”
He grunted and shook his head. “You’d like that wouldn’t you.”
“It’s whatever you’d prefer. Leaving on your own terms or getting fired.” She shrugged. “Take your pick. I can see it coming. The writing is on the wall. They are not happy. They can’t control me, so they are lashing out at you. And if they can’t get the results they want, it’ll be bye-bye Broderick.”
“Are your parents control freaks?” he asked.
“I never thought they were, but then, I always did what they wanted growing up,” she explained.
“You seem like a grounded kid…err… young woman,” Broderick said. “I don’t really see why they have an issue with you living your own life.”
“Listen, I can’t tell you what to do. I just don’t want them to ruin your reputation and make it difficult for you to get another job in the future. I think leaving on your own terms is better than being fired.”
There was a long pause before either of them said anything, but finally Broderick did. “I hear you. I’ll get out of here now. Do you need me to take you to your appointment with Dr. Saunders tomorrow?”
“I think Rawlins will be going with me to that, but I’ll call you tonight if I should need you,” Chaney said, walking him to the door.
“Okay. If I don’t hear from you, I will take that to mean you are covered.”
When he left, she locked the door and leaned her back against it. Hoping she’d dodged a bullet talking to him like that. She wasn’t sure what would happen now. Would she hear from her parents again? She had a feeling she would, and she decided she had better be prepared.
Swede and Viperfinished setting up the control terminal in the security office at The Village while Taz and Rawlins tested out the panel in the girls’ dorm to make sure it was working.
“The light’s glowing green,” Rawlins said. “What is your digital display showing?”
“Green.” Taz rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t get why it’s not working.” He pulled out his phone and called Swede. “Yo. We have an issue with the digital display in the girls’ dorm. We have two green lights, but nothing else is working.”
“That’s because we’re offline in here. Sorry. I should have told you we were down. We’ll be back up in about five minutes,” Swede apologized.
“I’ll get you for that,” Taz warned. “We’ve been busting our butts trying to get this to work while you monkeys are messing around in there.”
Swede laughed. “Hang tight, it’s almost back online.”
“It’s not on our end, but theirs,” Taz said, putting his phone back in his pocket. “They took the system off line without telling us.”
Rawlins shook his head. “I think this August heat is getting to all of us.”
“I know. It could rain, and cool us off any day now,” Taz agreed.
Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound was soft, but distinct as the green lights began flashing on the digital display and a Welcome to The Village message came across the panel.
