He shifted away from me. “It’s not like that. I’m not staring at the screens nonstop. I don’t watch you undress. I’m not a creep.”
It felt a little creepy to me. Suddenly the feeling of being watched made so much more sense. “Who else is watching me?”
“Each of the security detail is assigned one person.”
“Then don’t they see me coming downstairs to you at night?” My heart was racing. And I wasn’t sure if it was because I was mad that he was watching me. Or I was worried that someone else was.
“There aren’t any cameras around the staff floor. Or anywhere near the door to our floor for that matter. There’s no reason for them.”
I nodded, not feeling all that convinced. “Is someone watching us right now?”
“You’re the only one living in this wing.” He pulled out his phone and brought up a screen filled with different shots and angles of the apartment. “So I’m the only one that needs access to the cameras in this wing.” He showed an image of us on his screen. I could also see a few angles of my bedroom. Kennedy and Tiffany were laughing about something and Justin’s hands were on his hips. At least there wasn’t a shot of my bathroom.
But still. It all felt wrong. Why hadn’t Miller told me he was watching me? “I…I should really go talk to Mr. Pruitt.”
“You’re not mad at me, are you?”
I looked up at him as he shoved the phone back in his pocket. I wasn’t mad. I knew he was doing his job. And if I’d read that stupid contract, I would have known about the cameras. It was weird, though. I’d had no idea he was watching me. “You swear you don’t watch me change?” I asked.
He smiled. “I swear.”
“Well, that’s good.” I laughed awkwardly.
“I wouldn’t look at all if it wasn’t necessary. But I have to make sure you’re safe.”
Safe from what? And that was the whole problem. It was another thing I wanted to talk to Mr. Pruitt about. Why was any of this necessary? He said if I signed his contract he could fill me in on what he did for a living. “I’ll be back up in a minute, okay?”
He smiled, even though he still looked tense.
“I’m not mad. I promise.” I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
***
I knocked on the big wooden door of Mr. Pruitt’s study.
“Come in,” said a muffled voice from the other side.
The door was heavy and it slammed closed with a loud thud behind me. I’d never seen Mr. Pruitt with glasses on before. It made him look even more sophisticated.
“How can I help you?” he asked as he pulled his glasses off.
Reading glasses. That was even more peculiar. Wouldn’t he need them when he read the morning paper? Did Mrs. Pruitt even know he needed glasses? Did anyone?
He set his glasses down, shaking me out of my thoughts. “You can’t fire Tiffany,” I said. “It wasn’t her fault. Isabella…”
“I know,” he said. “Isabella and her friends cut up all your clothes after you left for the homecoming game.”
“How…how do you know that?” Miller had just told me that only he had access to the cameras in my room.
Mr. Pruitt closed the lid of his laptop. “I have my ways.”
A chill ran down my spine. He had pretty much just admitted that he was watching me too. Who the hell else was watching me? First it seemed like Mrs. Pruitt was. Then Miller. Now Mr. Pruitt too? Was my bedroom on full display for everyone?
Mr. Pruitt stood up from his chair and walked around his desk. “I’m not a fool, Brooklyn.” He leaned against the side of his desk. It was the most casual I’d ever seen him. “Isabella seemed to be in a rather great mood this afternoon, even for homecoming. She and her friends giggled during the whole car ride to the game. And the scissors from my desk were missing. She didn’t even bother to cover her tracks. She’s testing me.”
“Testing you?”
“To make sure I love her more, I assume.” He sighed. “But you’re as much of me as she is. More maybe. Because you haven’t been hardened by my wife. I see so much of me in you from when I was your age. And so much of your mother.”
I felt a lump forming in my throat. Maybe his heart was hardened by his wife. Maybe he was kind to my mother. Maybe he wasn’t always like this. I’d seen glimpses of his kind heart. He was nice to me too.
“My wife will never approve of you.” He tilted his head to the side as if he was inspecting me. “But I do. I don’t want you to change. I want you to come to me when you think something is unjust. I want you to tell me if I’m doing something wrong. And I don’t want you to be scared of standing up for what you believe in, even if it goes against Isabella or my wife.”