Page 32 of Tamed Enemy
Nothing to see here. Just an innocent little wife, following her husband’s orders to a tee.
Nilsson plays his own role perfectly. Half an hour into my determined performance, he brings a tray into my office. There’s a pot of yogurt and a bowl of fresh berries. He’s brought two of the miniature croissants I love, along with warm, spreadable butter. I thank him before I start to eat.
He checks on me three more times in the next hour, always with some excuse. He brings a stack of morning mail and a letter knife. He replaces the pencils in the holder on my desk with two dozen fresh Blackwings, newly sharpened. He offers to brew me a second pot of coffee.
I must finally convince him that I’m not a flight risk, because he misses his check-in at a quarter past nine. I go to the jacks, expecting to run into him in the hall, but he must be deployed elsewhere in the house.
Instead of returning to my office, I continue down the corridor to the mansion’s front door. Sunshine streams through the foyer windows, promising another hot July day. Later, I might need to exchange my sweatshirt for a T-shirt.
But first, I’ll visit my grandmother and sister.
The doorknob turns easily under my hand. Drew Cameron pulls himself to attention on the front step. “Good morning, Kate,” he says.
“Good morning.” I step over the threshold.
“Is there anything I can get you?” Drew asks, not yielding an inch.
“No thanks. I’m just dashing across the street to see Granny.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, and he honestly sounds regretful. “I can’t allow that today.”
“You’re holding me prisoner in my own feckin’ house?”
He takes out his phone and reads from the screen. “Under no circumstances should Kate be allowed past the gate.”
Cole was a very busy man during those few hours I was asleep.
“Then we’re in agreement,” I say. “I can cross the drivetothe gate.”
“You can,” Drew says. If I thought I’d intimidate him, I was wrong.
“And what if I put my hand through the bars? Is that acceptable?”
“No, Kate.”
“What if I just put my big toe past the line?”
“Under no circumstances should Kate be allowed past the gate.”
I don’t bother taunting Drew further. I just step back inside the house and close the door with an assertive snick. It’s no more his fault my husband is an overprotective gombeen than it was Nilsson’s.
I consider trying the back door, the slider that leads onto the patio, but I can already see the shadow of the canine handler standing guard there. I’m certain he’s received the same memo as the rest of my jailers.
I could fight. Make a break for it. Call the police and report a kidnapping in progress. Set a fire and try to escape when the firefighters arrive.
The old Kate would have done all that and more. She would have carried some of her frustration into the Red Cap Raiders, urging them on to more and more dangerous raids. She would have done her best to undermine Lone Wolf, to strike fast and strike hard against any of its clients.
But Ididpromise. And if I close my eyes, I can still taste the vinegar stink of tear gas against the back of my throat.
Sighing, I return to my office.
Now I have Ariadne’s Daughters instead of the Raiders. After creating my online profile—TheRealAriadne—I haven’t devoted nearly enough time to building my group of all-female white hat hackers. Professor Carlotta Mirabelli, MamaBear online, hasbeen delivering reports on her progress, identifying a couple of leaders as well as potential worker bees, but we need a way to test new members, to determine their skills.
I’ve already built out part of Cole’s online game, Winter Reckoning for my pet project. I need to polish it. Revise the focus of more of the game’s algorithms from killing to building. Figure out how to build the Labyrinth of my dreams.
As long as I’m under house arrest, I might as well use my powers for good, instead of for evil.
For now, anyway.
