In Love by Design (The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod) (18 page)

Luke thr
ew back his head and laughed. “Man, I hope so!” He held out his hand. “Come, Anabel. Let’s go get those splinters taken care of first. I’ll give you the grand tour when we’re done.”

“One sec.”
I grabbed a napkin and the second best cookie I could find. I may need something to bite down on while he’s operating and there’s no piece of bark nearby. I tucked the velvet box and the cookie safely in my purse, and took his hand. “You men have it great in life.”

Luke nod
ded wisely. “I think so, but why do you?”

Snickering around my cookie, I repl
ied, “Women always want to feed you all, you don’t have periods, and nobody thinks you’re butch if you beat someone up. I mean, could life be any nicer?”

Pulling me into the back
entry again, Luke replied on a choking sound, “No, that’s about as nice as it gets.”

He
stopped before one of the closed doors and my attention is diverted when I noticed there’s a key pad above the door knob. I watched Luke’s long fingers fly over the keypad entering a sequence of numbers too long to follow. I can’t picture Uncle Benny having a locked door of this nature, so this must be an update of Mr. Secretive’s.

Luke
swung open the heavy door and waved me forward. I peered down a long flight of carpeted steep stairs leading into a dark hole.

“Should I take off my shoes?” I asked
courteously, looking back over at Luke still in his leather jacket and boots.

Luke
immediately shook his head no. Eyes heavy-lidded, he smiled slowly. “I like the thought of you in nothing except your high heels and stockings while I play doctor.”

Shaking my head
, I muttered, “My god, how unfair can you be! I’m too tired, remember? I wouldn’t have to put up with this kind of behavior if it were Anna doing the operating!”

He
snaked an arm around my waist and pulled me back near him. Sweeping aside my hair, Torquemada kissed my neck. “I know, and I’ll show you how you can thank me later.” He leaned around me and flicked on a light switch that turned on a fixture hanging at the bottom of the stairs. “But for now, hold onto the railing and get that sweet cha-cha moving down those stairs. My time is money.”

“Oh, okay,
mean doctor,” I retorted on a laugh, but I started down the stairs and moved quickly to the bottom.

He
was right behind me when I entered a huge, open room. Luke had left the upstairs in its mid-century glory, but he’d been busy as a beaver bringing in the new millennium down in the basement.

First of all, you’d never know you were in a basement.
The room I’m standing in has no windows and the floors were thickly padded in gray commercial carpeting. The walls and the nine foot ceiling were seamlessly covered in a textured material that appeared to be gray fabric, not paint or wallpaper, except where there are doors or light fixtures. It was pleasantly cool and very quiet.

A bank of flat screened TV monitors hung from the upper wall directly across from the bottom of the stairs, about twenty feet away. Below the screens, a wide desk area ran the length and there were a couple of desktop computers.

Walking closer to the hanging flat screens,
I saw digital numbers in the corners, and concluded from these time stamps that they were reflecting real-time images. The eight screens were each divided into four squares. Within each square a greenish-colored image is showing different exterior views of the outbuildings, the driveway, the yard, and the house. The whole farmstead was covered by video cameras. I knew from my recent security research this was called CCTV, or closed circuit television.

Over my shoulder, I demanded
incredulously, “Do you have Svettie slapping me recorded somewhere?”

Luke
grinned. “Hey, I’m a sentimental guy. That’s the first video of my new girlfriend coming to visit.”

Crossing my arms, I turned and glared. “Me taking a flying leap o
ff the driveway?”

He
winced and nodded slowly, eyes dancing with laughter. “But it was very painful for me to watch the first ten times.” He raised a finger and stroked his lip. “If I had to pick, my personal favorite is the video I’ve dubbed, “My Bitch Howling at the Moon”.

I cover
ed my eyes with my hands while moaning in embarrassment, and then my head snapped up. “Are you some kind of pervert that has
everything
recorded?”

With his swarthy darkness and sinful grin,
I had to reconsider if the dearly departed Aunt Lily was so far off the mark when she said Luke was the Devil. Just because she was an off-her-rocker religious fanatic doesn’t necessarily make her wrong.

Luke
replied, “Why yes, I am some kind of pervert, but other than the basement door, no cameras are positioned indoors.”

I gave him the eye for a few seconds longer
.

He
arched a black brow with a knowing smile. “Anabel, Anabel. Do you want me to do some camera repositioning?”

Flustered, I turned my attention back to the
computers on the desk, so he wouldn’t see by my pink cheeks that’s exactly what I had been thinking.

‘Porno thoughts are one thing, but porno movies?
Holy Hannah, this must be how it starts for those idiot politicians that ruin their lives!’

I diverted my mind by checking out the computers like they
were the coolest thing since sliced bread.

“Umm, t
hese computers have the largest monitors I’ve ever seen. I notice the middle one is on, may I?” I peered quickly back at Luke to get his permission.

H
e’s still smiling, but only nodded. Not seeing a keyboard, I touched the screen. There are two lines of text. The security system was reporting the recent motions detected signifying our arrival and the basement door unlocking.

Luke spoke
right over my shoulder and I shivered. “I have the alarm function turned off right now. The system also notifies me by text on my phone.”

“
Does it trigger the alarms from any motion?” I asked, actually becoming interested.

“
There are different features you can choose to utilize depending on what your security needs are, but here I run it continuously with motion triggered alarms using Video Content Analysis software. I don’t want a text if a squirrel runs across the front porch, but if something taller than eighteen inches comes knocking, I know about it.” He added as an afterthought, “Assuming I check my phone or the computer.”

