I chuckled. “Why am I not surprised?”
Her hands spread across my pectorals. “Is this your family crest?” It was a wolf, snarling with my family’s motto across my chest.
“Yes.”
Her fingers traced the letters beneath the tattoo.“Numquam dimittimus, numquam obliviscemur.”She looked up at me. “We never forgive, we never forget?”
“Of course you know Latin, clever girl.”
“Only a bit,” she shrugged. “Tell me more.”
“It’s made sense all my life, but now…” I shook my head. “There are things I can’t seem to reconcile.” Fee looked up at me, her hands running lightly over my ribs, smoothing up my arms.
“Reconcile how?”
I sucked in a deep breath, forcing a smile. “Perhaps another time. Let’s get in bed and watch the coverage of the Canadian dye factory disaster. I understand it made international headlines when they had to evacuate the entire area, especially since it appears the insurance policy on the factory lapsed and it’s a total loss. By the end of the week, we can enjoy the arrest footage of Lynn’s fine Mayor Kennedy and his city council for bribery and extortion.”
“Now, how would the EPA and Massachusetts Attorney General know to issue those warrants?”
“I know your corporate security knowledge is top-notch,” I kissed her cheeks and the tip of her nose, “but I’m looking forward to introducing you to my genius hackers, Terrence and Lucy. You’ll have so much to talk about.”
Her grin was so wide that it showed all her teeth, even that slightly crooked molar.
“I can hardly wait.”
Chapter Nineteen
In which Fee and Alec entertain guests.
Fee…
Since Grandad and Da had gone back to the farm the Davies’ sprawl had been quieter, mostly because Fintan wasn’t there to spend his time insulting Alec, scaring the security, and unsuccessfully flirting with Magda, who I was unable to explain to him probably didn’t like boys and hated all of us because of Noreen.
Most of my time was spent sending encrypted information and funds to my allies anywhere near a property owned by Leevil.There were massive supply disruptions in the Netherlands, employees walk-outs in the Philippines, and an incident involving Nelson Cave spiders in New Zealand that years later would probably be turned into a low budget, ‘based on a true story,’ horror film.
I always remind myself, and anyone else that’s listening, that spiders are an important part of ecosystems from around the world, that their appearance was part of how they evolved to do what they do efficiently, and it wasn’t to be held against them that they were creatures from the deepest nightmares of an uncaring universe.
Alec was doing his own side of things, involving negotiations with different criminal organizations that had invested with Leevil or outright backed some of his businesses that could be used as cover or for money laundering.As I had predicted, he was far dirtier than even the Davies’ organization was preparedfor.
Charles - Alec’s High Priest/personal assistant - was worn ragged, the poor little fella, with moving money and trying to keep up with the demands of Terrence and Lucy.They were in constant need of new computer parts and cases of Celsius Heat, tag teaming each other on who could slag the most of Leevil’s servers. Then they moved on to sending viruses to other companies he did business with, leaving trails that made it look like his systems were the source.
They cackled like sugared up nine-year-olds at a Christmas party and high fived constantly. When they crashed it was going to be heard in space.
Ol’ Lee’s people were exhausting themselves playing and failing at a 24-hour a day game of hacker whack-a-mole and a number of them had quit in frustration, making his corporate interests even less secure.
I hadn’t had such a good time in ages, and I feared it was making me soft. Every now and then I’d be in the study with Alec and he’d look across the room at me from his desk and I’d feel something.
Something above the waist that is, and not nausea. Well, aboveandbelow the waist, and the only way to distract myself from it was a new idea for playing with our buddy Leevil or for the two of us to fuck the stuffing out of each other.
A few days into our funfair of attacks, I was out front of the house to let Noreen take a shit on the street where the locals walked their poor, over-bred fashion victim dogs, when an SUV that could have doubled as a two-family home pulled up. Whatever fossil fuels were left after our jet trip to Massachusetts it had probably used up.
From the drivers’ side Alec’s friend, enemy, some overly complicated boy relationship that was between them, Alastair stepped out. It was interesting to me that thoughhe and Davies looked different, size aside, they both took up the same amount of air.
Godking of a different pantheon, I speculated.
He took off a pair of sunglasses that had cost the price of a month's rent in some parts of the country and looked at me askance, which was friendly compared to the look he gave poor, wee Noreen. “Is that thing going to eat my tires?”
“If I have any say in the matter, yes.”
