Page 121 of Succumbed

“Forgive me,” Lex says, putting her hand to her heart briefly. “Shane, please meet Nate and Reginald Livingston. Gentlemen, this is Shane Kelly, lead engineer at Solum Technologies.”

Acting as though Lex didn’t speak, Reginald harrumphs. “Nathaniel, I must insist we go.”

“Shane, it’s good to meet you. You’re the one who led the R&D for Terra?” Nate turns to me, ignoring his father completely.

Reginald’s cheeks redden as he sputters.

“I am.”

“Yesterday, you mentioned heat and wind in your presentation–”

“Not this again,” the elder Livingston barks. “There’s no use in talking to them about any of this, Nathaniel. The deal is done and the tests are sound.”

My gaze narrows. “What deal?”

“None of your concern, boy.”

What an absolute asshat. I glance at Lex, a few pieces of her story falling into place.

“Reginald.” Lex’s tone is firm and full of warning. It isn’t lost on me that she doesn’t protest his crass regard toward her or Nate, but the second he lashed out at me, she was quick to admonish him.

“With the State–” Nate starts, Reginald spluttering and attempting to interrupt.

I hold up a hand to silence him, keeping my focus on Nate. “You won the deal for the schools?”

“We did,” he confirms. “In the presentation yesterday, your CEO mentioned concerns with test results involving high heat and wind.”

“That’s right. We only recently found the right combination of form factor and organic composition to solve for them.” My eyes flick from Lex to her brother. “Has Greenstar changed the formula they bought from Anne-Marie?”

Nate’s lips purse. “Nothing significant. But the test results we have don’t show any issues.”

“Nathaniel, it is highly inappropriate to be sharing any of this with a competitor.” Reginald tries to physically insert himself into the conversation, moving to step between me and Nate.

“We’re not a competitor,” I snap, holding an arm out to keep him at bay. “Greenstar is peddling our stolen tech, and a flawed version at that. If you plan to build schools with it, you’re as criminal as you are foolish.”

“Excuse me?!” Reginald booms.

He’s loud enough to pull the attention of the people around us, confused expressions flitting before landing on our small group to watch.

“Maybe we should–” Nate starts, looking around as though seeking a more private place for us to continue the conversation.

“Shane’s right,” Lex insists, her gaze hard on her father. “This issue is bigger than intellectual property theft. Fulfilling that contract without serious changes to the product is dangerous.”

“Watch your tongue, Alexandra. You will not talk down to me.”

While he oscillated from blustering to dismissive before, Reginald’s demeanor turns icy and threatening when he confronts Lex. His eyes narrow, mouth turned down at the corners. As I watch him face off with the woman who was arguably more successful than he’d ever be, I realize something. Reginald Livingston sees his daughter as a massive fucking threat. Maybe he’s not a complete idiot.

To her credit, Lex just stares back at him impassively. “That look might’ve worked when I was a child, Reginald, but it has no effect now. I don’t know how you operate things at Price, but at Athena we put the safety and good of the community before all else.”

Reginald’s eye twitch as she references his company by his partner’s name. I attempt to fight a grin. Fucking savage.

“I’m not sure what you’re implying–”

“I’ll spell it out for you, then, shall I?” Her head tilts predatorily, making my blood sing. She’s a goddamn queen amongst peasants.

“If, knowing what you know, you don’t counsel Greenstar to reconsider their deal with the State, you’ll not only be grossly negligent, you’ll be criminally liable. Now, you never let me know much about what was happening at Price, but I assume the legal team and board are both still fiercely conservative when it comes to risk? You know, since the argument about dying children doesn’t do it for you.”

“You little bitch, how dare–”

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