I frowned. “What about him?” He was dead, so he was off my list of things to worry about. My focus was on taking down that AI system, not on the others, whom I’d watched, given that all of them, bar Kessler, had been dealt with—apparently by Killian and something he called a Cave.
“W-What do you know about him?” Robbie asked, voice trembling, his face pale and drawn as if he’d just seen a ghost.
“Um, okay.” I went through everything I could recall. “He was on my watch list when his name came up in connection with Kessler. ADA, involved in trafficking, wrapped up with gangs, using his position to influence trials. Got on the bad side of a drug deal gone wrong and ended up crispy.”
Robbie wriggled and pushed himself back on the sofa, pulling up his legs and wrapping his hands around them. His skin was ashen, lips bloodless, andthere was a fine tremble in his fingers that made my gut twist. He looked as if he might pass out.
“And how much do you know aboutusand Lassiter?”
“‘Us’?”
“Killian, the Cave, Redcars… me.”
The last part,me, was said so quietly, and it dripped with pain. What was I missing? I leaned back in the chair, eyes narrowing. “I know all the names I’d linked to my tracking of Kessler started dropping like flies, including Lassiter. Some arrested. A few… took the suicide way out. Lassiter was killed. Uh… I stopped looking when he died, and my focus was on getting Kessler and his AI separated and for Kessler to end up in jail.”
Robbie nodded, listening intently, his eyes flicking up to meet mine.
“He won’t end up in prison,” Robbie said, and there was no trace of regret in his voice this time. Instead, a cold steel had taken its place.
“I’ll make sure he does—I’ll give evidence, testify, whatever it takes to make sure Kessler’s exposed for every monstrous thing he’s done with that fucking system he stole and bastardized.”
“No, you don’t get it,” Robbie said with carefulwording. “He needs to die.” He tilted his chin, stubborn as hell. “He willdie.”
Was he asking me to kill Kessler? There was fire in Robbie’s eyes—not just anger, but something old and scorched and feral. It made my skin prickle.
“I’m notkillinghim, I want the AI gone, and I want him to pay for what he did but, I’m not a killer?—”
“You don’t need to be. They’ll do it for me.”
“I don’t understand.” My view on Kessler was that justice would be served, that all the things he’d been behind would be exposed.
Robbie’s gaze dropped, and he folded inward a little, arms tightening around his knees. “Did Kessler ever hurt you?” he asked, so quietly I almost missed it.
I blinked at the change in subject, still stuck on the killing part. “Hurt me? He tried. Got all dommy on me, but in a freaky-ass way. But he wasn’t much bigger than me—and fuck if I was going to let him.” I snorted. “He was the type to push things too far, though. Insanely obsessive. A voyeur. You wouldn’t believe some of the shit I found on his computers when I deep-dived—ugh.”
Robbie winced.
“So, youdatedhim?” Robbie changed the subject,and I was getting so damn confused—his questions, the emotion behind them, the way he kept veering away when I thought we were getting somewhere, was weird as fuck.
“Dated? Not really. I mean, I was this computer nerd, and he was already the slick salesman he is today. He bedazzled me for what… maybe three dates, before I punched him in the face. After that, he backed off, and it was mostly code, not fucking.”
I chuckled, but when I glanced back at Robbie, his smile was gone. He was pale, eyes wide and glossy. One tear slipped down his cheek, and it cut the laugh off in my throat.
I panicked.
“Shit. I’ll get Enzo.” I was already half-rising, heart jackhammering. He looked so fragile—his eyes too bright, his hands trembling where he swiped at the tear as if it offended him, and he leaned up to grip my hand.
“No,” he whispered, “I’m okay. I have to do this. You have to know.”
I didn’t believe him, not for a second. But I didn’t call him out either. Instead, I moved from the chair and eased beside him on the sofa, careful not to touch unless he asked for it. I angled myself toward him,folded one leg up to match his posture, and softened my voice.
“Robbie?”
He kept his eyes locked on the floor for a beat, then met my gaze. His expression was open in a way that made my throat constrict—a flash of something raw and broken and trying to keep it all together.
“You want to tell me what just happened?” I asked carefully, even though everything inside me felt as if it was coiled ready to snap at hearing the answer.
His bottom lip quivered, and he bit it. I stayed quiet. Waited. Let him decide.
