Page 72 of Her Brother's Billionaire Best Friend

“Put in the following digits. 7—7—5—6—4—2. Okay?”

“6—4—2,” repeated David, as the buzzer sounded.

I turned around and saw that, like me, Laura had kicked off her shoes for comfort. “Can you…put your shoes back on?” I said.

“Oh,” she said, and winked at me. “Sure.”

“Did you just wink at me?” I said incredulously.

“Yup,” said Laura.

“You never wink,” I said.

“Don’t I?” said Laura curiously. But then she was gone, and I could hear David’s car pulling up across the driveway.

I slipped on a pair of my own shoes and opened the door. I gave a polite wave to David as he got out of his car.

“How are you?” I said.

“Fine,” he replied, a little irritated. “Look, if you’re going to keep Laura late, could you remind her to call the house? I’ve been worried sick. And someone needs to go pick Kyle up right now.”

“Understood,” I said, standing uneasily in the doorway. “I don’t intend to make a habit of it.”

David looked at me defiantly. He seemed pissed-off for no good reason, as per usual. “So, you gonna let me in?” he said.

“Well, of course,” I replied uneasily, and stepped aside. David marched into the hallway and called for Laura. “Laura!” he called. “Come on, sis. I need you to fetch Kyle and I’ve left a casserole in the oven.”

What a jerk, I thought. David, man…what happened?

I knew I couldn’t expect my old friend to treat me like he had. But somehow I’d hoped that given how we’d made up in the hospital, he’d have forgiven me for my relationship with his sister. After all, David hadn’t been angry when Conor dated Laura. In fact, he’d been overjoyed, if anything.

“Can I get you something?” I said, as David stood in the middle of my hallway. He turned and shook his head, then looked at the control panel, which covered not just the gate security system, but also the fence perimeter and the garden’s lights and motion sensor alarms. It was the brain of the house, from which I could control everything.

“That’s a pretty fancy setup,” he said. “Who made that for you?”

“A man who works in Washington,” I said. “Or at least, he built it. We designed it together, actually.”

“Is that right,” said David. “How come you can’t open the gate?”

“Normally I can,” I said. “For some reason, the automated system’s disabled.”

“Can you fix it from here?”

“No,” I said casually. “You need to do it from the breakers which are in the basement. It’s fine though, I’ll get round to it.”

“Well, thanks for letting me in anyway,” said David. “I know you and I aren’t exactly…”

“You just let me know how I can change that,” I said brusquely, as Laura jogged gently down the stairs, now in her shoes. “Goodnight Laura,” I said, and waved her off.

“Night, Lucien,” she said, and went with David. From the living room window, I watched as they got in the car and drove off. At the gate, David got out of his car and entered the passcode on the keypad on the other side.

“There’s a security leak if I ever saw one,” I chuckled, as I watched them drive into the night. But long after the car had gone, that thought stayed with me, until a haunting, paranoid suspicion had entered my mind.

Chapter 23

Laura

“So, did he tell you where it was?”