Page 30 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

“Did my camera survive?” There was no sign of it.

“No, unfortunately. Some of your mementos, pictures, and books were damaged too.” He pointed to the living area. “The TV’s fine, though.”

“As long as I can still watch Marvel movies, we’re good.” Annabelle tried to smile bravely but suspected she didn’t quite pull it off.

She stepped around the glass brick wall into her empty sleeping area. “I’m going to need a bed. It was time to buy a new mattress anyway. So that’s convenient.” Putting a positive spin on the situation was proving harder than expected. “Where will I sleep until my new bed arrives?”

“Actually.” Noah strode toward the panel entrance to the panic room. The mirror that’d once hung in front of it was gone, but the new door blended seamlessly into the wall. “I want you to sleep in here until this is over. It’s the safest room in the building—now we’ve upgraded it. Your usual bedroom’s a bit too exposed for my liking.”

Curious, Annabelle followed him into the small room. It had been transformed since the last time she’d been in it. The larger space to her left now held a large bright yellow sofa bed made up with new navy blue bedding. To her right, where her desk used to stand, was a small kitchen area and a large built-in cabinet in the corner where they’d hidden from the bullets.

Noah pointed to the narrow space beside the sofa. “Folding stool and table for you to work at if needed.” He gestured to the wall next to the door. “TV and security monitors.” Lastly, he indicated to the large closet. “Toilet.”

“Really?” Annabelle opened the closet door to find a compact bathroom, the kind you’d find in a motorhome. There was a tiny sink, and a showerhead on the wall above the toilet turned the whole cubicle into a shower if needed. “Why are tiny things so fascinating?” she asked. “I love this.”

He gestured to a button on the wall facing the open door. There was a small display panel above it, with a miniature keypad. “Press the button,” he said.

She did so, and another sliding door silently opened into one of the guest bedrooms behind her loft area.

Noah came to stand beside her. “Imagine my surprise when we discovered two bedrooms and a bathroom behind the end wall of your loft. If I’d known we could have escaped that way and snuck down the fire escape stairs, things would have gone a little differently. I thought the doors beside your bed led to a bathroom and a closet, but nope—one led to a walk-through closet and bathroom, the other to the rest of your apartment.”

“It is a big building.” Annabelle stepped into the bedroom in the corner facing the street, with windows in two of its walls.

Noah indicated another small panel, identical to the one inside the panic room, on the wall of the guestroom. “That’s the lockdown panel. You can use it inside the room to lock it tight. You can also lock it from the outside, if needed.”

“In case you want to imprison me?” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

“In case you’re incapacitated, and we need to secure you inside while we deal with a situation. We’ll put an app on your new phone, when it arrives, that will let you override any locks in the building. You won’t ever feel trapped.”

She grinned at him. “You mean, more than I usually do?”

He had the grace to smile sheepishly.

Annabelle took pity on him and gestured around the guestroom. “This was my aunt’s room.” She pointed through the open door to a small hallway beyond. “My room faced this one, and I had full use of the bathroom between us.” She gestured to the wall that backed onto the bathroom and closet accessed from the loft. “This used to be a door to her ensuite. When I renovated the living space and added a bedroom area to the loft, I moved the entrance to suit my new bedroom.”

“I think I’d prefer to sleep in here rather than in the loft,” Noah said. “I like walls in my bedroom—especially with two young boys in the house.”

“Privacy isn’t an issue when there’s only you in the apartment.” She cringed. That made her sound like Suzy No Friends. “When my friends stay over, they sleep in these guest rooms, and I have all the privacy I need out in the loft.”

“What if they get up in the middle of the night to get a drink or a snack?”

“Usually, they’re very respectful and quiet. Plus, it’s not like I sleep naked or anything.”

His smile was teasing. “Nowthatwould definitely make for an interesting guest experience.”

Annabelle’s cheeks heated as she changed the subject. “Aunt Rose had a thing for pink chintz. This room looked like a Barbie bordello when she was alive.”

Noah barked out a laugh. “Well, I’m glad the pink’s gone now because this is where I’ll be sleeping for the duration.”

“Here?” The word came out as a squeak. “I mean, don’t you have to go home to your sons at night?”

“Not right now. They’re on an extended visit with their grandparents. And I need to stick close to you at all times. Which means I’ll sleep in here, and we’ll keep the panic room door open between us, just in case.”

Annabelle glanced back at the panic room. You could clearly see the sofa bed through the open door. If lying in it, she’d be able to see Noah in the guest room bed, and that felt a little too intimate. “I’m not sure I can sleep with someone staring at me.”

“That’s fine then because I’ll be asleep too. No staring involved. Promise.”

“Then why do you need the door open?”