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“I miss him,” I confessed. “We’ve never been apart for this long. But I also enjoy having some freedom. This is the first time in my life that no one expects anything from me. I can hang out by the pool and stay up late watching movies with you. It’s nice.” A grin split my face in half. “This is the best summer I’ve ever had. Thank you, Cole.”
He returned my expression. “How about we get out of here, so you can drink your first beer?”
ChapterSix
COLE
As I approached the Battle Fortress, the front doors swung open for me. “Welcome back, Mr. Marshall,” Lovelace said, her voice soft and without much of an accent. “Your heart rate is slightly elevated. Are you upset?”
You didn’t need to touch anything in the house. Everything was digital, motion or voice activated. Lovelace could tell by my footsteps alone it was me. She knew everything about me. Drake had encoded all of The Knights’ traits into the system, so she would sense us immediately and be able to communicate effectively.
“No,” I told Lovelace. “I’m just worried about something. That’s all.”
I always worried about Grace. She was my number one priority.
Tate Maxwell pushed off the wall and greeted me with a firm handshake. “Hey, Cole. I hope you can talk some sense into your cousin. He hasn’t come up from the basement since last night. We’re worried about him.”
Tate and his younger sister Olivia worked for Drake. Olivia was his assistant, and Tate was the head of security. They were foster kids, starving and desperate for a place to live when Drake found them in high school. His mom often joked that he liked to bring home strays. But they became family, especially after his dad passed away.
Drake emerged from the basement, his clothes wrinkled and dark hair a mess, longer than usual and hanging in his eyes. My cousin was a big comic book nerd. He usually wore a Marvel or DC Comics T-shirt under his suit. Today, I could see a black Spider-Man shirt through his white oxford.
“He’s alive,” Tate joked, smacking Drake on the back. “I can’t effectively do my job if you use Lovelace to keep me away from you.”
“No one can reach me that far underground,” Drake said with a forced smile. “The Battle Cave is the safest place on the property.”
“Not the point,” Tate said in a clipped tone. “Liv has been fussing about you all day. She’s even prepared your favorite meal. So you better eat with us. No excuses.”
“Okay.” Drake gave him a look of defeat. “I need ten minutes alone with Cole, and then we’ll catch up. Promise.” He steered me down the hallway by my shoulder. “Thanks for coming. We need to talk.”
“What’s going on?”
“Lovelace, initiate lockdown sequence,” Drake said on his way to the elevator.
“Yes, Master Battle,” she responded. “Initiating sequence in five, four, three, two, one.”
The front doors locked, and I could hear glass and metal shifting behind me, sealing off the entry from intruders. Someone with Drake’s money and influence could never be too careful.
“I think The Lucaya Group wants more than Grace and Alex.” Drake tapped the button on the wall. “I’ve been monitoring the Dark Web, and there’s a lot of talk about me.”
We got into the elevator.
I cocked a concerned eyebrow at him, and he added, “My board put me in a dangerous position when they asked me to demo Lovelace. Only a handful of people were supposed to see the presentation. But it’s on the Dark Web, and the wrong people are talking about it.”
The elevator stopped several floors beneath the home, depositing us into Drake’s version of the Batcave. There were monitors and screens on every wall. Some even hung from the ceiling.
Drake led me to the bar on the right side of the room. “Lovelace can do a lot more than I told the board. No one knows her true capabilities. I’ve been working on Lovelace for the past ten years in secret. She’s optimized over time.” He grabbed a bottle of scotch, hesitating for a moment. “I never foresaw her becoming so powerful.”
“What are you saying?”
Looking down, he poured two glasses of scotch and slid one to me, breathing hard through his nose. “In the wrong hands, Lovelace is a weapon of mass destruction.”
My eyes widened at his confession. “What are you going to do?”
Before he could respond, Lovelace interrupted us to define a weapon of mass destruction.
Drake took a sip from the glass and sighed. “Lovelace, Night Mode.”
“Goodnight, Master Battle,” she replied before going to sleep.
