He shoves Ric away and he nearly stumbles with the force of it. More than a few eyes are looking at us and our disturbance, though there are equal parts plenty who are ignoring us in exchange for their own pleasantries, but Dagen doesn’t seem to care. He turns to me and lifts his mask up, then he carefully does the same to mine.
“What are you?—”
He tugs me harshly against him and presses his lips to mine in a deep, sensual kiss that rocks my world. There’s a hum in the air around us in reaction, thrilled at the games being played right in front of them, but no one acknowledges it out loud. When he pulls back and drops both our masks into place again, only then does he look at Ric where he still stands, red faced and furious.
“You’re going to pay for that,” Ric snarls.
Dagen smirks, enjoying the game far too much. “We’ll see.”
Ric spins and disappears into the crowd in the direction of the stage where, I assume, he’s going to be giving that speech he’d probably practiced for the last two weeks. A screen starts dropping in preparation for the speeches, an accompaniment intended for those with PowerPoints. Aria Tech is only the first of many talks this evening, ranging from the newest algorithms to all new servers to facial tracking technology. There will be deals made in the shadows, mergers arranged, companies bought out, tech stolen here. These kinds of events have the worst of the worst and the best of the best in attendance. It’s best not to expect too many morals from this room. I should have known better before I married Ric, but I’d been foolish. I’m not young and dumb any longer.
“What was that for?” I ask Dagen breathlessly, looking up at him after Ric disappears.
“My amusement,” he laughs. “Besides, I’ve been wanting to do that all night. He just gave me an excuse.”
A woman steps up to the mic and taps it, drawing everyone’s attention to the stage before I can chastise him for instigating.
“Show time,” Dagen whispers, grinning at me. He leads me closer to the stage along with everyone else as we prepare for the talks. Everyone else is likely moving closer to see new tech, but us? We’re here to see the real show.
“Attention, everyone,” the woman says in a very nasally, clearly faked voice. She’s dripping in diamonds and furs despite the temperature outside being too hot for the large fuzzy shawl. “We’re here for one reason and one reason only,” she says, smiling primly. “To lose ourselves to debauchery.” A few whistles go through the crowd as she giggles and shakes her head. “I’m joking. Don’t be so stuffy, Gilroy,” she says to a man at the front of the crowd. She wraps her long fingers around the mic. “We’re here to celebrate the newest technology available in the industry and make loads of money. We have a few speeches from the top tech companies this year, and by top, I mean the most profitable, of course. Listen up and maybe you’ll find a new partner this year.” She gestures to the screen where the logo for Aria Tech pops up. “First up, we have Ricardo McCoy, the COO of Aria Tech, here to talk about their new algorithm they’re launching this year. I hear it’s available for purchase,” she sings before putting the mic back in the stand.
I snort. Yeah, I don’t think that program will be launching this year like Ric had promised, not when it’s in the process of being integrated with Fox Industries’ newest security system.
A round of halfhearted, drunken applause goes through the crowd as I watch Ric climb the stairs and take the stage. His eyes immediately find me in the crowd and hold before he hits a button at the podium and the background changes to a title page. Someone at his company must have prepared it because I know Ric hates PowerPoints. I had to make plenty of them for him while we’d been together. I wonder if this one will talk about the program his company no longer has the ability to launch or something else.
“It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you for that kind welcome,” he says. “First off, I’d like to thank?—”
The screen behind him statics and his mic cuts off so fast, I almost forget why we’re here and stare around surprised with everyone else. Ric frowns as he turns to look behind him trying to figure out what happened. The screen shows black and white static, before it flickers to colored squares and back to static.
“We couldn’t get quality projectors here or what?” Ric sneers loudly, shaking his head. “What the hell is going on?”
The screen flickers again and then a countdown pops up. The numbers are like the old movies, gray and fuzzy as it counts down from five to one. The screen opens with an image of Ric very clearly in a club. A video that starts to move as soon as it loads.
“Fred won’t ever see the money skimmed off the top,” Ric laughs in the video, the sounds echoing in the silence of the large ballroom. “Old fool trusts me.” The screen changes again and shows him in a different setting, a restaurant, a grin on his face, a woman on his arm. I can tell by the color of his shirt that he was with me at the time. That’s a shirt I bought him. “Yeah, we can strip the code from that program, and no one will be the wiser. Should be easy. We can launch it before they ever get it to market, steal it out from underneath them. No, they won’t notice. . .”
“What the fuck is going on?” Ric asks, panicked. “Shut it down!”
“No,” a few people call from the crowd. “Leave it up.”
Ric snarls and tries to rip down the screen, but he’s either not strong enough or the screen is made of some kind of tough material that he’s unable to loosen. He frantically looks around for something else to cut it up with, finds nothing, and tries to cover it with his body. It doesn’t work.
The screen continues to flip through videos and text messages, emails even, before it lands on bank statements. The only thing omitted is the account number, but Ric’s name is right there, the fool that he is. He didn’t even try to have some umbrella corporation to hide them with. It flickers through every moment of embezzlement, every theft from other companies he’s worked with, people that are here in this room right now, people that don’t look nearly as thrilled as we do. The original amusement from the crowd shifts into something different.
Anger. Feral, brutal anger.
Ric’s eyes meet mine in the crowd again, and something in me wants to brag, wants him to be angry with me. I push my mask up over my head and meet his eyes, and then, because I want to be an asshole after everything he did to me, I wink, confirming what he’d already suspected.
It was us.
He absolutely loses his shit.
“I’m going to destroy you,” he snarls in fury and leaps off the stage.
Ric cuts through the crowd at record speed, forcing people out of the way as he rushes toward me. I don’t move despite my fear, mostly because Dagen doesn’t. If he doesn’t think I’m in danger, then I’m not. I’m not even surprised when Wylan appears in front of us out of nowhere before Ric can reach me. His hand presses against Ric’s chest to stop him from getting any closer.
“I suggest you stop right there,” Wylan warns, his voice deep and imposing, “mate.”
The room is so quiet, my breaths sound like gunshots in my ears as I stare at the man I spent way too long being a punching bag for. I hate that it’s come to this, but if this is who I have to be to keep Elsie safe, then so be it. I tip up my chin, letting the message be heard loud and clear.
