Chapter 41 Wesley #2
This woman is so full of surprises, it really ought to stop surprising me.
The man nods and settles back in his seat, turning dark eyes on me with a flat expression.
“Leo,” Felix introduces with a jerk of his thumb.
“Where’s Isaac?” Madison asks, leaning across the table and dipping a chip into the salsa.
“Fuck if I know. Let’s get this over with. You said you figured out what the connection was between SmarTech and El General? Share with the class.”
Madison claps her hands, brushing off the salt from the tortilla chip, and nods.
She digs into her pocket, unlocks her phone, and pushes it across the table.
“It’s a program using personal data to isolate criminals and threats and then pushing out hits to a network on their privately hosted platform. AI run.”
Felix and Leo exchange a look. Leo makes a circular motion with his index finger. “Fuckin’ hell,” Felix mutters. “That’s… fuck.”
“Madison said you mentioned knowing something about the SmarTech servers in your message?” I ask.
Felix takes a chip, regarding me thoughtfully as he eats it, as if trying to decide how much to reveal. It feels like he’s just posturing when he takes the second and shoves the basket towards me with the tips of his fingers. “Eat, gringo, or you’ll offend mi mamá.”
Madison makes a frustrated noise. “Do you know where their servers are?” she asks. “It would save us a lot of time and effort when we go in if we only have to focus on the cloud copies.”
I nearly wince, because in a negotiation you don’t often tip your hand so early. But I suppose he’s her relation, and this isn’t exactly a proper negotiation. I can’t tell which party holds the power.
He exchanges another look with Leo, then sighs and leans forward on his elbows. “Yeah. I know where their servers are.”
A million questions rise to my tongue, but I swallow them back and defer to Madison. Watching me do it, Leo’s expression shifts slightly into something that could vaguely be considered approval.
“Well?” Madison demands, reaching for another chip. Taking her lead, I do the same. Leo—who hasn’t said a word; who perhaps can’t say a word—lifts a brow at me as his lips quirk up at the corners.
Felix’s eyes flick to me. “Well, what?” he taunts, even though it was Madison’s frustrated challenge.
“What is this? Are you stalling?” she demands. “I thought we were going to have a nice casual meeting and talk about what to do about the fact that someone—something—wants both of us dead.”
Felix sucks on his teeth and sits back, eyes still on me. “I did too. Then, this guy rolls in with my buddy Mac and the Russian as backup. They in your ear right now, too, enana? Is la verga del gringo all it takes to get you to switch sides?”
I couldn’t care less about the implied insult to me, but he just insinuated she’s some kind of whore—even though I know it’s meant to bait me, I fucking fall for it anyway.
My hand on the table closes into a fist, and my heart pounds in my throat.
Out of respect, I lower my voice so Mama B doesn’t overhear me.
“Because we’re in your house and I don’t want to cause a problem unnecessarily, I’ll let that go—but you will not disrespect her, and you certainly won’t do it in front of me to make a fucking point. Got it?” I grit out.
“Atta boy,” Mac pipes in approvingly.
Felix grins, the gold tooth in the back of his mouth flashing in the light from the big window in the front.
Madison lays a hand on my thigh under the table, squeezing just above my knee—a silent thanks and gentle request to let her handle this.
I look at her and force myself to swallow my rage.
But I can’t snuff it out completely—my caveman brain can’t let it go until I mark my territory.
Conscious of two sets of watchful, untrusting eyes on me, I lean in and kiss her temple.
When I pull back, Felix’s expression is different. Less smug, more calculating.
“I can’t tell you where the servers are,” he finally admits.
“Because you don’t know?” Madison fires back, disbelief plain in her tone.
“Fine. I won’t tell you where the servers are.
” An outraged noise falls from Madison’s lips, and just as she finishes inhaling to lay into him, he holds up a conciliatory hand and glances down at the screen of her phone again.
“But… if you tell me that you want to take down SmarTech and make sure this murder software gets destroyed, I’m in. ”
If Madison is surprised by what feels like a complete 180, she doesn’t show it.
For my part, I think I’m starting to get a handle on how Felix’s mind works.
He knows he needs to eliminate the threat to his own life and that he needs information from us and our help to do it.
But he refuses to relinquish the upper hand, so he’s going to do his best to make it seem like he’s doing us a favor. It’s quite tricky of him.
Normally, I’d never work with a man like him. Anyone who needs the upper hand all the time trusts no one, and that means he isn’t trustworthy enough to share information with either. But Madison’s connection with him is creating a tenuous bond—perhaps only for the duration of this mission.
She cocks her head at him and reaches for her phone, which he hands back to her. “We need to know where they are.”
