Testing Leah

Brennan
I narrowed my eyes on Darcy as she ran her eyes over my body for the hundredth time in 15 minutes. I wasn’t sure how accurate my earlier opinion of her and her fear was. She had been afraid of him, but I don’t think she was quite in need to be here in Eden. I took a step closer to Rosemary when Darcy smiled coyly up at me, setting the Eden handbook down firmly between me and her.
“This is the handbook. Please review the rules within 24 hours. Any violation of the rules, no matter how minor will result in you being asked to leave. You will remain inside this house until your meeting with MIster. I will be reachable at all times. If you need anything at all, you can just call out, ‘Hey, Mister,’ and I will get an alert. Do you have any questions?” I asked.
“Yes. Are you Mister?”
“No. I just work for him. Is there anything else?”
“Will Leah–”
“No names!” I told her, barely resisting the urge to yell at her as my need to protect Leah rose up.
“Will she be coming back here?” Darcy asked.
I narrowed my eyes on her. “Not tonight.”
“Okay.”
I studied her for a moment, not liking the hidden snake feel I was getting from her. It was almost as strong as the feeling I got from Amber the few times I was in her presence long enough to say two words to her. I tilted my head toward the door, telling Rosemary it was time to go. I stopped at the door to look back at Darcy.
“Stay inside. I will be back tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir.”
I shut the door firmly behind me before cursing when I saw the wagon waiting at the base of the stairs. “Do you mind if I borrow Taco tonight?”
“No. I was going to tell you something feels off,” she whispered.
I nodded. It was more than an ‘off’ feeling. This could be catastrophic. I went back inside to get the boxes I had brought to her the day before, trying to avoid Darcy’s flirtatious looks and words. Once I was done loading up the boxes, I bid her a goodnight again, repeated my order for her to stay inside, and began to walk down the street, pulling the wagon behind me. When I rounded the corner, I saw both Taco and Armadillo heading toward me. I groaned as we reached each other, nodding at them.
“Taco. Armadillo,” I greeted them.
Armadillo crossed his arms over his chest with a furious look on his face while Taco eyed me curiously.
“You wanted to see me?” He asked.
“Yes. Can you watch our new member? I am not sure about her. Make sure she doesn’t leave the house until after Mister speaks to her.”
He nodded. “Yes. I got you.”
As he hurried off toward the house, I frowned at Armadillo before trying to walk around him. He stepped into my path with his eyes narrowed on me.
“Where is Phoenix?” He spat.
“At another location,” I told him smoothly. “For her safety.”
“Her safety or your twisted desires?” He retorted.
I leaned the handle of the wagon against the frame before standing with my back fully erect in front of him. “Let me make something very clear to you, Armadillo. She is not being forced into anything that she doesn’t want to do. She feels safe with me, and I do care about her. You aren’t the only one that sees how pure she is. I would never hurt her and your instance that my intentions toward her are impure is really pissing me off.”
“You think that I care that you’re getting pissed off? I don’t. I just want to know where she is and that she is okay,” he snarled.
“She is fine–”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you! Any other time I would have said, yeah, I know she is, but not now! Not with the way you’re acting. I want to hear it from her!”
I rolled my eyes. “Fine! Whatever. I’ll tell her your request and if she chooses to see you, fine. But if not you need to respect it. Goodnight, Armadillo. I have somewhere to be.”
I grabbed the handle again and walked past him, trying my best to ignore his angry muttering. I was a little shocked that the person I knew him to be had been upended by Leah’s presence. He had gone from a shy, reserved man to a ready to fight to protect man that was posing a serious threat to my budding relationship with Leah. I stopped in front of the elevator doors to wait for them to open, thinking about how much harder I was going to have to try to be the one that she chose at the end of this.
The biggest difference between me and Armadillo was that he had no problem communicating. I wheeled the wagon off the elevator and into the bedroom, frowning deeply when Leah was not inside it. I left the wagon just inside the door before going to look for her. There weren’t a lot of places she could be. There were literally three rooms on this floor, minus the bathroom. My small bedroom had everything I needed and what it didn’t have was in ‘Mister’s’ office. I checked the bathroom before sighing as I started to head toward my office. I stepped inside, leaning against the wall immediately as I watched her open and close the desk drawers.
I had no idea what she was looking for but I knew that she wouldn’t find anything. Every personal piece of information for either me or any of the other members of Eden were locked inside of drawers or in my computer. I watched her for a few minutes, hidden by the darkness, as she explored the office. When she sat down behind the desk with a loud huff, I smiled to myself as I backed away from the door, fully amused with her actions. I went into the stairwell and sat down on the stairs. After pulling out my phone, I opened the program that ran the speakers inside the office. I quickly typed in a message, chuckling quietly when I heard her give a startled squeak.
“Leah, tell me about your coping skill.”
I leaned my head against the wall as I listened to her muted response before typing in another message.
“What do you think you will find by going through my things?” The robotic voice asked.
“N-nothing. I was just trying to… ummm…” She sighed. “I just wanted to know about R. H. M.”
“Why don’t you ask him?” I made the robotic voice continue to question her.
“Because I can tell it’s hard for him,” she answered.
I paused as her words registered in my mind. All they did was reinforce the thought that my communication was shit compared to– no! I wasn’t going there. Nothing good could come of it.
“Congratulations, Leah. Task three is completed. Tomorrow you will begin task four. Proceed back to your room, and prepare yourself. Tomorrow will be hard.”
She mumbled something too low for me to make out and seconds later, I heard the door click shut. I waited for a few minutes before climbing to my feet and going up the few stairs to reach my office. When I entered the bedroom, she smiled up at me before returning to her book, slowly turning a page.
“How was the meeting?”
“Fine. How was your time here?” I asked, wondering if she would tell me what she was doing.
“Fine. I got busted,” she admitted. “When Mister’s voice came over the speakers, I swear I was about to die.”
I burst out laughing. “Well, you already knew he has eyes everywhere. What were you doing?”
“Being nosey.”
“Interesting. Did you find what you were looking for?” I inquired.
“Nope. So now I’m reading,” she said.
“I ran into Armadillo on the way here,” I told her.
“Is he okay?”
“Yes. He thinks I’m holding you hostage and that I’m forcing you to do things that you don’t want to do.”
Her eyes shot to mine. “But you’re not.”
I shrugged. “That’s what I tried to tell him but he doesn’t believe me. He wants to hear it from you.”
She groaned. “I don’t know what to tell him.”
I crossed the room, kicking my shoes off before laying next to her on the bed with my arm behind my head. “Whatever you want to. If you don’t want to say anything, don’t. He’s just being protective.” I rolled toward her to put an arm around her waist. “And I fully understand why. You evoke that feeling in people, princess.”
She put her book down to lay down facing me. “Are you angry that he feels that way about me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” She asked.
“Because I don’t like that he cares about you the way he does.”
“Why? Because you’re jealous?” She whispered hesitantly.
I nodded before kissing her lips softly. “Yes, Leah. I’m very jealous.”
She nuzzled into my chest. “You don’t have to be. But since you are, why don’t you just hold me all night and pretend with me that we’re the only two people on the planet?”
I kissed her forehead. “Sounds perfect, princess.”