Page 2 of Fury In Death

He’d expected the shock, the disbelief, the flurry of questions. And because of Larry’s nature, he’d expected the calming advice to wait. Wait, discuss, find a viable solution to negate the problem.

But Steve knew he couldn’t wait. With his knowledge of the company’s purpose, he certainly couldn’t continue his work to finalize Rainmaker.

Nor could he allow anyone else to continue it. So though it had scored his soul, he’d inserted a virus into the lab’s computer network.

If anyone other than himself tried to access the data, that data—all the data on Rainmaker—would be fatally corrupted.

Without the data, without his four years of work, without him, they’d have nothing.

In the morning, he’d take the story, and the evidence, to the FBI. All of it, including names. The very rich, the powerful, the politicians, and, sadly for him, the fellow scientists.

They might not take his word, but they’d believe the evidence he’d amassed in the last nerve-racking few days.

He disliked the term whistleblower, but he’d damn well blow that whistle.

He stopped pacing when Ari came in.

In the pale glow of Luke’s night-light, she came to him, framed his face in her hands.

“Stop worrying.”

“Can’t.”

“You’re doing the right thing. Honestly, the only thing. We’ve talked it through a thousand times, and I’m proud of you, Steve. Always have been proud of my genius nerd, and even more proud now. They’re bad people. Damn it, evil ones.”

“I should’ve known.”

“You didn’t,” Ari said in the simple, practical way that always soothed him. “Now you do, so you’re doing what’s right. Give that weird and wonderful brain of yours a rest.”

Maybe he couldn’t, but he could smile for her sake. “It’s not that weird.”

“Oh yeah, it is.”

She kissed him, warm lips, soft hands, the baby between them kicking.

“You got one down—he only wanted Mama—but another one’s up and at ’em.”

“She sure is. She wants ice cream.”

“Seriously?”

“She really does. Strawberry Chocolate Ripple.” As the baby kicked again, Ari laughed, circled a hand on her belly. “She’s very serious.”

“I guess I better go get her some.”

She kissed him again, held him another minute. “You’re the best man, the best partner, the best daddy ever.”

He ran a hand over her hair, honeycomb brown and spilling to her shoulders. He knew she’d given him a mission to help take his mind off what he’d do the next morning.

And he loved her for it.

“I couldn’t do any of this without you.”

“You could, and you would. But you don’t have to because you’re never going to be without me. Me, Luke, and I’m back to leaning toward Chloe. Anyway, you’re stuck with us.”

“I like Chloe. I’ll go get conditionally Chloe some ice cream.”

He grabbed his wallet, his phone, pulled on a pair of sneakers.