I nod
ded slowly, my mind buzzing. I continued looking around, admiring how all the wires, cables, and cords plugged into various ports are bundled and neatly trail off down holes in the wall or desk. Nothing was jumbled and there’s not a dust bunny in sight.

A
sleek black conference table surrounded by six gray leather chairs sits off to the right side of the room. I caught an intriguing glimpse of a stack of plat maps and a huge Minnesota atlas near the head of the table before my eyes moved on. Many maps of all types, sizes, and shapes are framed and hanging on the walls. Some looked old and yellowed.

Past the table
, and on either end of the wall, were two doors. In between the doors, and inset into the wall, was a black metal gun safe. It looked antique, incredibly heavy, and rested on cast iron wheels the size of round dinner plates.

O
n the opposite side of the room, a glass case hung on one side of that wall. Displayed inside were rifles and pistols that I don’t know the names of, but they looked to be collector’s items. A large screen TV was on the other half of the wall. There was a drafting table, as well.

I turn
ed to check out the area behind me that I didn’t notice when coming down the stairs. There’s nothing to see but smooth wood paneling stained in the same gray as the other walls.

Smiling, I rotated in a circle. “Ah, it’s the Drake mansion Bat Cave at last!”

Luke laughed softly and touched a panel of wood on the wall. A door slid opened soundlessly and I saw a small fridge.  “The Drake mansion version of Alfred,” he
joked and I laughed, too. “You’re probably thirsty. Would you like a bottle of water, Princess?”

I flashed him a smile, “Thanks, I would.”

He opened the plastic bottle and passed it to me. Taking a deep drink, my eyes scanned the room again. A few more long swallows and I put the emptied bottle down on the conference table with a murmur of satisfaction.

I
nodded towards the antique gun safe. “Uncle’s?”

“Yes,” Luke replied
simply.

“Too heavy to move or
sentimental?” I inquired; quite sure the narrow safe couldn’t be anywhere near large enough to store the arsenal of weapons and gear I suspected Luke would have on hand.

“Both,” replied my Dark Prince and I smiled over
at him, liking that he admitted the sentiment part.

As Luke smile
d back, I noticed he’d taken off his jacket while patiently waiting for me to look my fill around the room. There was something hot glowing in his eyes that instantly increased my heart beat.

I
nonchalantly moved away and tilted my head towards the security monitors. “Why all the cameras?”

“
Why not?” Luke answered promptly, and I didn’t have to see him to know a wide shoulder had lifted in his arrogant shrug.

Hitching my purse strap onto my shoulder,
I laughed at his answer
. ‘Why not indeed! Every home should be equipped with a locked, sound-proofed security center stuffed to the gills with all sorts of weaponry, antiques, and hi-tech gadgets.’

O
pening my arms wide, I twirled back to face Luke and exclaimed, “Don’t you think that Bat Girl needs a control room, too? I’ve made a few security upgrades recently. I had bars installed on the laundry room window and locks added on all the bedroom doors,” I waved to encompass the large area, “but I want to do this in the apartment!”

Luke’s face
was serious when he nodded. “I definitely agree you should turn your building into a fortress. The office next to your bedroom could be converted ...”

“
With secret getaway ladders up to the third floor of our Northfield Operations Center and down into the storeroom in Bel’s!” I clapped with excitement, at the same time Luke finished, “…into a nice little panic room.”

Seeing
my disappointed frown at his words, he retracted smoothly, “Or into an escape route to our Northfield Operations Center.”

I
grinned in approval and walked over to hug him around the waist. “I love your ideas, Boyfriend.”

Luke bow
ed his head gravely at my homage “Thank you, a man needs to take credit where he can.”

Releasing him, I step
ped backwards to allow my smiling gaze to travel slowly over his chest and biceps molded by his long-sleeved charcoal gray T-shirt. This was the first I’ve seen Luke tonight without his leather jacket on, and after a two week absence, I was impressed with his hard muscles all over again.

M
y eyes were drawn downward by the motion of his hand and I noticed he was holding a long black scarf about a foot wide. My head shot up to meet his glittering eyes. Luke did the finger crooking thing again.

I
moved closer to him, a moth to his hot flame.

I
ndicating the silky fabric with my chin, I asked warily, “Is somebody walking the plank?”

“
Mmm, no, not tonight,” he replied, smile enigmatically. He raised his hand to let the tie run lazily through his long fingers while I followed its sinuous progress, unable to tear my eyes away.

His voice drop
ped to a low murmur that left me no choice but to wrap my hands around his bicep for balance, as I leaned forward to hear. “Where I’m taking you next, you can’t enter without being blindfolded.”

I
tried to squeeze his muscle and asked on an intake of excited breath, “Is this because of my girl cooties or…”

Luke
interrupted, growling, “I eat girl cooties for breakfast, Princess. It’s because I’ve never shown another living person what I’m about to show you.” He held me by the shoulders and his cruel lips were almost smiling. “I’m going to put this over your eyes. Will you behave and hold still for me while I tie it on?”

‘
How Gothic!’
squealed the sex kitten voice,
“Say yes, say yes!”

I’m
sort of tantalized by the mystery, since I thought our goal coming down here was to remove splinters from my ass, but I was also a tad skittish at being blindfolded again so soon after the rotten potato sack. I also heard those ominous two words ‘living person” and everybody knows curiosity killed the cat.

‘
Quit analyzing and say yes, dammit!’
screeched the sex kitten
.

I barely got out the,
“Okay already!” before Luke’s hands spun me around, sweeping my hair back behind my shoulders and smoothing the curling mass of it down my back. Then the silken blindfold was cool against my face and thankfully smelled clean. Luke tied it securely in the back and I couldn’t see anything. I tried to peer out of the bottom, but the blindfold was too long and covered that angle, as well.