“Pleasestop talking!” Lucian begged just as Oscar trotted down from the top deck.
“There’s a man at the gate, Mr Baxter.”
Henry and Lucian shared a loaded look. Stuffing one more piece of fairy bread into my mouth, I scurried over to the window, expecting to see Henry’s dad causing a scene out there.
But that was not who was waiting with slouched shoulders at the marina gate.
“Dumnezeule, it’s Atlas!”
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
You Found Out
HENRY
“You don’t have to do this, Henry,” Ri murmured, taking my hand as we stood on the upper deck, watching Lucian frisk Atlas and then escort him—roughly—along the jetty.
“I know I don’t. But I think closure might be good for both of us.”
“Does closure involve punching a few of his teeth out and then throwing him overboard?” Ri asked darkly.
“There’s my bloodthirsty wife. Should I hide the champagne flutes in case you decide to act?”
She huffed out a laugh, and I blew out a shaky breath. “Jokes aside … confrontation is not my favourite at the best of times. But I need to ask him why. It’s been playing on my mind. We have so much money, why did he think he needed more?”
“Greed makes people stupid … and criminal,” Ri explained, her voice devoid of emotion. I pulled her closer.
“Chewy!” Atlas barked the moment he appeared at the top of the gangplank. His face was mottled the yellow and green of fading bruises from the ‘conversation’ he’d had with Lucian back on Staghorn. “You fucker! You had to go and send a virus into SynAPPsee’s servers?”
Lucian grabbed him by the elbows, holding him back. He grunted, trying to shake the much larger man off him, but eventually went limp.
“Okay, you big fuck, I’ll behave.”
Lucian looked to me, and I nodded once. He released Atlas.
Heart hammering, I squeezed Ri’s hand for reassurance. “I see you didn’t come to apologise to my wife for holding her at gunpoint.” My voice barely shook, for which I was abundantly grateful.
“She came out the other side with hardly a scratch.” He nodded in Ri’s direction. “Didn’t you, Ri?”
Ri muttered a string of Romanian under her breath. It sounded like, ‘crawl back into your mother’s cunt,’ and I choked on a laugh.
Atlas scowled, eyes returning to me. “You couldn’t just let me have one thing, could you? Couldn’t just share the algo with me and send me off on my merry way. No one would’ve lost out; you’d still be a billionaire running the world’s most popular app, and I could have made a name for myself outside of riding your coattails.”
“By stealing his code!” Ri snarled, her fingers digging into the back of my hand. “Bucata de Rahat!”
“Bless you,” Atlas said with a smirk.
My fist connected with his nose with a crunch.
“Jesus fuck!” Atlas cried, rearing backwards as blood sprayed from his nose.
“Holy shit,” Ri breathed beside me. Lucian surged in, grappling Atlas and wrestling him to his knees. I stared down at my throbbing knuckles.
“Why, Atlas?”
“You broke my fuggin’ nose, and you wantmeto explain myself?” Atlas demanded thickly.
“Answer the question.”
