She practically ran to the stairwell, eschewing the elevator that would likely have had them all going up together.
“What the hell was that?” Kyle whispered the question.
Hutch shook his head. “Not now. Cameras.”
“I think it was obvious. Cara’s sleeping with the security guard, and they have some kind of history.” Noelle’s eyes were still wide. “I’m so surprised. She mentioned an ex, but I didn’t imagine he worked here. I’ve never seen her this upset.”
“Well, now we know she’s human.” Hutch leaned over and kissed her, his voice going low. “Let’s go upstairs to talk about this.”
She nodded and followed when he started for the elevator.
“Like we needed more drama tonight,” Kyle complained, sounding tired. He yawned. “First, I had to watch the two of you make out all night, and now I’ve got an image of Cara and the guard in my head. I need to find my own place and fast.”
Good. Kyle was good. He’d moved into his role with no effort at all. He’d given no signs that he believed that fight they’d overheard was anything but a lover’s quarrel. His face was bland, and that was all the camera would see. He didn’t give up the fact that it was a lot of coincidence to think Cara had a connection to the man who might be watching Noelle.
Kyle was a pro.
It was easy to forget the secondary mission. Kyle was unassuming. He did his job, played around on his computer, talked to his brother most nights. He’d called his mom twice and made plans to have dinner at her place as soon as he could get free. He was a working guy. Nothing more.
Which was exactly what he should be if he was spying on all of them.
Still, Hutch took the cue because Chris could be monitoring them from that station of his. “Buck it up, brother. I’ve got the prettiest girlfriend in the world, and you just have to deal with it.”
When the elevator doors opened, he walked inside and gave Chris something to watch. He backed Noelle to the corner and kissed her all the way up to the fifth floor. She’d been briefly surprised, but then her lips had opened and she’d seemed to forget about everything but softening for him.
Kyle simply groaned and grumbled the entire time.
Before too long the doors opened and he escorted Noelle to her apartment, no sign of Cara. Kyle shut the door and turned the lock.
“I don’t think I’m hungry,” Hutch announced. He wanted to get her into bed as soon as possible. They could talk in the morning. For now, he wanted to spend time with Noelle and when she was asleep, he would consider everything that had happened. “I think I’d like to head to bed. If you’re hungry, let’s get some snacks and lock ourselves away for the night.”
“I think that’s going to have to wait.” Kyle crossed his arms over his chest. “We need to talk about what happened. I have a couple of thoughts.”
Hutch was about to argue, to beg Kyle to wait for the morning to debrief because he was horny and he’d spent days sleeping on a way too short for him couch.
But he stopped because there was a red light on the bottom edge of her TV screen. A light that should have been off because he’d made sure that smart TV wasn’t so smart. It shone in the low light from the living room, proof that something had gone terribly wrong. That light was on because in the last thirty minutes someone had turned on the monitoring capabilities of the TV. He’d studied up on the model and that indicator light stayed on for thirty minutes after the monitoring function was engaged. He watched as it blinked off, but that didn’t mean they were safe. It merely meant that they’d been lucky enough to get that important clue. If they’d been a few minutes later, whoever was watching would have gotten away with it. He wouldn’t have checked again because he’d turned the sucker off. Someone had accessed Noelle’s system.
Someone was watching them.
His night had gone straight to hell.
* * * *
Noelle glanced around the three-bedroom ranch house and wondered why Hutch hadn’t bothered to decorate. He’d explained that he’d recently bought the home from a friend of his who’d moved to Colorado, but he didn’t have much in the way of furniture.
In the spacious living room there were a couple of lounger chairs and a big screen TV that apparently didn’t scare Hutch the way hers had.
“Yeah, we’re at my place,” Hutch was saying into his cell phone. “Kyle is paranoid as fuck and he’s doing a sweep. I think we’ll be okay here for the night.” He paused. “I thought about getting her out of there. I know. Ian, I know. No, I didn’t panic, but she’s not a damn spy. She wouldn’t be able to monitor what she was saying the way the rest of us would, and it’s not fair to ask her. Of course I gave myself some cover. I faked a call from my cousin who told me my mother was in an accident. We packed up quickly and stopped to let security know we were going to be gone for a while. It should buy us a couple of days.”