Page 57 of Lying Lainey

Halstead nuzzled into the crook of my neck and pressed a kiss there. “Good, I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I wanted to spoil you but didn’t want you feeling bad about gorging on something sweet.”

“How did you even find this palace?” I asked, looking around to see if there was a town or any sign of a populated area.

“When I was first developing Enigma, I actually had a friend who I thought was going to be a business partner with me. He was brilliant at the average user viewpoint and integration, while I was the coder and mastermind of keeping it all secure. My mom had her identity stolen, and it was hell on her for years. She’d wanted to buy a new car for herself when I was still in high school. My mother worked and saved to put down a down payment on her first brand-new vehicle but couldn’t since someone trashed her credit and took out all these loans under her name. Even now that she’s passed, I still get calls about shit that this other person did under her identification number. You could say that’s what pushed me to make security such a big priority for me.

“Anyway, this friend and I worked together on a project for college which, in essence, created the foundation for Enigma. Although it wasn’t called that back then, but that’s not really important to the story. We were so close to getting things off the ground when he told me that he’d trademarked the name we were going to use, found another business partner that would better fit where he envisioned the company going, and cut me out of all of it. I was devastated that everything I’d slaved over was gone in the blink of an eye, just like that,” he said, snapping his fingers.

“Holy fuck, I would have murdered the bastard,” I yelled, jerking upright from the lounged position I’d been in against this chest. “How the hell did he manage to get away with all that? If you both worked on things having an equal share in the concept, he never should’ve been able to pull that off.”

“Oh, trust me, I was furious, and one of the only ways I knew to calm my temper was to take a drive. If I hadn’t done that, I might have actually beaten the man to death, but that would have done nothing to solve the problem since he’d put everything in his name as well as his new partner’s. Come to find out, it was a group of three other men who’d become his pack, and they were all wealthy sons of influential people, which is also how he managed to slip past all the rules that should have prevented it from happening,” Halstead explained.

“So you just drove for who knows how long and ended up here?” I pressed.

He made the hand motion for ‘kind of’ as he made an undecided noise. “I guess you could say that, but the reason I stopped is because I’d driven for two hours and needed to piss and get a fucking drink. The drive hadn’t been planned, so I had nothing with me. The Tiki-Tiki Room was the first thing I found since I left the city, so I stopped. That place has all kinds of weird random things to eat and drink, always changing and evolving, except for these two things. Well, the flavor of the coconut water changes as does the fruit to what’s in season, but you get my point.

“So here I was pissed off, tired, thirsty, my bladder about to explode, and I found this random tiki hut. Like anyone else, I stopped and took care of things, got a drink, and dropped onto the sand, trying to figure out what the hell to do with my life. It was then I realized this backstabbing asshole never had access to my security software or anything linked to it since it was my area to run. Eventually, we would have combined them, but at that point in the business, it was two halves of a whole… his intellectual property and mine. That was the only thing that saved me from complete and utter failure. Thanks to this place and allowing myself to simply take a moment to breathe and let my mind settle, I am where I am today.”

“What about the other guy? Was he successful too, or did he crash and burn?” I inquired, then started to shovel the dessert into my mouth since it was melting.

Halstead rested his head against mine and let out a heavy sigh. “The other guy was Reuben Watts, founder and CEO of Cyclone Software.”

The shock of that information made me speechless, unable to even finish swallowing the bite of fruit in my mouth.

“From what I can tell, he’s doing just fine,” he commented. “Well, except when he runs into a problem and has to come to my company and another person he’s fucked over to fix it.”

Gulping down the bite, I grabbed the coconut water before I started to choke on what I’d just swallowed before speaking, “Wow, does that guy have some balls daring to come to you after doing bullshit like that?”

“Yes, bullshit, indeed, but you see, in his eyes, I’m doing just fine and shouldn’t need to hold a grudge about anything since it worked out in the end. He got his company, and I still managed to make mine happen without him. Now we are both at the top of the food chain for what we do as individuals,” Halstead reasoned.

After that realization, we both fell silent and enjoyed each other’s company as we finished the dessert. Once it was gone, we collected everything and started to head back to the car. Noticing that the sun was beginning to set, it was clear to me I had no sense of how long since we’d left the house.

“What time is it?” I asked once we were both seated in the vehicle.

Halstead glanced at his watch. “Half past four. We should be home before it gets dark and in time for dinner.”

“What? We’re two hours away from the house?” I exclaimed, gawking at him.

“Yeah… did you not realize how long we were driving?” he asked with a smirk. “I knew you were zenned out, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”

“Clearly, I needed this more than I thought,” I mumbled, rubbing my forehead with my hand, trying to rationalize how I lost two hours that easily. “Wait, do the others know where we are?”

“No, I kidnapped you and left them to wonder what might have happened to us,” Halstead said dryly as he started the car. “Don’t worry. I texted them that we were making an impromptu trip to the tiki place.”

The relief I felt knowing they didn’t think we’d disappeared or run off was immense, and I didn’t know how to feel about that. This whole thing was quickly spiraling out of control, and I had no idea how to slow things down.

When we arrived at the house and rejoined the guys, they were relaxing in the second-floor living room watching a movie. Neither of them seemed bothered at the fact Halstead and I had spent most of the day together. In fact, they were super curious about the tiki place as they called it.

“H won’t ever take us there. He says it’s his spot to deal with shit, and he can’t do that if we’re there,” Kerian informed me.

I glanced at the grumpy bear who’d made me promise not to tell them too much about the place. This was a much bigger deal than I realized for him to have taken me out there and shared the experience.

“Look, Quin has his solarium we don’t go to unless invited, you have your dance classes, and I have the tiki place. Everyone needs their thing or place to themselves… it’s what keeps our relationship so healthy. No one wants to be needed all the time or the sole source of their happiness day in and day out,” Halstead said in his defense.

“Are you two hungry? Ruth messaged me about five minutes ago to let us know dinner was ready, but there was no rush since she left it warming in the oven,” Quintin shared.

“I have an idea,” Kerian announced. “Why don’t we do dinner up here so we can eat and watch a movie or two?”

“Yes,” I cheered. “That sounds like an amazing idea. We had a snack, but I’m ready for some real food.”