Chương 9: Unseen And Unheard

Emerging from the bathroom a second time, Six was now wearing the sweat pants that looked more like capris over halfway up his calves and a tourist shirt from the last trip to Cape Cod before her mother died. It didn't quite cover his belly button.

Claire couldn't help it. She was so strung out from everything that happened today that she started cackling and couldn't stop.

He looked so stupid!! Especially with his blank face and light brown military-style short undercut. The epitome of seriousness wearing an outfit like that was too much for her poor nerves to take.

Every time she tried to apologize and get a hold of herself she would look at his perfectly expressionless face and crack up all over again. This went on for more than fifteen minutes.

When she finally stopped, Six spoke up. "Are you alright now?"

"Yeah…sorry about that. I think everything from earlier finally caught up with me. I didn't mean to be rude," Claire said remorsefully.

He ignored her apology. "You should take a shower too; you need your rest."

That was rich coming from someone who said he hardly slept in four days. Between the two of them she was pretty sure he needed it more, whether he would admit it or not. She listened to him anyway because now that the hysteria-infused laughter wore off she was exhausted.

When Claire came out of the bathroom in a pair of polka-dotted pajama pants and a plain pink t-shirt she was surprised to find Six had made a makeshift bedroll at the foot of her bed using some blankets from the linen closet.

"Uh…what are you doing? You can sleep in my mom's room, you know. There's a bed in there."

"Negative," he said with a shake of his head. "Until the security system is installed I can't let you out of my sight."

She could tell there was no arguing with him. Whatever. She didn't care anymore, reminding herself that if he was going to do anything to her, he would have already when she wasn't even aware he was in her house.

Claire crawled into bed and shut her eyes, unwilling to turn the light off. Images of those other hitmen's bodies were branded to her eyelids. Sleep might not be possible tonight after all, no matter how tired she was.

Six did not have the same problem. He was unconscious less than two minutes after they last spoke, not even bothering to say anything about her keeping the light on. He really was insane.

===

The following morning Claire recalled having nightmares but thought that everything that happened yesterday might have been a dream. Until she saw Six standing stoically at the foot of her bed, that is.

She nearly jumped out of her skin. "Don't do that! Make some noise or something so I know you're there!"

He blinked at her. "I have been trained to be unseen and unheard."

"Well, you're gonna have to untrain yourself unless you want to give me a premature heart attack."

The tiniest of frowns appeared on his face and Claire was nearly certain she hallucinated him having any sort of facial expression until his brows furrowed a little deeper. "Sorry."

Was he concerned about offending her or something? Why on earth was he frowning? Based on what little she knew about him, he definitely wasn't normal so worrying about a normal thing like that should be beyond him.

He had a number for a name. If she had to guess…he had been either raised or brainwashed by this hitman organization. How much experience did he have with other humans anyway? The way he talked to her was odd to say the least.

Claire sighed. "It's fine. Go get yourself some cereal or something; I'll call a security company. Do you recommend any in particular?"

Six nodded. "Yes. I have never been able to sneak past a fully-loaded Adamant system. Those targets had to be taken down outside of their homes or with a sniper rifle. You should have all of your windows replaced with bulletproof glass too in order to prevent that."

Okay, way more information than she asked for. She didn't want any details about his past kills. Seeing what he did yesterday was proof enough that he was one terrifying person. A terrifying person whose allegiance she had won for an unfathomable reason.

If he really wanted to see what her life was like, her theory about growing up as a hitman rather than getting into it later was probably correct. Claire didn't see what was so special about it; she always thought her life was boring.

But hey, if it kept her alive she would entertain him. Like the girl in 1,001 Nights who stayed alive by telling stories.

"…thanks for the info," she said before going off to find her phone.

This was going to be expensive; Claire could tell already. She did have pretty solid savings in case of an emergency because she still had some of her mother's life insurance policy left and didn't have many expenses as a household of one.

If being targeted by hitmen didn't qualify as an emergency, she didn't know what did. She called a place that did bulletproof glass right after calling Adamant Home Security to get their first possible appointment.

She was very lucky that both places were able to make time to come out and see her today. She wanted to feel safe again at home as soon as possible, even if it did mean turning her house into a veritable fortress.

The appointment with Adamant wasn't until noon so she joined Six at the table with a bowl of cereal before heading upstairs to get dressed. They needed to go shopping because he still looked ridiculous.