give him something that’s far better than what he’s planning here. I have to do what I have to do. I have to offer parts of myself to him for the good of everyone.
“Of course I was going to come back. Why wouldn’t I?” I ask, innocently.
“I have showed you a lot in the last few days. You must be overwhelmed.”
“I’ve seen worse out there,” I lie.
He reaches out and strokes a finger down my cheek. “I’m sure you have, my strong girl.”
“Is Peter coming tonight?” I ask.
“Tomorrow morning. He’s away on business right now.”
“Have you got enough buyers for those girls?”
Dax’s eyes scan over my face. “That’s not for you to worry about, my angel. Tonight, we’re just going to enjoy each other.”
“Speaking of enjoying each other,” I say, trying to make my voice sound lusty, “we should go somewhere. Dinner, maybe a nice hotel . . .” I let my voice trail off and I look down as if I’m feeling shy about what I just asked him.
He takes my chin in his hands and tips my head back. “You’d like to be with me?”
He doesn’t sound shocked—just surprised.
“I . . . I think I would yes.”
“Being here with all these girls is making you uncomfortable, isn’t it?”
“A little,” I admit.
“My angel,” he murmurs, running his thumb over my bottom lip, “I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”
Oh, thank god.
“There’s a new Italian restaurant in town. That might be a good place to start . . .”
He grins, slow and a little wicked. “I like your thinking. I’ll find a nice room, something worth your while. I’ll make it a night you’ll never forget.”
Ditto, buddy.
Ditto.
“Do you need me to do anything here before we go out?”
“I have a phone call to make; I’m going to the study. After that, we’ll take a walk, and you can help me prepare some food for the girls to get them through the evening.”
That will be the perfect time to get the key.
“Okay.”
He smiles at me, then disappears into his study. I glance at the camera that’s pointing down the hall, and quickly get out of its line of sight. I know the security system panel is in the kitchen, so I rush in there, peering behind me. I need to figure out how to bring the cameras down. I pray I don’t have to cut wires, but I do know how to do that if need be. I find the panel and look behind me once more before opening it.
There’s a keypad and a heap of other buttons. God damn, if I knew the code it would be so much easier to turn it off for a few hours. I bite my lip and look at the screws that I would need to undo to get to the wires at the back. It would take some time, at least twenty minutes, maybe more. I’m not sure I’m going to have that long. My heart pounds against my chest and I catch sight of something on the inside door of the panel.
A four-digit number written in black ink, right down the bottom.
3587
No way in the world that’s the code. No way he’d be stupid enough to just write it on the panel. Although, by the time someone got in here to see this, or to be able to turn it off, the alarms would have well and truly been raised, so really, who is going to be able to access this who isn’t invited into the house first? Maybe he’s confident that he has enough cameras on the way in, that he doesn’t need to worry about this?
Could it be that easy?
I look behind me again, and with a racing heart, I punch in the numbers. I hold my breath, for what seems like seconds, waiting for an alarm to sound that will give me away. It doesn’t. Instead, the machine gives off a little beep and before I know it, I’m in. I want to squeal with delight, and laugh at how simple that was, but I don’t have time for that. I flick through the options, and find the option to turn the cameras off for a few hours, like a timer.
Instead of turning them all off now, I’ll just set them to go off overnight, while we’re not here. That will work perfectly and raise no suspicion because they’ll be back on by the time Dax returns in the morning. I get to work programming the system, and