He got close to me but pointed at the door.

“New deadbolt, chain, peephole. Use the last two when you’re in the house. Always use the first one. Not just during this situation, al the time,” Mace ordered, handing me a key.

I took the key but stared at my door which now had three locks and a new peephole.

Effing, bloody hel .

Mace grabbed my hand and pul ed me two steps to the side of the door.

“Alarm panel,” he announced, dropping my hand, pointing at a new box on the wal and flipping it open. “This is your combination. Memorize it.” He handed me a slip of paper.

I looked at the paper, read the numbers, read them again, repeated them in my head and made a wonky, only understood by me mathematical formulation of them (something I did when I had to memorize numbers).

“Got it memorized?” Mace asked.

I looked at him and nodded, not speaking because I couldn’t find my voice, not because I wasn’t talking to him.

At that juncture, I kind of forgot about my latest plan.

He took the slip of paper from me, bal ed it in his fist and shoved it in his pocket.

“You come in, you got thirty seconds to punch in the code then hit this button.” He pointed at a button. “You go out, always set the alarm. You got a minute to get you and Juno out the door. You set it the same way, same code, same end button. Yeah?” he asked.

I nodded again.

“See this button?” He pointed to a red button.

Again, I just nodded.

“Panic button. You hit that, a signal gets sent to the police dispatch, they know it, they don’t f**k around; they send a car with sirens. Then a signal goes to the control room at the Nightingale offices and we know you’ve been compromised. Don’t hit that button unless you know you got a situation. Hear me?”

What was going on?

“Mace –” I started.

“Do you hear me?” he repeated patiently.

He seemed pretty intense so I decided to nod yet again.

“Both of your phones have the Nightingale control room on speed dial, hit button one then pound. That way, you can’t get to the panic button, you can grab one of your phones. Yeah?”

“Yes,” I said.

“The door is alarmed, so are the windows. You hit that code then this button…” he pointed at another button, “while you’re in the house. That means the peripheral sensors are activated but the motion sensors are not.” He pointed at sensors with red lights that were in the corners just where the ceilings hit the wal s. I looked around and noticed there were a lot of them.

Mace kept talking.

“That means the alarm is set but if the door or windows are breached, a signal goes to the police, a car goes out and the control room gets the signal, same dril as the other. Got me?”

Oh my God. This was too much. Simply too much. It was insane.

I didn’t share these thoughts, my only ability, it seemed, was to keep nodding.

Mace went on, “The room is ful of cameras. You won’t see ‘em, no one’l see ‘em. The bathroom has a smal window, two stories up. Unlikely to be breached but it has an alarm sensor. Therefore no camera in the bathroom.

The cameras are gonna be on, and monitored at the office, twenty-four-seven. You need to change, you do it in the bathroom. You stil with me?”

I kept nodding.

“There are exterior cameras, the front, back and side doors and the parking area. They’re monitored twenty-four-seven too. I talked with Swen, he knows what’s goin’ on and he’s happy with the work we’ve done. He and Ulrika are set to go on vacation on Saturday, good timing.” I started to tremble, it was beginning to hit me just how serious this was. Losing Linnie, being shot, knowing the threat, none of that did it.

This was freaking me out.

“Mace –” I started again.

His hand came to my neck, he got in my space and his head bent to mine.

“I’l answer al your questions in a minute, Kitten,” he said quietly. “Let me finish explaining the set up and then you can ask me anything you want.”

He wasn’t finished explaining the set up?

This wasn’t already the entirety of the set up?

He kept talking.

“You know Indy’s Dad, Tom? He’s a detective for the police department?” Mace asked.

I nodded.

So did Mace, once.

“Tom’s arranging regular but random drive-bys by squad cars. Anyone watching the house waiting for a chance might either be seen by a car or they’l notice the frequency of squads in the area and they’l be a f**kuva lot more careful or bag the chance to get at you here at al . Every once in awhile a uniform is gonna buzz your door. They’re gonna wanna see your face, in person, so you’re gonna have to show it to them. This could happen day or night.

There’s video surveil ance here.”

He pointed to another box with a screen that was situated just above the alarm box.

Then he kept going. “You hit this button, you see them and can talk to them but they don’t see you. No plainclothes officers wil cal up, only uniform and they’l show you a badge. You only go down if you see the uniform and the badge. By whatever smal chance they got, anyone breaches the security and is in the house and on you, they tail you to the door but stay hidden, you got a code word.

When you get to him, you tel the officer you’re hunky dory.

He’l know you’re not but he’l proceed with caution. You got that?”

I was beyond trembling, I was beginning to shiver.

“Babe, you got that?” Mace asked softly.

I nodded.

“Blinds always pul ed. The bed was moved away from the windows so they have no shot when we’re asleep.

Avoid the couch, it’s exposed. The wal s are brick, you’re safe at a wal . Windows aren’t safe, don’t get near ‘em.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

Mace fel silent.

“Is there more?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he replied.

Effing hel .

He kept talking.

“You got safe zones. Fortnum’s is covered. The Castle.

The offices. Indy and Lee’s, Ava and Luke’s. And here.

That’s it. You don’t hang anywhere else unless me or one of the boys is covering you. To get to a safe zone, you go with an escort. No exceptions. You go nowhere unless you’re in a squad car or a company car. Okay?”

I nodded.

He fel silent again.

“Is that it?” I asked.

It was Mace’s turn to nod.