DRAKE
Most days, Olivia barely glanced in my direction. She still worked as my assistant but kept things to professional conversation. We were like two ships passing in the night. All the love she proclaimed to have for me was gone.
She hated me.
I hated me.
How could I blame her?
One night at dinner, she cried into her soup and told me I had killed her brother and ruined her life.
She was right.
My paranoia had gotten the best of me, and so had my nightmares. I didn’t want anyone at the office to see me falling apart. Cole handled things at Battle Industries, while Olivia and I stayed home.
We were safer here.
The men who kidnapped us hadn’t reached out. I hadn’t heard a single word for almost two months. Not even on the dark web. I had alerts set up for whenever anyone mentioned me, Olivia, The Devil’s Knights, Battle Industries, or Lovelace.
Radio silence.
What was the point of putting us through hell?
They got nothing from me.
Was the point to break me?
If so, they succeeded with flying colors. On the outside, I looked the same, but losing my brother changed me. I had plans for Tate and me. Plans that had involved Olivia before all this shit had gone down.
Mark Ruben still hadn’t popped up. He flew to Paris and disappeared off the map. Not a single trace. The Lucaya Group was protecting him from me and The Devil’s Knights. Deep down, I knew that was the reason for his unexplained absence from Titan Tech. His board of directors named his co-founder the interim CEO during his unexplained absence.
To distract myself from all the dark thoughts, I invited Marcello to the house. He wanted to learn more about coding, just in case he had to take my place again. I was the brains of The Devil’s Knights. While I was gone, Marcello had to rely on the limited knowledge he had of my systems.
We sat at a desk in Battle Cave, where I had spent most of my time lately. Some days, I didn’t even leave to eat. The staff—and sometimes Olivia—sent my meals down the elevator.
I preferred it this way.
Hidden beneath the house’s ground level, I clicked a few buttons on the mouse and then tilted the screen for Marcello to see. I had dozens of computers and monitors lining the tops of desks and even more gadgets on shelves.
“If you miss this line,” I said, pointing at the screen, “you’ll get an error.”
Marcello tugged at the ends of his black hair and smirked. “So make sure I don’t miss it. Got it, Battle.”
Having my best friend here made me feel whole again. It would have been Tate if he had lived. He was always by my side and there whenever I needed him.
And now…
He was gone.
Dead.
Because of me.
I refocused my attention on Marcello, trying not to spend too much time harping on the past. “You’re a fast learner. Even Cole hasn’t picked up some of this stuff, and he’s an engineer.”
Marcello flashed a proud grin and sat back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. He had arms like a boxer, strong and thick and bulging from beneath a fitted T-shirt. “I’m proof you don’t need college to do cool shit.”
I laughed for the first time in weeks. Having Marcello here made me feel normal again. Like I could eventually leave my house and start acting like a real person.
