Page 15 of Wicked Heiress

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 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 discussing 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. 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.

“What can I do?” Drake said to me. “I have no choice but to shut her down.”

“But,” I protested, following him to the sectional couch large enough to seat twenty people. “She’s like your child. You don’t have to do that. Tell the board she’s too unstable to go public and keep her for yourself.”

I could see it was killing Drake even to consider turning her off. She ran every aspect of his personal life and business. The AI was like another family member to Drake.

“I tried.” He scrubbed a hand through his dark hair. “Except there’s one small problem. The board has already accepted bids from outside investors. The United States government expects to use Lovelace next year for military operations. And they’re not the only countries interested.”

“What does this have to do with Alex and Grace?”

Drake leaned back on the cushion and tipped the glass to his lips, downing the contents in one gulp. He rested the empty glass on his knee and glanced over at me. “I think The Lucaya Group is using Alex and Grace to distract us. I’m not looking at the real target if I’m busy keeping them safe.”

“I’m sure you’re just being paranoid. Grace’s father is the leader of The Lucaya Group. She’s his target. And Alex is the granddaughter of a Founder. Viktor Romanov would kill to get his hands on the Wellington Black Book.”

Viktor was Grace’s biological father and an ex-KGB officer. It was my job to keep him from finding her.

“We should get Grace and Alex out of Devil’s Creek,” I suggested. “It will give us time to regroup and devise a new plan.”

Drake shook his head. “That’s not an option.”

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