Page 305 of Lodestar

Heartburn—this fucking heartburn needed to stop.

Then, he scowled at me. “You’re not doing this because you think you’re going to get caught tomorrow, are you?”

“No. I mean, it’s a possibility, but I know you’ve got everything under control.”

Conor nodded. “Whether or not I was set up at Langley, which makes sense because that code was child’s play, my work is better than ever thanks to you.”

Thanks to you.

His words from earlier rammed their way home again—we don’t compete because there is no competition.

I had been dealing with boys my whole life, just waiting for this man to show up.

The thought settled deep in my being, straight in my soul, and I rasped, “Yeah, we’ve pushed each other to greater heights.”

That made him smile. “We have.”

“And if you think I didn’t know that, you’re nuts because I’d have been all over what you’re working on, and instead, I’m just watching you do it.”

“You trust me.”

I swallowed. “I do.”

The smile lit up his eyes this time. “How hard was that to say on a scale of one—the Erymanthian Boar—to five—the Kalydonian Boar?”

Snorting, I told him, “You’re such a nerd.”

“This shouldn’t come as a surprise by now,” he retorted.

“It was as easy as killing the Erymanthian Boar inAssassin’s Creed,” I mumbled.

“Easy? Hmm. That’s what I like to hear.” His chair squeaked as he rocked. “I’m almost done if you want to order some food for us?”

“My hero wants steak, then he can have steak. With shoestring fries.” He chuckled as I got to my feet. “Did you check your security logs, by the way?”

“I did. I don’t have to get Denny fired.”

“No break-ins?”

“None.”

“So how the fuck did they get your code?”

“I used the bathroom when I was there. It had to be then.” He frowned at me. “I pulled the kill switch, though, so it should have deactivated their devices.

“You’re the best hacker I’ve ever met, and I don’t think you’d have been able to tear apart the code on Nimue in the amount of time they’ve had.

“They’ll only have been able to duplicate and replicate, not mess around with the inner workings of it.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I wrote it in Velato.”

My brows lifted at the reference to the obliquely esoteric coding language that was nigh-on impossible to hack unless you knew the key. A key that was personal to each coder.

“That must have been boring as fuck.”

“It was but you weren’t in my life back then and I was in desperate need of a challenge.”

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