18. Alexei #5
“No shit.” Dima shakes his head, then squints at me through the smoke. “What if the Novikovs come for us?”
“Take them down,” I say promptly. “Owens is one thing. Kiril Novikov is another altogether. He’s ours. If he steps a foot over the state line again, put the crazy bastard down.”
“Copy that,” Dima says, not without relish. He glances between Lars and me. “Well, I’ll leave you two to iron out the tech stuff, then.” Nodding at me, he shuts down his screen and leaves the call.
“Well.” Lars reaches for a bottle and pours a shot of something into a glass. “That was fun.”
“Just the beginning of the fun, is my guess.” I narrow my eyes at his glass. “Tell me you’re not drinking that Akvavit crap again.”
“It’s our national drink, you philistine.” Lars raises the glass at me. “And after listening to all that macho stuff, I need to either drink or fuck—and Benny, unfortunately, has some recital thing in London this weekend.”
“Benny?” I raise my eyebrows. “I thought repeat performances weren’t your style.”
“He’s a talented boy,” he says lightly. “And not boring so far.”
“Not boring?” I look at him curiously, taking in the tinge of color on his cheeks. “High praise, coming from you.”
“Anyway,” Lars swiftly deflects, “why are we talking about my sex life, when you’ve had the lovely Miss Borovsky lying around on your deck for the last week? Or should that be lying around on your d—”
“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence,” I say warningly.
His smile fades. “You do know you can’t take her with you,” he says quietly. “There are going to be people coming for you, Lex. That much I’d lay money on.”
“Of course I fucking know that.” The words come out harder than bullets, but unfortunately, I’m way past being able to soften my tone.
“I’m not saying cut her off.” Lars leans into the camera and points a finger at me with a rather stern look. “In fact, if you hurt that girl again, I’ll code you into nonexistence and cast the resulting non-pointer into the void.”
I roll my eye, unable to stop myself laughing. “Look at you go, tough guy.”
“Yeah, well, while we’re on that—what the hell are you planning in that basement?
” He gives me a quizzical look. “I’m not saying I’m against it.
I love this shit, and if you’re aiming to lean further into Andersson Tech, I’m over the fucking moon.
But as your partner, silent or not, I’d love a hint at what you’re actually planning. ”
“Let’s call it a hunch, for now.”
Lars’s eyebrows rise. “A hunch,” he says dryly. “An entire server center—on a hunch? What about the specs?”
“Let me give you the kind of power we need, and you can design it. Does that work for you?”
“Man of mystery, huh?” But he has a gleam in his eye that tells me he’s more than just in. “Mickey and I will have some fun with this.”
“Not Mickey.” My response is out before I can stop it. “No offense,” I say, when his eyebrows shoot up again. “I just—this needs to stay underground. For now, and maybe for a lot longer. Until I’ve nailed it down, I don’t want to discuss it. Not with anyone.”
His eyes narrow. “I’ll respect that. So long as I know that you are respecting his sister.”
“I heard you the first time, Lars.” I can’t keep the edge of annoyance out of my tone. “Don’t hurt Ofelia. I got it, loud and fucking clear, okay?”
“Yeah, well, I mean it.” Lars’s permanent smile is more of a thin line. “Get her off that yacht, then you get good and gone. You need to hit pause on whatever you’ve got going on until it’s safe.”
“Copy that,” I say tightly. “For what it’s worth, I’ve got no intention of letting Ofelia go.”
He visibly tenses.
“But I agree that she can’t be anywhere near me,” I concede, “until things have gone quiet. I need to set her up with secure comms, but I can’t send any of our guys into her house without sending up a fucking smoke signal a mile wide—and the last thing I want is to set off Roman’s radar, especially with all this shit going on. ”
“I have an idea.” Lars gives me an evil grin. “You won’t like it.”
I shake my head resignedly, already knowing what he’s going to say. “Mickey will just tell Roman.”
Which is also why I don’t want him anywhere near my tech ideas. I like Roman. He’s family.
He’s also fucking Roman.
“No, he won’t tell Roman. Not if it’s Ofelia’s secret.” His eyes narrow slightly. “You underestimate that kid, Lex, and his loyalty to his sister. Mickey will do anything to keep her safe. And they’ve been keeping each other’s secrets for years.”
The thought of asking Mickey for help twice in as many months pisses me off more than is at all comfortable, but the only alternative is asking Mak, and my gut tells me that request would be one step too far over the line for his unshakable loyalty to Roman.
“Fine. But I want to talk to Ofelia first, clear it with her.”
Lars nods. “Fair.”
I frown at him. “And while we’re still on the topic of Ofelia—how the fuck did you even know she was here, anyway?”
“Oh, you sweet summer child.” He gives me a pitying look. “For a geek wielding a very big gun, you do sometimes forget what I’m capable of, motherfucker.”