Page 37 of Mile High With the Bikers
Diesel laughs and scratches his beard. “You're getting a little extra coddled, just because you had a rough night. Gotta watch out for the sluts. They drink some of the brothers under the table.”
“I'll keep that in mind.” I tuck my legs up into the hoodie. It’s nice to draw a breath again without feeling like it also inflates my head inside a helmet that's two sizes too small.
And that's when my phone rings. Reluctantly, I pull it free of the pocket and look at it. It's Dad. I let a sigh fill my mouth, ballooning my cheeks before I let it out. “I need to get this.”
Diesel shrugs. He’s standing in a patch of sunlight, his fire kissed hair practically glowing. “Okay? Nobody’s stopping you.”
“I know, but… it's my father.”
“Oh, secret family stuff. Gotcha.” Shrapnel laughs. He mimes zipping his mouth and throwing away the key.
“Something like that.” I answer. “Hey, Dad. Good morning.”
“Morning? It's almost noon. Don't tell me you just woke up.”
I wince. It feels like he's screaming into my ear, both because of my hangover and because Dad always approaches life at full volume. “I… um, had trouble sleeping. New place and all that.I'm not used to the sounds yet.” All three of the guys chuckle. “What's up?”
“Are they treating you well? I'm paying them good money to keep you safe, but if they're doing anything to?—”
“They're fine. I'm fine. Just not sleeping great. I'll get over it.”
“Excellent. I assume you have a proper workstation set up by now.” Straight to business, then. “Are you alone? Those men might be the best of a list of bad options, but that doesn’t mean I trust them.”
I glance at the guys and make a decision based on both logic and feeling like a family of angry raccoons are living in my skull. “Yeah, it’s just me,” I lie. “We can talk.” I can’t keep doing all of this on my own, and I don’t know where to start explaining. Maybe just not hiding anymore will be a good first step.
“I need you to go through the logs from New York and make sure the corruption levels are acceptable. This isn’t internal testing anymore. The results need to speak for themselves when I’m dealing with outsiders who have no technical understanding.”
“Sure, I get it. I’ll start on that today.”
“Good. After the success of the last demonstration, I’m arranging a second look.”
I blink. Success? “Dad, your plane was hijacked and that CEOkilledhimself. What do you mean, it was a success?”
All three bikers go still. I offer them a flat smile. They were listening before, but now they’re watching me like a potentially dangerous stranger just sat at the table.
“Unfortunate, of course, but we knew from the start that if Hermes worked it would rattle a lot of cages. And it did! We pitted it against a completely untested location, and it blew everyone away. My mistake was leaving us vulnerable to the teeth of a dying animal that lashed out at what it saw as a personal threat.”
Oh my God. If I could smack him through the phone, I would. Maybe the boys are starting to wear off on me. “Someone tried to killyou!Don’t you think it would be a good idea to stay out of sight for a while and rethink this whole plan? Why expose yourself again? Do you even know who’s responsible yet?”
“Stop being dramatic. Those who aren’t willing to take a risk will never reap a true reward. Now that we know the stakes, security will be prepared. In fact, I'm counting on someone trying something. How else am I going to ferret out the troublemakers?” I can almost see the self-centered smirk he's undoubtedly wearing. “You know as well as I do that we hold all the cards. Even if they make a move, they will achieve nothing.”
For a genius, my father is a real idiot sometimes. “Right, okay. When are you planning on doing this demonstration?”
“Two o’clock. I’ll let you know when to be ready.”
“Are you kidding? That’s less than two hours from now!” I’m sitting around eating breakfast with a hangover in nothing but a borrowed hoodie.
“I wouldn’t joke about this. I expect to see the system online when I need it.”
“Fine.” As much as the idea of him crashing out in front of an audience appeals to me, it would just end up hurting us more than it would help and there’s no time to sit around discussing it.
He laughs. “I left you too long under your mother’s influence, but I’ll make a Whittaker out of you yet. We can't stop now, Rory. The cat's out of the bag. If we don't move fast, we’re just giving someone else time to piggyback onoursuccess. You're brilliant, but history is littered with the bodies of innovators that came in second.”
“For the record, I don't think this is a good idea.”
“It's already done. I’ve adjusted our safety precautions and I'll be fine. Mason and his team will be with me to make sure nothing goes wrong.”
“Dad, I don’t know if you’ve thought this through but,” I pitch my voice lower, “my laptop ishere. Think about what that means when you run the program.”
