Drake opened his door and put one foot on the ground. “It’s just me. I’m an only child. My mom lives in London with her boyfriend.”
My jaw dropped. “Seriously? You have this place all to yourself?”
“Not anymore.” He exited the car and tapped the hood when we didn’t move from the cramped seat. “Let’s go, you two. It’s just a house. Nothing to fear.”
Drake stood patiently outside the vehicle. Meanwhile, I was having a minor heart attack.
Tate snorted. “Says the rich asshole.”
“Shhh.” I put my hand over his mouth. “Be nice. He doesn’t have to help us.”
“Come on, Liv. Something’s up with him. A guy like Drake does nothing without a reason.”
“Twenty minutes ago, I thought you were dead. If Drake hadn’t come for us, you would have died from dehydration.”
“I’m doing this for you,” Tate said with sadness in his eyes. “But I don’t trust his motives. He wants something.”
“I don’t care.”
After another tap on the hood, I took that as a sign Drake was losing patience with us and climbed out of the car.
Even after drinking a bottle of water and devouring a candy bar, my head spun from the lack of sleep and food. But at least I had enough energy to walk on my own. I didn’t want Drake carrying me around his house, not when I smelled like an animal.
As we approached the glass doors, they swung open.
The second we entered the foyer, a woman said, “Welcome home, Master Battle.”
I jumped at the sudden intrusion and bumped into Drake’s shoulder. “What the hell is that?”
“Lovelace,” Drake said nonchalantly, as if having some lady greet you when you entered the house was normal. “She’s the artificial intelligence that runs the Battle Fortress. But in the next few years, she’ll be worth more than any supercomputer. Governments and corporations will pay me billions to license her software.”
“Two unidentified subjects, one female and one male, have breached the property,” Lovelace said, her soft voice floating through the speakers. “Do you want me to contact security?”
“No, that won’t be necessary,” Drake said to the computer-generated voice. “Pull data on Tate and Olivia Maxwell and create new profiles. Give them full access.”
“Are you sure, Master Battle? They could override the system.”
Drake turned to look at us. “They won’t.”
He didn’t know us, but for whatever reason, Drake had full confidence even after my brother had given him hell over the past few months.
“Creating profiles for Olivia and Tate Maxwell,” Lovelace announced. “Authorizing new users…”
She continued as Drake walked down the long marble hallway, beckoning us to follow.
I strode beside him on shaky legs but was too proud to ask him to carry me again. “What else can Lovelace do?”
“The real question is what she can’t do?”
Once inside a massive kitchen with cabinets up to the ceiling and a vast island at the center, Drake spun around to face us. “Everything in the house is digital and motion or voice-activated. Lovelace can tell by my footsteps that it’s me. She can read my heart rate, tell me if something is wrong, call for help, and do many other valuable things. Once she’s fully optimized, she will know everything about you.”
I stuffed my hands into my pockets and glanced around the room in awe. “You created her?”
A proud smile tugged at Drake’s full, kissable lips. “She started as a school project during my junior year at MIT. But I decided Lovelace was too valuable to share with the public. I’m keeping her to myself until she’s ready for commercial use.”
Drake was the most intelligent man I’d ever met. He had the brain of a computer and let nothing stop him from reaching his goals. Obstacles were nothing more than roadblocks he moved out of his way. At twenty-one, he was a college graduate, the CEO of a global corporation, and successful beyond my wildest dreams.
Drake opened the refrigerator and removed a container of deli meat. “Do you like hoagies?”
