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“Master Battle will see you now,” Lovelace said.
The elevator light turned green, and when I hit the button this time, the car opened to allow me inside.
Dammit, Drake.
Pain in my ass.
I cursed him all the way down to the secret lab he called many things. The Battle Cave. The Fortress of Solitude. My cousin was a nerd at heart and loved his comics.
When the doors opened, I exited the elevator and almost ran into a disheveled Drake.
“Jesus,” I muttered, studying his appearance. “You look like shit. When was the last time you shaved or showered?”
He scrubbed a hand across the dark stubble on his jaw, thinking over my question. “I don’t know. I lost count after a few days.”
He was serious.
I followed him into the room several floors beneath the house, built on the same level as the catacombs but not connected to them. My cousin wanted this place to have no exit points other than the ground floor.
Or so he said.
He would not spend this much time in a room with only one exit. So wherever the secret door was hidden, I didn’t know its location. One of many mysteries my cousin kept to himself.
“What’s the emergency?” Drake asked as he poured scotch into a highball glass.
I took the bottle from his hand. “The sun isn’t even up yet, Drake. What the fuck is going on with you? Have you become an alcoholic since the last time I saw you?”
“No.” He sighed, tugging at the ends of his hair that needed a cut and wash. Strands hung in front of his brown eyes, at least five inches longer than usual. “I’ve been under a lot of stress, Cole. I don’t expect you to understand.”
“Talk to me.” I grabbed his wrist before he tried to walk away. “You can tell me anything, Drake.”
“There’s a reason I couldn’t get the Il Circo website shut down,” he confessed, his words slurred from drinking so much. He smelled like he fell asleep inside a copper whiskey still and went through the distillation process. “It’s my fault that Alex got kidnapped and taken to the island.”
I guided him over to the couch and sat beside him. “What are you talking about?”
He looked as if he were seconds from collapsing, leaning to the side, using the cushion for support. Stripped down to black boxers and dress socks, he wore a Superman T-shirt beneath an open white oxford. A red tie hung loosely around his neck, so I figured he was wearing a suit at some point.
I’d never seen him like this.
“Drake.” I snapped my fingers as his eyes closed. “Don’t fall asleep on me. Not after saying shit like that. What did you do?”
His eyelids fluttered. “I tried to get fancy. I thought I could out hack a hacker who goes by the name of Maverick. He runs the site for the owners of Il Circo.”
“Wait, you knew all along?”
He bobbed his head. “You don’t understand, Cole. Maverick is a ghost, a legend. I came across him on the Dark Web in high school. He’s the reason I became a hacker.”
“Yeah, but you’re not black hat.”
“I wasn’t at the start,” he confirmed. “I mostly stole porn, movies, and dumb shit to see if I could. But those days are over. The things I’ve done for The Devil’s Knights crossed lines I never wanted to cross. I have broken so many laws I’d probably be in jail if not for The Founders.” Drake scooted closer to me, looking more awake than before. “I didn’t know I was going up against Maverick. Not at first.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Not until I saw his signature.”
“What happened?”
“I tried to shut down the site, just like I told Luca and The Knights. But I wasn’t fast enough. I didn’t think like him. He was ten steps ahead.” Drake groaned, once again pulling on his hair at the memory. “He skull fucked my entire system. When I said my board of directors leaked the demo of Lovelace, I lied. It was Maverick. He was only on my network for ten seconds before I locked him out, but it was enough time for him to get information.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah,” he whispered. “Fuck.”
