Page 47 of The Dark Before Light

“There’s always negotiation in business deals, Stirling. Always.”

He leans forward another inch, bringing us eye-to-eye. Too close. Our mouths are only a few inches apart. I can feel his breath. See the individual bristles on his jaw. His eyes are midnight seas reflecting the flickering lights of the fake candles on a shelf behind me.

“I’ll give you this week’s truth, and you’ll come with me to a benefit for Alzheimer’s on Friday night.”

My eyes widen. “Absolutely not.”

“Even if I tell you why I lost my shit two months ago? Full disclosure. The whole, ugly truth.”

I open my mouth. Then close it.

Kieran smiles, slow and victorious, and whispers, “Checkmate.”

Chapter 14

Talia

Friday evening, I approach the sleek black limo parked outside my house. Sven walks beside me, Gabe a few steps ahead. Kieran is waiting in the car with Dylan. Not that I expected or wanted him to appear at my door like a suitor, but I now know why he’s tucked behind bullet-resistant glass.

I know why he has full-time security and lives behind perimeter alarms. Why, with the exception of the LA Phil and the occasional charity event, it’s rare for him to be seen outside Lumitech’s highly secure headquarters. I know the reason for Sven’s hyper-vigilance. Why he, Gabe, and Dylan carry guns and wear Kevlar vests under their lightweight jackets.

Since Lumitech announced their intent to research neural nanorobotics five years ago, Kieran has received countless death threats. Multiples per day, every day. The company’s security division handles them, tracking down sources when they can and passing their findings to the LAPD. It’s a never-ending game of whack-a-mole with minimal results.

At the initial, shocking windfall of threats, Kieran struggled with paranoia, fearing for his and Liz’s safety. He updated their home security system and had wanted to hire a driver for her. She refused, stating she’d grown up in the public eye and already lived with restricted freedoms. Eventually, she cooled his worry, half-convincing him that the threats weren’t serious, simply a price for him being an industry leader. He let it go after she promised to carry mace and agreed that if a serious concern arose, she’d accept increased protection.

Then she died, suddenly and shockingly, while driving his car to the grocery store.

He didn’t say it aloud, but I could see it in his eyes—he doesn’t think her death was random violence. He also believes it’s his fault for not insisting on an armed driver.

At the urging of his father and brother, shortly after Liz’s death, Kieran hired a close protection officer to accompany him everywhere outside his house. Good thing, too, because not six months later, there was a very real attempt on his life that put Sven in the hospital with a stab wound. A year and a half ago, Sven took a bullet to the shoulder when someone shot at Kieran as he stepped out of the elevator in Lumitech’s parking garage.

Both would-be assassins were apprehended and are currently in prison. Open and shut cases. But despite confessions stating they were working alone and hated Kieran’s guts for wanting to tamper with human brains, something didn’t sit right with Sven. The men’s stories were too similar. Too scripted. They fit the profile of muscle for hire, both of them with long criminal histories. It was a stretch to believe either of them even knew what neural nanorobotics was. Still, without proof or leads connecting them, there was nothing to do but move on.

Gabe and Dylan were hired, and the team moved into Kieran’s guest house to provide round-the-clock security.

Life went on. Kieran kept working toward his dream of curing his mother’s Alzheimer’s. All was quiet until two and a half months ago, when he received a call in the middle of the night from an unknown number. Disguised by distortion, a voice told him that this was his final warning. If he continued working on neural nanorobotics, others would pay the price for his hubris. The caller hung up, and a text followed with an attached image: Alistair and Gail out to dinner, both of them oblivious to the photographer.

The police were called, a detective assigned. But since the threat was made from a burner phone, it was untraceable. The detective dismissed a possible connection between Liz’s death, the assassination attempts, and the phone call. Without outright saying it, he told Kieran he was overreacting. Sven dragged him out of the precinct before he did something to get himself thrown in jail.

The following morning, he hired a high-profile private investigation firm. They accepted the case immediately and promised results, but it was too little too late. Kieran couldn’t sleep, was suffering renewed bouts of paranoia, and could barely function at work.

Already dangling at the end of his rope, he fell into the self-destructive spiral that landed him in my office.

I pause on the sidewalk and ask Sven, “Do Alistair and Gail have a security team?”

His lack of surprise tells me Kieran shared what we discussed on Wednesday. “Not twenty-four seven like Kier, but yes. They have top-of-the-line home security with remote monitoring and armed escorts for social engagements—though they’ve limited those since the call.”

I nod distractedly, thinking of Gail and how much all this must be affecting her. Does she live in fear? Maybe I should recommend a therapist if she doesn’t have one already.

“Do you have concerns for your safety tonight?” asks Sven.

I meet his eyes, dark and steady. “No,” I answer. It feels honest but also not quite the truth. I’m more rattled than anything else. The last two nights, I checked every window and door in my house twice to make sure they were locked before bed.

“Dr. Stirling?” Gabe questions. “Your chariot awaits.” He stands at the open back door of the limo with his usual dimpled grin. I’m sure it’s meant to be reassuring, but it only reminds me that he’s trained to put himself between Kieran and bullets.

“Thank you,” I murmur, lifting the hem of my dress and maneuvering onto the leather seat.

The door closes and the interior lights dim. I can barely look at Kieran; he’s a black hole in a tux, alluring and lethal, sucking out my sanity. My pulse flutters alarmingly fast, my body struggling to remember this isn’t a date.

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