hidden.”
“I’m on it,” Jett announced brightly, her gaze practically eating Justice alive.
“Behave,” Daisy mouthed to the teen. Though why she bothered, she couldn’t say. She might as well tell a mouse to stay away from the cheese.
Not giving Daisy a chance to issue any further instructions, Justice snagged her arm and drew her from the room. They retraced the path to the front door and continued on in the opposite direction to a large office with a spectacular view of the Rockies. She didn’t think he used this room any more often than any of the others on this level. The same feeling of neglect hung over the few furnishings it contained. But at least the shutters were open.
The early afternoon burned across the mountains, coating them in every shade from deep royal blue to the dense purple of eggplant. Trees, bare and stark, slept beside stands of conifers, the green rich with the promise that life would one day return to the windswept landscape. In the distance snowcapped peaks shoved upward against a remote sky, the pale blue expanse winter-hard and slashed with high streaks of gray cirrus clouds. It made her itch to grab her sketchbook and pencils and have at it. But ever since she’d lost her creative spark, she’d been afraid to do even that much, afraid she’d be forced to concede, once and for all, that she’d lost all artistic ability.
Releasing a sigh, Daisy turned from the view and discovered Justice pacing the room in perfect imitation of a sleek jungle cat. Or, to be precise, an infuriated jungle cat ready to attack at the least provocation. He also held the odd spherical device he’d played with the night Noelle had been conceived, twisting and turning it into shape after shape.
“All right,” Justice announced, bringing her to earth with a thud. “Let’s hear it.”
“What do you want to hear?” she asked. As if she didn’t know.
He regarded her with burning, narrowed eyes. “You know damn well, Daisy. Who the hell are all those people?”
“One of ‘those people’ was your daughter,” Daisy retorted calmly. “And if you’d given me a moment to introduce the others, you’d know who the hell they are.”
Anger flared and the sleek sphere stuttered in Justice’s hands. “Damn it, woman!”
Did he just call her “woman”? She approached, her anger rising to meet his. “Now that I’m here, I think it’s time to discuss my conditions for staying.”
That stopped him dead in his tracks. “Conditions? You never mentioned conditions to me.”
“Well, now I am.” She didn’t give him time to debate the issue. “Condition One. If you want us here for longer than the next five minutes, you’re going to have to adjust your language. Noelle is unbelievably verbal and tries to repeat just about everything she hears. I won’t have her swearing before she even turns one.”
“Hel—” He broke off and then swore again. “Fair enough. I’ll do my best. I can’t promise I’ll be perfect.”
“Condition Two. My name is Daisy. Call me ‘woman’ in that tone of voice or swear at me again, and I’m out the door. And so is your daughter. Got it?”
He clenched his teeth together so tightly it was a wonder they didn’t crack. Even so, he conceded the point with an abrupt nod. “Any other conditions?”
She simply smiled. “Third, Aggie and Jett are members of my household, and where I go, they go.”
He must have picked up on her determination. She could practically see him adjusting his mental paradigm or thought processes or whatever the heck went on inside that amazing brain of his. “Who is Aggie?” he asked, the question so prosaic Daisy almost laughed.
“Aggie’s a former elementary school teacher and currently my cook and housekeeper. Since I’m a disaster in the kitchen and since the four of us need to eat, I hired her to take care of all things domestic.”
He perked up a little over that. “She cooks?”
“And cleans,” Daisy stressed. She eyed the room in open displeasure. “Seriously, Justice, this place is a disaster. I can’t believe you’re comfortable living like this.”
He glanced around, though she suspected he didn’t see the office and surrounding rooms the same way she did. “It’s just a bit of dust, and I don’t live in this section of the house.”
It didn’t take much thought to figure out where he did live. “Mad scientist plus secret location equals mysterious, hidden lab?”
“Something like that,” he conceded.
“A spotless mysterious, hidden lab?”
“Of course.”
“Well, since you now have guests who will be living in this section of the house, we’ll need our accommodations to be as spotless as your lab.”
He examined the room again, this time really looking—this time finally seeing. She could tell from his gathering frown that until that moment he’d been oblivious to the full extent of the problem. “I’ve been focused on a project and didn’t realize how bad …” He blew out a sigh. “I apologize. I should have done more to prepare for your arrival.”
“We’ll handle it.”
The “we” succeeded in returning his attention to his unexpected guests. “You’ve explained Aggie. Who’s the scary Goth girl?” he asked.
Daisy couldn’t help but smile. “That’s Jett.”
“Jett.” He froze. “Not that Jett. Not your computer expert.”
“That’s the one,” she took delight in confirming. “She was my parents’ foster child. After Dad suffered a heart attack, it became clear she’d have to move to a new home. Jett decided she didn’t want to start over somewhere else and asked me to become her foster parent instead.”
“This is November. Shouldn’t she be in school?”
“She received her GED at sixteen. She’s currently considering colleges.”
Justice’s brows shot upward. “How old is she? She looks about twelve.”
“She’ll turn seventeen in a few months. Jett can give you the days, hours and minutes, right down to the seconds if you want a more exact number.”
“She’s smart.”
“Scary smart. Like you, scary smart.” Daisy hesitated. “Like Noelle.”
His gaze sharpened. It didn’t take him long to process her comment and come up with the correct explanation. “That’s why you’re here.”
“One of the reasons, yes.” No point in going into any of the others. Those would become apparent over time. “It’s clear she requires someone who’s going to understand the way she thinks. Right now she has Jett, which is a huge help. But, Jett won’t be around forever. Plus, there’s no male figure in Noelle’s life other than my father and now that he has health issues …”
At the mention of her parents, his expression closed over, turning as cold and bleak as the mountains at his back. “I don’t want them anywhere near Noelle. Not after what they did to me.”
Daisy stared in disbelief. “You can’t keep them out of her life.”
“Watch me.”
“Condition Five.”
“Four.”
“Whatever. My parents are part of my life, the same way Jett and Aggie are. Deal with it.”
A muscle jerked in his jaw and his eyes burned