Her hand flew up to her mouth, stifling a gasp.
I reached out and yanked her toward me, resting my hands on her hips. “I love you, Liv. I mean, I amin lovewith you. And have been for years. From the moment you entered my life, youfilled my world with so much peace, love, and happiness. Before you, I never had that. I just existed.”
More tears streamed down her face, and I was hoping they were tears of joy because I was feeling really vulnerable.
Olivia pressed her lips to my cheek, right on the only spot that wasn’t bruised. “I love you too, Drake. Of course, I do. I think you’ve always known that. Without you, I’d probably be dead. You’re my white knight. My savior. You will always be my hero.”
“I really wish I could kiss you right now.” I held her tighter, but standing for this long weakened my legs too much. “My lips are stinging like crazy. And I don’t want to get blood on you.”
She inched my boxer briefs past my hips and stared at my dick as the material hit the floor. “We can take things slow until you get better. Be careful with the broken ribs. One could puncture your lungs. No sex until you’re healed.”
I rested my chin on her head, needing to be closer to her without re-injuring myself. “Yes, boss.”
CHAPTER 27
DRAKE
For weeks after Tate’s funeral, I moved through life like a zombie, unable to sleep or eat. I drank all the time, taking cat naps between meetings and forgetting to eat for hours, sometimes days, on end. Life without Tate seemed pointless, not worth living anymore.
But I still had Olivia.
Despite her nightmares and random fits of sadness, she put on a brave face. She kept me on schedule, using her job as my assistant to give her purpose. And yet, I still hadn’t had the courage to tell her the full truth. No one knew about the man on the phone.
Mark Ruben was my competitor and the owner of Titan Tech, the same man who approached me at Tech Wars offering to buy Lovelace in an exclusive deal. My mind could have been playing tricks on me in that cave. It was possible I had made the whole thing up, considering I was on the verge of death.
Eight weeks after my kidnapping, I still hadn’t found a connection to Mark Ruben and The Lucaya Group. But then, one night, the alarm sounded over the speakers in the Battle Cave.
“Master Battle,” Lovelace said in a tone that sounded very similar to Olivia, all by design. “I have found documents on thedark web containing unsettling information about Mark Ruben. Would you like me to send them to your phone?”
“No.” I rose from the couch and crossed the room in a hurry. “Send them to my computer.”
“Yes, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Scan the documents and search for any links to Battle Industries, The Devil’s Knights, and The Lucaya Group.”
“As you wish,” she said, and then went silent.
I’d set up the alert on the off chance I was right about Mark. He was a snake and desperate for my code. And after I turned him down at Tech Wars, he made it crystal clear he would get his hands on Lovelace one way or another. But his plan backfired. The cave had collapsed because of The Devil’s Knights working in tandem with Alpha Command to get us out.
With Olivia upstairs, I had privacy in the Battle Cave and sat in front of one of the many computer monitors. My heart thumped in my chest, nervous anticipation clawing at my insides.
Leaning forward in my chair, my fingers flew across the keyboard as I accessed the information. Lovelace laid out every conversation between members of known criminal organizations and Mark Ruben. He was smart enough to cover his tracks, but the hackers and corrupt assholes who worked for Mark left a small footprint that I could trace back to them.
“I located several transactions on the dark web,” Lovelace announced, then flashed the information on the screen. “Mark Ruben has made several crypto payments to The Lucaya Group totaling twenty million dollars. There are also mentions of Battle Industries, including copies of your schedule the day of Tech Wars.”
As I combed through dozens of documents, my eyes widened in shock at the disgusting corruption of my competitor. The information didn’t spell outMark Ruben kidnapped you andkilled Tate Maxwell, but it wasn’t hard for me to connect the dots.
“That dirty motherfucker,” I hissed through clenched teeth.
My first instinct was the call Tate. He was my right-hand man, the person I trusted most apart from Olivia. But when I swiveled my chair to where he should have been sitting, my heart sank to the floor.
Tate was gone.
Never coming back.
He wasn’t here for me to strategize, nor would I ever get the chance to ask for his opinion. Tears clouded my vision, making it harder for me to see the screen when Lovelace added another screenshot beside the open windows.
“Master Battle, I also found this.”
