37. Ofelia #4
He’s sitting back in his chair, turning a glass of cognac in his hand and staring into its depths like he might find redemption there.
“What I’m about to tell you,” Mak says plainly, “can never leave this room. I need your word.”
The men all nod.
“Over the past few months,” he says, “whilst the rest of Miami thought Alexei had left town, he has in fact been converting the underground bunker at the Miami compound into a server center. One big enough to rival Mercura’s.”
Papa, for once, is shocked into silence.
“Lex and Lars have been developing a cyber platform,” Mak goes on.
“And whilst I can’t disclose the details, I can say that it’s impressive enough that I have committed a substantial sum of money to become a prime investor in it.
Alexei never meant to return to Miami, Roman.
” He looks my father directly in the eye.
“At least, not in the way he was there before.” He gives me a slanted half smile.
“Some time ago,” he says, “back when I suspected Alexei’s feelings for you, Ofelia, I told him that if he intended to have any kind of real future with you, he had better rethink his career choices, not to mention his commitment to the swamp.
I also suggested that if Roman should ever suspect how he feels about you, none of those things would matter at all, and that Alexei would need to, and I quote, ‘learn how to code himself into invisibility.’”
He grins at the memory. “At the risk of giving away the main plotline entirely,” he says lightly, “it seems that Alexei took that last part as a personal challenge. When I tell you that his concept is world changing, believe me when I say it’s an understatement.”
“It’s true.” Mickey speaks up before anyone else can.
“Lars told me about it.” He looks at me.
“On the yacht. Right before—” He breaks off.
None of us need him to explain what he means.
“He was furious with me.” His mouth tightens.
“I’ve never seen Lars so angry. And he had every right to be.
He told me that Alexei has suffered things no man could ever understand—and yet has somehow found the strength to transcend it all.
And now, with this new project, to leave it behind entirely.
” He turns to me. “He also said that without you, Ofelia, none of that could have ever happened.”
I stare at the table, my throat choked with emotion I’m terrified to let out, my eyes too full of tears to lift.
“Then he punched me.”
My head jerks up. Lars? Punching someone? It’s like picturing Santa Claus with a gun in his hand.
Mickey touches the bruise on his eye, which until now, I assumed had happened in the explosion.
“He also told me that if I ever got in between the two of you again, he would ‘fucking code me into nonexistence and cast the resulting non-pointer into the void.’” Raising his eyes, he smiles wryly at the incomprehension on our faces. “Geek speak for he’d fucking kill me.”
The silence that follows his words isn’t one I could interrupt even if I wanted to. I’m fighting to breathe, let alone speak, tears falling down my face that I’m unable to stop.
In the end, it’s Mak who speaks first. “All of which,” he says rather dryly, “brings me back to the opinion I mentioned earlier—and the reason I requested you all attend this meeting.”
We all turn to him.
“My opinion is that Alexei plans to disappear altogether—and never return.”
He looks at us all in turn. “Think about it,” he says.
“Despite my assurances to the contrary, Alexei believes it is his fault that Lars is currently fighting for his life. His own family, from what you have told me, have repeatedly made it clear they don’t consider him worthy of Ofelia, and in fact are utterly opposed to the relationship.
On top of that, our recent investigation required Alexei to conduct an accounting that would make every man here quail: a recollection of his every victim, even those the Orlovs ordered him to kill. ”
The men at the table all shift uncomfortably. Even Mickey, which I suppose shouldn’t surprise me.
Mak nods. “Exactly. I defy any one of you to put yourself through the torture of not only confronting every face, but the manner and circumstances of their deaths. Now,” he says, “combine that with the disinformation campaign that Meridian has waged relentlessly against him for months now, headline after headline painting him as the very worst kind of monster. And then add the fact that apart from putting your best friend in the ICU, you also just placed the person you love most in this world in direct danger. And ask yourself this: in Alexei’s place, what would you have left to live for? ”
For the first time since we all sat down, nobody is glaring at each other or fighting to talk. All anyone can do is stare at the table, pale faced and quiet.
“So,” Mak says eventually, when it becomes clear nobody has anything to say.
“Given that Alexei is headed to Miami to deal with some of the most evil fuckers on this planet—and I am going to be extremely busy keeping the others out of the way—is it too much to ask the rest of you to show just a fraction of that bratva loyalty you all like to talk about and offer a helping hand? Because I’m not going to pull any punches here. ”
He gives my father a look that is the closest to a glare I’ve ever seen from Mak.
“Unless you can find a way to make Alexei believe he actually has a future, I think he is entirely capable of burning Miami to the ground—and then disappearing so completely that no one at this table will ever see him again.”