Apparently, not even Madison warrants a straight answer on that one. He takes another chip, munching noisily. “Why?”
She turns to me, so I take this one. “Because until they release the product, they’ll probably be storing it in that server. Our plan is to corrupt the program files or disable the program with a kill switch, but if we can’t, we’ll need to destroy the servers that host the AI.”
“You thinkin’ an explosion?”
I purse my lips. “SmarTech has government contracts, and I’d rather not have Big Brother breathing down my neck. So if we can accomplish it without an explosion, that would be preferable.”
“Aw, but I love explosions,” Mac laments, sounding truly put out.
Madison is barely able to maintain a straight face.
“All right,” Felix says after another silent, minimal conversation with his right-hand man. “I won’t tell you, but I’ll do you one better. If you can guarantee the big guy won’t go on a murder spree and try to wipe out my team, we’ll help you out.”
“Do not speak for me,” Dimitri warns.
“How?”
“Just let me know when you’re planning on making your move, and I’ll make sure we’re in place to fuck shit up,” he grins. Apparently Felix likes explosions, too. “Tell my ole buddy Mac that I’ll be in touch. I have a feeling he’s got what I need and, from where I stand, he still owes me one.”
“This fuckin’ guy…”
He holds out his hand, offering to shake on the deal, but pulls back when I reach for it. “The big guy gets a leash, yeah?”
“Yeah, all right,” I say, taking his hand and making Madison roll her lips inward, since she also heard Dimitri and knows I just did exactly what he told me not to.
“Good. We’re cool then?”
It’s a loaded question—one he apparently didn’t expect an answer to as he shuffles out of the booth sideways.
As he stands, he tugs on the lapels of his jacket to straighten it.
“And speaking of debts,” he reaches into a pocket and tosses a small notebook onto the table.
“That’s for the Russian. Tell him… I’m sorry.
That ought to settle things up between us. ”
Felix is looking at Madison when he says it. She grins at him, nods, and grabs the booklet, pocketing it without looking at the pages.
“Oye, mamá, ?podrías preparar un plato para llevar para los dos idiotas que están en la furgoneta?” Felix lifts his voice so his mother can hear him across the room.
She whips her head around and smiles at the request to make up some plates to go.
Even though they’re meant for Mac and Dimitri, it smells so good in here that I might need to check them first.
“One last thing,” he says, leveling a serious look at me. “What do you plan to do about SmarTech—like, the people who work there?”
“We’re only interested in ensuring this program never sees the light of day.”
His smile turns dark. “Good. But if you happen to cross paths with Craig Pinsley during your mission, you leave him be. He’s mine.”
“The CEO of SmarTech? Why?”
He rolls his eyes. “Would you just mind your fuckin’ biz, already? Christ.”
Felix and Leo both give Madison an affectionate gesture—hair ruffle and signed goodbye, respectively—before disappearing to the back of the restaurant.
I’m curious whether this is another of Felix’s many operations, but I don’t want to ask too many questions where I can be overheard.
Better to hold them until we’re back in the van.
Once we’re inside, Dimitri immediately starts making his displeasure known. “You cannot control what I do, so you should not make assurances as if you can,” he starts in as soon as I get the door slammed shut. “It will only make you look foolish.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I mutter. “Won’t matter much anyway, considering he’ll be off handling the servers for us. You won’t even have to see him.”
“Hmm.” The noise is equal parts dismissive and displeased. “What did he give you for me?” he demands, scowling in the rearview mirror.
Madison pulls the little book out of her purse and tosses it up to him.
“I’m curious to know, myself,” I say as he catches it just before it hits him in the back of the head.
I glance at Madison, and she shrugs, unrepentant about her aim.
Acting as if each page might contain some kind of explosive, or jump out and bite him, he carefully and slowly flips through, using the very tip of his index finger and thumb.
“Worried about leaving prints?” Mac jokes. “Come on, we’re on the edge of our seats.”
“It is…” Dimitri’s brows lower, and he turns another page. “Names and addresses… Volkevich, Volkevich, Volkevich…”
“Did he give you the name and location of the rest of the Volkevich Bratva members?” Mac asks, jaw falling.
“Every remaining rat,” Dimitri mutters under his breath, the frown melting off his face as he continues turning pages. After the list runs out, he carefully closes and pockets the book. “We will see if these tips pan out. Until then, I will reserve judgment.”
Madison, looking chuffed as hell, wheels over to sit next to me and leans in. “I did that,” she whispers with a proud smile.
“Yeah, I had a feeling,” I say, pulling her in for a kiss before we reenter problem-solving mode and discuss what just happened with Felix as a group.