I took a few more deep breaths and counted to ten. By the time I hit zero, I was decent enough. I shut the window and quickly hurried to Cox’s office, trying not to get all fucking excited again.
I knocked once then opened the door. Cox was sitting behind his desk when I entered, looking gravely worried, which wasn’t unusual at all. Cox was in his forties, an ex Special Forces guy with a buzz cut and a bunch of tattoos. I liked him a lot, though I didn’t really know him all that well. He took his job as the head of security very seriously and did it well without any complaints, and so I paid him a ton to keep him around. Since my place constantly had so many guests and was so big, I needed full-time security like him and a few of his guys.
“How’s it going?” I asked him.
He grunted. “Fine.”
I took a seat in front of his desk. “You sounded worried over the phone. What happened?”
“We got a letter, sir.”
“Dispense with the ‘sir’ shit for one night, will you?”
He ignored me, like he always did, and produced a letter. I took it from him and slowly skimmed it as he spoke.
“Basic threatening letter, sir. We don’t usually bother you with them since we get maybe one or two every week and they never pan out. This one is different.”
“It’s specific,” I said, noticing right away.
“That’s right. It’s very specific.”
The letter said that basically they were going to bomb my office if I didn’t step down from Valor Tech. They said I had a week before the bombing would happen.
I saw a few of the crazy letters back before I hired Cox full-time. They were usually much more general about their threats. Normally it was along the lines of, “I’m going to kill you with a tire iron, you cock sucking faggot” and “Go fuck yourself, you cunt bitch, I’ll cut your throat and dance on your grave.”
People that write these letters aren’t really very nice, but they were harmless. Usually, at least. Cox checked them out if they left a name and a return address, and normally they were just disgruntled rednecks looking to blame someone else for their problems. Sometimes, though, they were seriously deranged, and Cox would keep an eye on those people.
“What should we do about this?” I asked him.
“I’m passing it along to a buddy of mine in the force, sir,” he said. “Hopefully he can help.”
“You think the cops can do something you can’t?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged and didn’t look convinced. “I would avoid your office on this day, just to be safe.”
I smiled at him, handing him back the letter and standing. “Cox, I can’t let a bunch of crazy assholes dictate how I live my life.”
“Whatever you say, sir.”
“Good night. Thanks for showing me this.”
“Of course.”
I nodded and left, suddenly feeling exhausted. I’d been working on a heuristic problem around how my little AI drone was going to identify humans when I decided to see Emily. Now, I was well and truly exhausted, and realized that I wasn’t going to get any more work done.
I headed back to my wing of the house. The place was unusually quiet, since there weren’t as many guests in the house at the moment. I didn’t want to risk anything with some strangers catching me and Evelyn sleeping in separate rooms or some shit, so I figured we could empty the place out for a couple months. The house felt empty, though, which was strange.
As I got to my wing and walked down the hall, I slowed when I got to Evelyn’s room. Her door was slightly ajar and I heard her television still on. I knocked softly.
“Come in,” she called out.
I stepped inside, shutting the door behind me. Evelyn smiled. “Husband,” she said.
“Wife.” I grinned and sat in an armchair at the side of the room. Evelyn was wearing glasses and reading some trashy romance novel by Willow Winters, her hair pinned up. She was an attractive woman, despite being older than I normally dated, but there was no real connection there. We were friends, or at least as close to friends as I really got.
“You’re up late, old lady,” I said.
She laughed. “Couldn’t sleep. This place is just too big.”
“Tell me about it.”
“How do you live in here?”
“I fill it with people, usually.”
“Hm. Makes sense.” She took her glasses off and frowned at me. “What’s the matter with you?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. We got some threatening letter that worried Cox. And I was spending some quality time with my daughter.”
“Stop calling her your daughter,” Evelyn said. “And I’m sure Cox can handle the letter.”
“He will. I’m more worried about Emily.”
She raised an eyebrow, looking at me. “If I didn’t know better, it would almost sound like you were looking for my permission to sleep with my daughter.”
I laughed deeply, surprised all over again at how funny Evelyn could be. “No, not at all. I don’t need your permission for that.”
“Oh, yes, you do, Carter.”
“I’m not worried about that anyway. She still dislikes me.”
“I’m not sure she does.”
“Have you seen the way she looks at me?”