Page 120 of Lethal Obsession

“Holy shit.” Lars stares at the screen in silence long enough that I start to get nervous.

“I’m not going to lie, motherfucker,” he says finally. “I like this one. I like it a lot.”

“Yeah.” I feel the tingling euphoria I always do in these moments, like standing at a cliff edge, getting ready to jump. “Me, too.”

“I’m going to call it Phantom,” he says absently, still clicking.

“Phantom.” I grin. “I like it.”

“I did think about Specter,” he goes on without looking up. I know he isn’t talking to me, just moving his mouth while his mind races a hundred miles an hour. “But not even your gorgeous ass can compete with Daniel Craig’s 007.”

“I’m wounded.”

“Not as much as you will be after I start poking holes in this bad boy.”

After he’s taken it in, he sits back in his chair and looks at me. “If this is what happens when you get sent to hide on a yacht, I’m fucking making you stay here.”

I huff with silent laughter.

“No.” He leans forward, studying me intently. “I mean it, Lex. This is the big one. It’s your fucking Mercura.”

I nod slowly. “In more ways than one. This has to stay deep in the black, Lars. It’s why I’m building it in the Miami bunker. I want to keep this so deep no fucker can find it unless they’re invited, and so expensive even fewer can afford to pay for the privilege.”

“But we can scale it,” he says, slipping from his stool and starting to pace eagerly. “Make lighter versions for commercial consumption.”

“Exactly.”

I can feel it in front of us, starting to take off, but I’m not quite ready to fly. Not yet. “We need to nail this other shit down first, Lars.”

“Yes,” he says, but he’s still pacing, and I can almost hear his mind whirring at warp speed.

“Lars.” I snap my fingers in his face.

“Huh.” He stops pacing.

“We need to keep it on the hard down-low until the rest of this shit is tied up. We work on it privately and in fucking secret.”

“I get it.” Lars meets my eye directly. “And I get why you didn’t tell me what that server is for. I’m not going to say Mickey wouldn’t be a fucking asset on this.” He grimaces. “But I get why you want to keep it between us. Mickey’s allegiance will always be to Roman, and respectfully, that fucker would come in his pants if he got a sniff of this. It’s right up his alley.”

I nod. I’m almost ashamed of how relieved I feel.

“Wait.” His eyes narrow with unsettling perception. “Tell me you’re not building this just so you can use it to disappear with Ofelia?”

Since that’s almost exactly what I’ve been thinking of, I stay silent.

“Because if it is,” Lars says in an unusually hard tone, “count me out. That girl deserves more than a life on the run with a dangerous fucker like you.”

Don’t you think I know that?

“It’s a moot point for now anyway,” I say, as lightly as I can, “until the servers are built and we actually develop it.” When his grim expression doesn’t change, I give him a wry smile. “I don’t know why you’re so worried,” I say dryly. “Since your voice would just live rent-free in my head, there’s no chance I’d run anywhere without telling you first.”

He studies me for a long moment. Then, reaching for the Akvavit, he pours himself another shot and tosses it off. “You better not,” he says lightly, “or I swear to God I’ll haunt your every line of code.” He downs another shot, turns back to the laptop screen, and just like that, the storm is gone and he’s wired, eyes gleaming once more.

“Oh, motherfucker.” He punches my shoulder then rubs his hands. “This is going to be fun. What’s the next move?”

“We build that server center, completely on the down-low. And while we do that,” I say, feeling almost ridiculously euphoric to have him back and on board, “we unravel this mess and fix it.” I click back into the Compass Initiative screen.

“Boring.” Lars makes a face, but as he follows suit, I can see the determination in his eyes, the suddenly renewed focus. It’s a strange thing, but I’ve always found that having a big idea helps us both deal with the boring shit.