The alarm company crew of four men arrived early on Thursday morning. Well, early for Kylie anyway, who still operated on hacker time. Having to drag her tokhes out of bed and be presentable for company by ten did not make her a happy camper. Nor did the way Dag appeared the moment the men arrived and proceeded to hover over her like a badly trained guard dog while the crew went about their work.
“Will you please lighten up?” she demanded as she leaned against the kitchen counter and sipped her soda. At that moment, two of the techs were working in her office, wiring the window alarm and laying the groundwork that would allow her computer system to sync with and control the security as a central hub. They had strict instructions to get everything ready, but not to touch her computers or other electronic equipment until she was present and could set up the interface herself. No one touched Kylie’s babies but Kylie.
“No,” Dag growled. “I will not relax until this work is complete and these humans have been escorted off these premises. I am uncomfortable with so many strangers in the house.”
Kylie rolled her eyes. “You realize this was all your idea, right?”
“That makes no difference in my reaction to four strange humans wandering about this space unsecured.”
“Well, admitting you’re irrational is the first step, I hear.”
The low rumble of his growl vibrated through the marble behind her. Kylie ignored it. Frankly, the last five minutes had encompassed more communication than he’d managed with her over the last five days combined. She might just as well have dragged his sorry-assed statue form into the house with her for all the company he’d provided. King David had offered her a better conversational partner.
Kylie looked over when one of the workers peered in from the door to the hall. “Excuse me, ma’am? I need your approval before I drill to install the front door control panel.”
“Right.” Kylie set her soda bottle on the counter behind her and rubbed her condensation-covered hands against her jeans. “Coming.”
Dag followed so close on her heels he might as well have asked for a piggyback ride. Just as she was about to turn on him and potentially take his balls for hackysacks, another worker approached from the office.
“Uh, I’m about to run the wire through to the computers, but someone said something about not messing with the setup already there. Do one of you want to supervise while I do this?”
The worker didn’t bother to hide either his disgruntlement at his work being second-guessed or his boredom with the tedium of his job. Charming fellow. Beside her, Dag growled, crowding her back against the partial stairway wall as if unable to decide which of the jumpsuit-clad menaces from Beanpot Security and Electronics was the most likely to whip a demon out of his back pocket and wave it at her.
Oy, if she had to roll her eyes at him again, she was going to sprain something.
Patting his chest, she transitioned the reassurance into a quick shove and stepped away from him. “Okay, big guy. You go with the fellow by the scary front door, which I haven’t been allowed within twenty feet of since the weekend, and I’ll go back to the office to make sure Prince Valiant over there doesn’t hurt my babies. If another drude materializes out of thin air, I promise to scream real loud and high-pitched so you can come save my delicate female tokhes. Okay?”
Not waiting for a response, because when one came, she knew she wouldn’t like it, she nudged the Guardian toward the front door and turned to head back to the office. As soon as Wynn arrived, Kylie was going to either enlist her help to stage a jailbreak, or have the biggest, alcohol-fueled bitchfest ever recorded. No other way could she think of to cope with Grumpy McGrumperson for another solitary minute. She’d lose her mind.
She stepped into the office behind the slightly stocky and visibly scruffy security technician and surveyed the scene. Ignoring the bare patch in the ceiling left the other day by Dag, the company seemed to have done minimal damage to the plaster. A couple of small, neat holes indicated where they had inserted wire and fished it through the walls, but overall, Kylie was pleased at the lack of significant destruction.
Not that the room didn’t look like an electronics bomb had gone off in the middle of it, because it did. Bundles of wires and spools of cables lay piled on the floor, the desk, and most other available surfaces. Tools and equipment spilled out of a large open bag and sat piled near a partially open window, and three boxes of new components lay open in the middle of the floor.
In the midst of it all, Kind David lay in his fur-covered chair with his paws curled under him and his slitted gaze fixed on the scene. He must have decided the job required close royal supervision, because generally he never stuck around when strangers came to the house, especially not several of them at once. Least in sight was one of his favorite games.