Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 135300 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 541(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135300 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 541(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
I don’t mean to scream when he rips it from my hands, hurling it down and stomping the screen, but I can’t help it.
My only connection to the world, obliterated before my eyes.
I suck my bleeding lip, staring at the smashed glass and metal bits.
His gun never flinches, so ready to end my life in a heartbeat. I slump against the floor, shivering and cold.
I look back up at him, replaying his sinister words.
“Part of what? What did I do to you?” I whisper bitterly.
“Don’t play dumb with me. You can’t be that stupid.”
“What… what’s this about? Money? Is that it? Because I have that. If you’ll forget about me and Kane, I can fork over whatever you want. I know about crypto, you can have it in a few hours. Totally anonymously. You can go start over on the other side of the world if you just—”
“No! Fuck you and your money.” Suddenly he’s too close, growling in my face, the barrel of the gun biting my cheek with a freezing sting that makes me jump. “I know this is news to a spoiled brat like you, but there’s more to life than the billions you’ve robbed from everyone else. You’re just like him.”
His voice drips hate.
I don’t need to ask.
I don’t dare answer.
I just hold myself as still as I can, willing myself to become a disembodied lump of clay, no different from the little shoes abandoned on the worktable.
When one wrong move could leave you dead, sometimes it’s best not to play at all.
Lee pulls back with a vicious smirk. His face looks like a mask on a mannequin, no one and nothing behind those cruel grey eyes.
I’m just a messy complication to him. Not a sworn enemy.
Just a nuisance he didn’t plan for.
He isn’t even enjoying my horror. He’s sizing me up, calculating how fast he can dispose of me so he can get back to the real mission.
“No wonder you wound up with Kane Saint,” he grinds out.
“We’re not—” I stop because there’s no point in lying. “What does it matter? Why is that so awful?”
“Why do you think, princess?”
Oh my God, Kane.
Kane.
I start shivering. He knows I’m in trouble. The cops might be on their way right now, but between the storm and the madman pointing a gun at my head…
Does it matter?
I swallow more blood reluctantly.
This place is so deep in the ground the walls are probably soundproof. No way anyone hears anything, if I’m still alive by the time they—
Shit.
Shit!
I need to think fast. Delay him from pulling that trigger.
What if the best thing to do is to keep the devil talking?
Listen to his venom, his threats and promises, his deranged grudge against a man who couldn’t have possibly done anything to drive him to violence.
“Why are you here?” I whisper when he takes a few steps away, slowly studying the abandoned art, the small glass door.
Enough space so I can breathe.
“To right a wrong,” he whispers darkly before facing me again.
“What’s wrong? What did Kane do to you?” I shake my head, showing my confusion. “Did you know him in his hockey days?”
“Hockey?” Surprise flashes across his face before that lifeless mask drops again. “He really didn’t tell you, did he?”
“Jesus, no. Please. Help me understand.”
He hesitates, fondling the gun with his free hand before he drops it at his side.
“Kane Saint took my life.” He slides down the wall in front of the stairs, gun held more loosely now but still pointed at me. “As soon as his company launched that fucking software, I was out of a job in months. My clients, ghosting overnight. I had to limp back to the ceramics work I did in college before I ever consulted on a multimillion-dollar home. And no one buys this shit—not nearly enough to keep food on the table, much less live.”
Oh, OptiSynth.
I should’ve guessed.
Because Kane gave me a very good idea how many lives were thrown into turmoil with the corporate betrayal.
Still, I didn’t think too deep. I couldn’t visualize how much it must’ve wrecked good, hardworking, talented people on the ground.
And some of them were clearly unstable.
Neither of us could’ve guessed how deep the damage went.
Yet here it is, all sharp teeth, ready to tear through me, through Kane, through the kids.
I draw in another deep, shaky breath.
It’s all I can do to keep from breaking down on the spot.
“I was at the top of my field,” he whispers, lost in his own mind. “My work won awards. I made homes out of blank slates for rich people like you. Years of service, many awards—and when I had a chance to sign on to a new pilot program in its testing phase that promised to make everything I do faster and better, how could I say no? And even if I had, there was no stopping the inevitable. My career was destined to die. A sacrifice for the gods of AI.”