Diamond
Cold.
I’m cold.
No, not cold—freezing.
Half-asleep, I tug on the blanket to try and cover my shoulders. It doesn’t help warm me up, and I groan in annoyance, driving the blanket over my head.
“What the hell?” My teeth chatter, and I pry my eyes open, analyzing my surroundings to make sure I didn’t magically teleport to Antarctica.
I’m in the exact same place I was when I fell asleep, curled up in the queen-sized bed of the guest bedroom, but there is one major difference.
The temperature.
I reach for my phone on the nightstand. It’s 8:05. I set my alarm for 8:15 to take Lexie on her morning walk, but there’s no way I can sleep ten more minutes in this ice age.
I check the weather app on my phone and frown at the digits on my screen. It’s eighty degrees outside. A warm, gorgeous day I have every intention of spending by the pool with Lexie. So, then why is it so cold in here?
I climb out of bed and wince when my big toe meets the chilly wooden floors. The thermostat in my room reads sixty degrees when I know for a fact that I set it to sixty-eight last night. Maybe it’s a glitch?
It would make sense, seeing as the house is filled with smart devices—thermostat, blinds, lights, even door locks.
“Weird,” I say under my breath before pressing the touch screen to raise the temperature.
A loud beeping sound startles me, and a message appears on the fancy thermostat.
LOCKED. PLEASE ENTER PASSCODE TO ADJUST TEMPERATURE.
I know that I was wrong instantly.
It’s not a glitch.
It’s him.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” I dial a handful of number combinations, all of them followed by the same message.
Locked.
Locked.
Locked.
“I swear this boy has a death wish,” I say through clenched teeth. I throw on an oversized hoodie that stops just above my knees and storm out of my bedroom.
I rush down the stairs, ready to rip Finn a new one. I thought maybe he’d only changed the temperature upstairs since he has access to every room from the controller in the kitchen, but the rest of the house is just as cold.
The fucker is trying to force me out the door by making me freeze to death.
I’m surprised to see Lexie isn’t downstairs waiting for me when I reach the living room. Poor baby, she must be freezing, too. I get that he’d want me to freeze, but his dog? What kind of monster does this to his own pet?
Turning the corner in a hurry, I search for Lexie but can’t find her. Worry creeps under my skin as I wander into the kitchen and call her name a few times, with no result.
I stop short at the sound of her familiar barking.
It’s coming from the backyard.
Rubbing the goose bumps on my arms away, I dash toward the large windows and release the biggest sigh of relief when I see Lexie running around the lawn. She’s chasing after Finn, playing fetch and living her best life.