Page 4 of Pride
“I thought a snake ate him.”
Liza raised her brows. “It did.”
“Gross,” Sloan mumbled and started picking around AIMI’s old parts.
Parker slapped the back of her hand as she touched the motherboard. She whined but stood back, so he poked the golden arm. No wonder it was tarnished. Python intestinal juices had attacked it. “And exactly what do you want me to do with this piece of junk?”
“Don’t be a dick,” Liza said. “Use it, obviously.”
“Liza,” he chided. “If I wanted a robotic arm, I’d use something from Lazarus Tech.” His company usually focused on world saving sustainable inventions. But he was sure he could gather enough smart people to create an arm.
“But this is Syndicate tech,” she countered.
His curiosity piqued briefly. Syndicate tech was notoriously advanced, to the point of detriment to the human race. Who knew how many people died or suffered for the sake of this tech’s creation. He grimaced and pushed it away. “I’m fine as I am.”
“Oh yeah?” Sloan goaded. “If you’re so capable, then how come you have a tens machine in here and electrode pads on your shoulder? You were trying to speed up your regeneration process or help with the pain. Admit it.”
He growled, then bit his tongue to stop his emotions from getting the better of him. Sloan might be a slob, but she was smart. She was likely a better coder than him, and she could sense every emotional fluctuation in his body and anyone else’s in proximity. She could also affect their emotions and bodily sensations, as she’d done earlier.
Liza sighed heavily. “Look, bro, it’s not that we think you’re incapable. It’s just that we know you. You probably think not using this tech is taking the high road but we still need to find Daisy. It’s been months and, if she’s even alive, she’s probably mad from the torture that bastard has inflicted on her. If there was any time for cutting corners, it’s now. This”—she pointed to the arm—“is just us trying to help.”
He gave the arm a rueful look. “Even if I wanted to fit myself with something like it, I’d have an adjustment and training period. It could be more trouble than what it’s worth.”
Liza shrugged. “Bio tech is your department. All I’m saying is maybe it’s time to accept some help.”
She had a point. Parker had studied genetics at Harvard. He wasn’t at the level of their creator, but he knew enough to understand her notes. And he knew enough about the human body that he could work with Flint to make this arm work.
Sloan jerked her chin toward Parker’s laptop. “I’ll do that faster. You’ve been at it for months now. Unless, of course, you’ve made a mess of it and that’s why you’ve been hiding up here.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. Made a mess of it? Unlikely. It was already a mess. There was a reason he’d taken longer. He was upgrading AIMI to new specifications. She would be virtually impenetrable to hostile attacks. She’d have her own artificial deductive reasoning so that if anyone who looked like an ally inserted malware, she’d think twice about accepting it. She’d also have a higher functioning processor built on new experimental tech coming out of his company. Frankly, he didn’t think he had to explain himself to his sister.
“I’m quite capable of finishing it on my own, Sloan.”
“I know that. Butshouldyou?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means your time is better served elsewhere.”
He pinched the bridge between his nose and let out a sigh. He supposed he could hand over the hard drive recovery to Sloan while he went into the office to retrieve some parts from Research and Development. He’d been putting it off because it meant he had to leave his penthouse.
While his stomach knotted at the thought of giving up control, logically, he couldn’t do this all on his own. He’d tried.
He unplugged the hard drive and handed it to Sloan. “Get what you can off this. I’m heading into work.”
2
Still puffingfrom her workout at the Lazarus Tech in-house gym, Alice walked into Parker’s office and switched on the lights. Her dodgy leg ached, so she rubbed it through her yoga pants, not liking how the ugly truth sank into her bones. The pain was worse as she got older. No spring chicken anymore, she was closer to forty than she was to thirty and she’d spent most of her life as an assassin—aSinner—for the Hildegard Sisterhood.
Not many Sinners lived past forty, and she was fast approaching her expiration date. The only one who’d lived past midlife was Mary Lazarus. Now in her fifties, she was a defector and traitor to the Sisterhood. She was also the adoptive mother to the Deadly Seven.
Alice surveyed Parker’s office from the doorway. Just as it had for the past two months, it felt stale. Lifeless. Like a gaping hole. This had been her mission—her cover—to work as the assistant to one of the world’s richest and most eligible, genius bachelors… and deadly vigilante. She was tasked with gathering intel on his family and assessing the threat of them losing control and going dark—destroying the world instead of saving it. So far, she’d only caught small glimpses of this possibility. Once, almost two years ago, Wyatt Lazarus had almost beaten a man to death. Not long after that, a busload of people had mysteriously fallen asleep as Sloth was moving nearby. Alice was yet to find definitive proof that this family could turn evil—like they’d been warned all those years ago. But her mission wasn’t over yet.
Alice didn’t believe they were a danger, and she’d tried to broker an alliance with the Deadly Seven. She wasn’t giving up. Best case scenario, Alice would learn more about this secretive family. Worst case, she’d know their loyalties weren’t with the Sisterhood.
Parker Lazarus hadn’t been into his office since his accident. Her heart tugged at the memory of him slipping through her hold, falling from the rooftop, her reaching after him but only grasping air. The sickening sound of his arm catching in the industrial meat grinder that her fellow Sinner had turned on below. It was only meant to be a scare tactic to force Parker to accept Alice’s help, but his pride and ego had caused him to let go of Alice’s hand. On purpose. As if he’d rather die than accept an alliance with her.
Of course, he hadn’t known it was her beneath the Sinner uniform. He didn’t know that for two years she’d been his right hand at the office, or that she’d secretly drooled over him every time he’d walked into the room. She wondered if he would have reacted differently if he’d known it was her, Alice Montgomery, his bumbling but competent assistant.
