“May I come in?”

Ellie stepped out of the house and onto the porch next to him. She spotted two New Species officers across the street, knew Fury had them watching the house, but as she met their gazes, she didn’t see alarm. They obviously didn’t believe the new director was a threat to her safety. They’d have stopped him from reaching the front door otherwise. She relaxed a little.

“It’s not really my house, as you know, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable inviting you inside.” She took a deep breath. “May I help you?”

“I hope so. I’m here to offer your job back at the women’s dorm. The women highly respect and like you, Ms. Brower. They decided to replace the current house mother and your name came up.”

Ellie tried to hide the dismay his statement caused. The man’s eyes were cold and blue, reminding her of chunks of ice. He had laugh lines around his mouth though, which deflected his chilly, disconcerting look. He seemed nice enough and she believed his motives were honest, but didn’t know how to respond. If she took the job she’d have to move out of Fury’s home and didn’t want to do that.

“Can I think about it?” Stall, she ordered herself. “It was quite traumatic for me when I was fired. It left me homeless and jobless at the same time.”

He swept his gaze up and down her. His eyes were intelligent, maybe too much so. “Of course you may think about it. The job is yours if you want it. I would just request that you decide soon. We need a new house mother inside the dorm as soon as possible. As you know, we have more women arriving within the next few weeks.”

“I didn’t know that,” Ellie admitted. “I thought they were only going to send in a few dozen women at first to make sure it would be a good environment.”

“They’ve decided it is.” He smiled. “You helped them make that decision. Every woman at the dorm highly endorsed you as a positive role model. I heard your cooking classes were a favorite.”

Ellie smiled back. “I tried to make it fun.”

“And you succeeded. They are very fond of you.”

“I do miss them,” she admitted. “I am fond of them too.”

“I heard they needed help learning how to do almost everything.”

Ellie shrugged. “They were locked inside sterile cells inside the testing facilities. Learning how to dust, make coffee, and cook pancakes wasn’t exactly something they had the opportunity to learn where they were raised. I remembered how daunting a washing machine could be when I became a teen and my mom told me I had to wash my own clothes. When you are raised with all of that stuff, you learn it a little at a time. They’ve had all this technology shoved at them suddenly. It’s all the things we took for granted. Imagine facing an answering machine when you didn’t even know what a telephone was a year before.”

Interest sparked in his gaze. “Did they talk to you about their lives before they were freed?”

Ellie studied the man warily. She refused to share private details she’d been given in friendship. “Some. Why?”

His expression softened. “I’ve read the reports and talked to a lot of them. It’s horrible what they had to deal with all their lives. I swore to Justice North that I’d do my damnedest to make sure the rest of their lives were nothing similar to the past. It’s very important to me that the New Species be happy and safe. I want what is best for them and I think that’s you, for their women.”

It touched her. Ellie would have taken the job back in a heartbeat if it weren’t for having to leave Fury. She caught a glint of satisfaction flash inside Tom Quish’s eyes and opened her mouth.

“You’re really good at manipulation. You know that, right?”

A grin curved his lips. “It’s my job. How else do you think I’ve been able to get all the funding for Homeland so quickly and talk the military into giving it up? The reason it’s nearly completely built and we could move into it so fast is because it had been slated for a new Army base. Charm and good friends in high places have their advantages. Will you take the job, Ms. Brower?”

She wanted to but couldn’t. “I have to think about it still.”

“You look as though I’ve held out candy to you that you want really bad but you’re afraid to take it because you were taught to never trust strangers.”

She grinned. “I couldn’t have put it better myself.”

“I’m good with words too.”

“What is going on?” Fury stormed up the sidewalk glaring at the new Homeland director. He moved to Ellie’s side, tense and angry.

Ellie glanced up at him and wanted to flinch. He looked as if he were a jealous boyfriend, which she guessed he was. If he didn’t get a leash on his emotions the director would be an idiot not to see they were involved. She peered up at him and gave him a warning look but he refused to glance at her. He was too busy glaring threateningly at the director.

Tom Quish took a few steps back. “I’ve been just talking to Ms. Brower. It’s good to see you again, Mr. Fury.”

“What do you want with her? She stays here. You have no power to make her leave.”

Quish’s gaze darted from Fury to Ellie and back. Ellie could almost see the man’s mind taking in the scene, his thoughts going where she feared they would, and it just confirmed it when he took another step back. A wary, “oh shit” expression paled his tan features.