“Take us where exactly?” she questioned. “I can’t uproot their lives and just take off for God only knows where because some crazy guy thinks that he’s Jack. It just can’t happen. The kids have school.”
“And I’m sure that the kid’s school will understand the urgency of our situation,” he assured. “I’ll hire them a tutor,” he offered.
“What about their activities? Jack has soccer and the girls have dance. They have friend’s birthday parties coming up and lots of other activities that I’m sure I’m forgetting.”
“All of that will be waiting for them when it’s safe for us to come back here, Rain,” he promised. “This is not only for your safety but for theirs, too.”
“I get that you want to keep us all safe but isn’t there a way to do that from home?” she asked.
“You saw how easy it was for that guy to get to you while I dropped the kids off from school. What happens if he gets out and shows up to their school, to talk to them the way that he did you? Am I supposed to post guards at their school too?”
“I’m pretty sure that guys with guns would be frowned upon at their school,” she said.
“Right, I need to protect you five, and taking you away until this guy is no longer a threat, is the only way to do that,” Slater said. “Let me keep you all safe,” he begged. She stood from her seat and climbed onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Where would we even go?” he asked. This was the part that he worried might piss her off, especially since he had gone behind her back and done something she didn’t know about.
“Don’t be angry with me,” he said.
Rainey groaned, “You do know that when someone starts out a sentence like that, it’s usually because they’re going to piss off the person who they are talking to, Slater. What did you do?”
“Remember when we were talking about me not really having a home?” he asked.
“Yes,” she agreed. “I do.”
“Well, that got me to thinking—I’m a grown man without a home of my own, living in my boss’s penthouse and if something happened, I’d end up living in my truck.”
“I think that you’re being a little bit overly dramatic, Slater. I mean, you know that you could stay here with me if something happened, and Knox kicked you out of the penthouse. At the very least, you could get a hotel room or something.”
“Right, but that wasn’t how my brain was working as I ran through all of the reasons why I needed to buy that cabin,” he almost whispered that last part.
“You bought a cabin? Since we’ve been together, you have purchased a cabin and didn’t tell me?” Yeah, this was going about as well as he expected it might.
“It wasn’t something that I was intentionally keeping a secret from you, honey,” he insisted. “I got the keys for the place a couple of weeks ago and honestly; it needs a bit of work. I was hoping to do some of the work before I surprised you with a quick getaway up there.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “Now I feel like an asshole for getting mad at you.”
He smiled, “Really?” he asked. “Here I thought that I was the one in hot water.”
“If I agree to this, where exactly will you be taking us?” she asked.
“Four hours north of here. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, up on the side of a mountain. The place has all the necessities, although a little rustic right now. We can work on the cabin together,” he offered. “I can teach the kids some life skills and I’ll vet and hire a tutor to come in to teach the kids so that they can keep up on their studies. It will be great, Rain,” he promised.
She sighed and he could tell that she was actually considering his plan. It was more than he could have hoped for when he came up with it, but then again, his Rainey was usually pretty reasonable, especially when it came to protecting her kids.
“All right,” she agreed. “We’ll go stay at your cabin until this mess with the Jack wanna-be gets sorted.”
“Jack wanna be?” he questioned.
“Well, that’s what he is, right? Besides, I think that it might be fun to get away for a little bit. I’ll go in to talk to the kids’ principal tomorrow to tell him that we’re going away for some time and that I’ll need their assignments for their new tutor.”
“That sounds great,” Slater said. “I need to ask you for one more favor,” he breathed.
“I’m in a giving mood,” she teased. “Go for it.”
He chuckled and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “I’d love to post someone here while we’re gone. You know, make it look like someone’s home. Maybe it will be a way to lure wanna-be Jack out if, or in his case when they let him go.”
“You think that they’ll let him go?” Rainey asked.