“Knock, knock, Gwendolyn.” It started walking toward me, dropping the plastic gloves it was holding.
“Cozy robot, power down now.” I repeated the command, and it still didn’t.
Its hands lifted in the air just as its knees bent, ready to jump and strike. Without thought, I lifted my hands and melted the robot down. Whatever happened to it was not repairable right now without danger. I’d need to examine the others that hadn’t been a threat to people physically.
“Something tells me this is not going to be a good day.” Pops looked down at the melted parts on the ground. I hoped it wasn’t hard for him, seeing that. Technically, I could do the same to him. But I wouldn’t. Pops was my best friend. He and Cora both, I needed them in my life forever.
I cleaned up the mess of the melted robot, and we left the closet to go check out the others.
After an hour of investigating through so much coding and software, I’d found the problem. A virus.
Someone had given my robots a virus, making them behave unpredictably. I was being sabotaged, and there was only one logical explanation for it.
Terratrex.
Three hours later, I’d removed the virus from all my robots, and the people had agreed to try again with them. They’d been so much help before, and the patients remembered that. I’d be given one more shot. If anything happened with them again, my robots would be done for. I wished I knew how they could have infected all of them—it seemed impossible unless they did it individually.
I called Phillip to let him know what happened and heard a string of curses on the other line. Terratrex was fucking up more than the earth.
“Are you positive it’s them?” he asked, his voice was tense.
I shook my head no even though he couldn’t see me.
“No, but there is no one else I could think of that would do this. They were probably planning to swoop in with their robots and win people over.” I was so angry about the virus in my robot.
“Okay, I’ll handle this. And, Gwendolyn—whatever you do, do not engage Bradly if he comes by to talk to you, okay? Very important.”
“Yeah, sure.” It was a weird demand from him, but I could agree to it easily. I didn’t really want to talk to Bradly, especially since he worked for Terratrex now and they were messing everything up.
We hung up, and I suddenly felt exhausted. My mind and body were just tired from the past twenty-four hours. So much had been happening, and I wasn’t used to it. Action, romance, and mystery. I was used to simple and easy routine.
On our drive over to Arthur’s house, I thought about how complicated my life was getting. I had survived it so far. I guess it would take some getting used to, but my track record so far of handling change had been all right. I wasn’t dead yet, so I could handle some more. Maybe even tell Arthur how I felt.
Maybe.
Pops and Cora were excited to be going to Arthur’s warehouse; there was so much to see, and then of course there was Teddy, too.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Arthur
I’d been doing nothing but art since leaving Gwendolyn’s house after our night together. It was by far the best night of my life. Then things started getting weird. Gwendolyn seemed to have shut down before I left and then had a meltdown. I wished she would have told me it was happening, so I could have been there for her. She just needed to see that things were fine, and that I was sticking around.
At least I hoped that was what she needed. Ultimately, she could decide that this whole being-with-someone thing wasn’t working for her. So, it was my job to keep her happy with me as best as I could possibly accomplish that.
A knock on my door made me perk up and grin, thinking about the woman on the other side.
“Welcome.” I opened the door for them to come in. Gwendolyn looked like she’d been lost in thought, but when she saw me, a beautiful smile graced her pink lips. That smile gave me hope.
Pops gave me a fist bump as they passed me, and Cora hopped down to the ground to investigate, like the curious dragon she was. I’m sure the little asshole and Cora would have fun together.
“You’re gonna have to give me the tour since I haven’t had the pleasure of really seeing your place yet.” She stopped to look around. Thankfully, the little asshole and I had been tidying things up, so she should be okay in here.
“It’s so colorful,” she commented. I walked over, slowly intertwining her fingers in mine. She looked down at the touch then her gaze slowly traveled up my body before landing on my eyes. I lifted her hand up to my lips and kissed it gently. Her skin was cold from the chilly winter weather.
“Thank you for coming over.” Her skin vibrated slightly from my murmur of thanks.
She nodded and then her gaze moved back to the room. With my hand and hers still together, I gave her a tour of my warehouse.
