“It’s too late,” Tammy said. “Everything’s already in the hands of Ocean’s Select. They’re a non-profit backed by some very passionate, very rich sponsors. We’ve been in talks with them since last year after you directed us to sell all the labs—”
“I said destroy the labs.”
“—and Miami was the last handover. I got an email from one of Ocean’s Select employees about some files that didn’t seem to be related to the coral cloning studies Cessair was funding. I flew out immediately, but they were gone by the time I got there. The employee who met me there claimed they had destroyed the files, but I saw no evidence of that.”
As Tammy spoke, Austin studied Liam. His tempered, muted, dead eyes. His forehead and cheeks, reddened by sunburn. “You were there?”
“Tammy called me.”
Austin’s mouth was dry. He swallowed the acrid taste of a night of binge drinking. The few hours of sleep he’d finally snatched in the B&B hadn’t been enough to soothe anythinggoing on in his head, though it was a rare day that Austin felt genuinely settled in his own skin.
“I don’t remember Florida,” Austin said.
Tammy stood abruptly. “I’ll get fresh coffee.”
Liam waited until she had become a shadow on the far side of the bar. “You were never in any lab but the one here. Samples might have been sent for analysis, but you were never there in person.”
Austin remembered the mansion in Los Angeles, the enormous cabin in the Colorado mountains, the penthouse in New York City. He’d been stowed away at the edge of Cessair’s life, the man unwilling to let him too far out of sight. He’d fly back to Ireland every few weeks so the labs could take fresh samples. Usually the labs and the tests were preferable to being alone with Cessair, listening to him rant and rave, trapped within striking distance of his passionate cruelty.
“And Connor?”
“I don’t know if there’s anything about him.”
“Find out!”
Liam winced, rubbing that ear again.
“There’s no way to find out. Everything about the two of you is gone apart from those physical files. I’m only guessing that samples were sent.”
Austin’s body shook. “I said to destroy the labs.”
Liam grimaced, head cocking fully to the side.
“Stopdoingthat! I’m not shouting.”
“No,” Liam agreed. “But you’re making me feel like I need to jump off a cliff for upsetting you. Your voice is…” He made a vague gesture with his hand.
Nobody in the world knew what Austin’s voice was. He made an agitated, irritated effort to soften himself. He exhaled long and steady, then inhaled just as slowly. He relaxed hisshoulders, his spine, his throat. The whirlpool of fear slowed, the rising energy within him settling.
“That wasn’t on purpose,” Austin muttered, realising only as he regained control that he’d lost it in the first place.
Relief filled Liam’s eyes. “I know.”
“Don’t jump off a cliff,” Austin added.
Sometimes when Austin talked to people, they ended up doing things they never would have dreamed of just to please him. Austin didn’t intend it. But things happened. People warped.
“Do I need to go after Tammy?”
Across the bar, she’d moved next to a lamp and was tapping industriously on her phone. It hadn’t stopped ringing since she’d sat down. Charity executive, he remembered. She wanted to spearhead the renewal of the charitable programmes that had been dismantled when Cessair had inherited the company from his father.She’s saving the polar bears,Austin thought.With my money.
Liam followed his gaze. “She’s fine.”
Austin pulled the nearest open file towards himself. Email correspondence detailed threats of legal action in Tammy’s acid tongue, unleashed on dozens of higher-ups from Ocean’s Select, followed by an actual lawsuit. All the responses from Ocean’s Select were variations of “I have no knowledge of this” and “Let me find out for you”. A string of messages listed an army of private investigators being hired and mobilised to retrieve the files.
Liam pushed a basket of buttered toast towards him. Austin mindlessly munched through two slices as he read. Tammy returned with three mugs of coffee, apologising because the pub only had instant.
Food in his stomach and caffeine in his system revived Austin further. Liam’s placid facade cracked when he sipped his.
