That didn’t happen. He looked at her with a mix of pity and disappointment.
“You're lying.” She didn’t mean it. But to believe him meant... Well, it meant another giant problem for her to deal with. She pushed up off the couch and started to pace.
“I’m not. It was Tremaine model SSB-2103-12.” His voice was quiet, almost gentle as her world blew to smithereens. Again.
“We don’t sell defective products. It’s a fluke. Maybe even a knockoff. Did they buy it on the black market?” This couldn’t be happening.
His expression shuttered. “Your company isn’t infallible, Portia. Look at this mess with Vyne.”
Portia stopped mid-pace. She opened her mouth to argue... but he was right. Thanks to her father—and potentially every family member before him—the Tremaine Corporation had skeletons in a lot of closets.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”
Aleks pushed off the couch and stepped in front of her. “I was mad for a long time. Mad at the Solveigs. Mad at the implant. Mad at the Tremaine Corporation. Mad at life in general.” He sighed. “But signing up for the program was my decision and I’ve accepted that. So, it’s not your fault. Yes, it’s a Tremaine product,” he said when she started to argue, “but you aren’t personally responsible for it.”
She started to protest again and he laid a gentle finger against her lips. “Did you design the product?”
She shook her head. Her lips brushed against his fingers.
“Did you build it with your own two hands?”
Holding his gaze, she shook her head again.
“Would you have sold it if you had known there was an issue?”
She shook her head vehemently. Grabbing his wrist, she pulled his hand away from her mouth. “No, never.”
“Then it’s not your fault.”
Although she couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt—her family had caused him harm!—she slowly nodded. She wanted to rush back to the office and discover more about it, but she also didn’t want to leave him when he’d made himself so vulnerable.
Using the wrist she’d captured as leverage, she pulled him back to the couch. She sat on one end and tugged him down with her. “What did your family think when you signed up for the program?”
He jerked back. That obviously wasn’t what he’d been expecting her to ask.
“All my life I’d intended to go into the Solveig Consortium’s security service,” he finally said. “My father was a military man. My grandfather, too, back when they were national forces, not corporate.”
Portia nodded. She knew all about familial expectations. “Did you want the implant?” She wanted to understand why he’d accepted it.
Shoulders stiff, he shrugged. “It was supposed to make me stronger. Increase my reflexes. Make me a better soldier.” Aleks tugged his hand free. He was withdrawing into himself and she couldn’t do anything to stop it. “Why wouldn’t I want that?”
“It was assigned to 30 percent of the new recruits, all tested for compatibility when we signed up. There shouldn’t have been any problems.” His voice caught onshouldn’t. “The implant sent me into seizures just hours after the surgery.”
“Oh, Aleks, that must have been terrifying.” Her heart ached at the thought of him hurt because of her family.
“At first, the doctors thought the seizures were a fluke, but they happened a few more times over the next several days. Then, suddenly, they stopped.”
“And you’ve never had them again?” What would she have done if he’d had a seizure last night?
“Headaches are the only side effects now. The only physical side effects,” he corrected. “According to the implant’s documentation, the increased reflexes should have been obvious after a week. The doctors and my command had designed tests to put our new skills through their paces. I failed every single one. Man, I got my ass kicked.” He laughed.
Portia didn’t understand how he could find humor in something like that. “Did the increased reflexes ever develop?” She’d seen him in action taking down the drone. Surely, they must have.
“Not to the level promised,” he said after a long moment.
“So, you’re just... normal?” She couldn’t think of a better way to phrase it.
“Normal? Even if I knew what the fuck that was, I wouldn’t say that.” He stared at her. “Whatever the implant did to my brain, it’s definitely not normal. It rewired it somehow. I make connections faster.”
