He called me Maddy.He was pissed and let me know by using the name I hated. I exhaled, somehow feeling slightly better regardless of my situation. “Stop yelling at me. I never said I would stay away. Your word isn’t God. You don’t get to decide what I do or don’t do.”
“Guys, as much as the two of you have to talk about,” Josie interrupted, trying to be reasonable, “now might not be the right time.”
Micah noticed the change in my expression, and his gaze went to my ears, seeing the earbuds. “What are they saying?” He didn’t wait for me to respond, just plucked one of them out of my ear and stuck it in his. “Josie Jo, when Brock finds out—”
“Don’t be a dick,” Kenna intercepted.
Micah raked a hand through his disheveled hair. “Oh, fabulous. You brought the entire squad.”
“Crew,” Ainsley corrected.
Micah laughed, shaking his head. “The four of you are not a crew, and I suggest you make a quick exit before you end up with a disciplinary mark on your record.”
It still begged the question, what was he doing here? Following me? Maybe. But there wasn’t time to waste by asking. “I’m not leaving until I see what’s behind this door.”
“What door?” three voices echoed.
Micah pinned me with a hard stare. I shifted my gaze from him to the door in question. “Why do you have to be so damn difficult?” His hand moved to the knob as he brushed near me, the scent of his cologne fucking with my senses. The handle jiggled but didn’t give way. “It’s locked,” he stated, brows furrowed.
“No shit, Sherlock. That’s why I want in.”
“I should have locked you up,” he mumbled as he leaned down to inspect the keyhole. He dug something out of his pocket and began to unravel a paperclip.
“You just happen to have paperclips in your pocket?”
His lips quirked. “At least one of us came prepared.”
“Uh-huh. Just what are you doing here, Micah?”
He still had my wireless earbud nestled in his ear and ignored my question, speaking to my cousin instead. “Josie, if you don’t get out of this house, it won’t just be your ass but mine too.”
“You don’t think I can handle Brock?” she replied.
“Normally I would be up for details on just how you handle him, but not now. Besides, Grayson is somewhere downstairs, so unless you want to run into him, I suggest you sneak your little ass out.”
“Goddammit,” she hissed. “Why didn’t you bring Fynn?”
Micah stuck the first paperclip into the lock, wiggling it around. “Because he lost at rock, paper, scissors.”
Leaning against the wall, I eyed him, perplexed. “I genuinely don’t know how any of you obtained the level of respect you’re given.”
“And you never will,” he retorted like it was this great secret.
“Sorry, Mads,” Josie said a second before…
Click. The lock gave, and Micah stood up, grinning like he’d just won the Nobel Prize for lockpicking. He turned the knob before pulling out the paper clips. “Usually I’d say ladies first, but I don’t know what we’re going to find behind this door.”
A steady hum filtered from inside that made me think of fan blades whizzing through the air. Rolling my eyes, I kicked open the door. It was like ripping off a Band-Aid. You just had to go for it.
“You just couldn’t…” Micah’s voice trailed off as his gaze sharpened, taking in the spare room that had been converted into…
I blinked.
Just what the fuck am I seeing?
Dozens of small TVs lined the entire back wall in a grid formation. The setup looked professional. Not a cord out of place or cables tangled. Two desks were placed together in front of the wall, computers controlling the feed to each TV. I would say it was a command center of sorts if it weren’t for the images on each of the screens. They looked like dorm rooms.
Hypnotized, I walked into the room, needing to get a closer look. There were too many pictures to view, causing chaos in my brain. It was as if my eyes didn’t know where to focus, so I picked a screen.