Chapter 52
Imoved to get off Jay’s lap so we could talk, but he tightened his grip on my hips, holding me in place.
“Stay? This is… hard for me to talk about. I need… I need to be touching you.”
His eyes were so wide and innocent as he looked up at me, and I melted. He was so dominant in bed, but then there were moments like this where I just wanted to curl my body around him and protect him.
He was hurting and lonely, and I just wanted to take all his pain away.
“Of course.” I nodded, wriggling my way more firmly in his lap and brushing his dark hair out of his face. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He gave me a bright smile and brushed a soft kiss over my lips before clearing his throat.
“Thank you… So… I was twenty-one when I started at Neurovance. I was just finishing my bachelor’s, and my father offered me a part-time internship position, which I needed for the practical part of my degree.
“My dad and I have always tinkered with tech together. He has this cottage in the mountains, and we used to spend whole summers there just messing around inventing stupid shit.” Jay smiled wistfully, looking so happy as he remembered spending time with his dad.
“I always looked forward to those times. It was always just the two of us. My mom passed away when I was little, and the cottage was just for us. Luke and Seb don’t even know about it.”
“How did you meet them?” I asked, and Jay shrugged.
“My dad and Luke got their PhDs together. They founded Neurovance shortly after they completed their doctorates. They’d been friends for as long as I could remember.
Seb’s mom was… is kind of awful. I think Luke was trying to avoid home a lot in the beginning.
My dad was recently widowed, so they threw themselves into the company.
“It was good when I was a kid. Having Seb around all the time felt like I had a brother, and he loved my dad almost as much as I did. Seb was always artsy. Drawing and designing shit while my dad and I messed around with computers.”
“I feel like there’s a but coming.”
Jay gave me a sad smile and nodded.
“But, as the company grew and started to see a lot of success, things changed. Luke was always really ambitious, and he wanted to take the company in directions my father wasn’t comfortable with.
“I remember them fighting a lot when Seb and I were in high school. By the time we both started our internships here, Luke was trying to get my dad to let him buy him out.”
“Why?”
Jay was staring down at his lap, his thumbs brushing over my hip bones nervously.
“When I came up with the output system we’re currently using for the extractor, Luke was really excited.
The original technology was really invasive and required brain surgery for thought acquisition.
Once I was able to make it this easy, portable thing, we had a lot of interest from investors. Some more… sinister than others.”
I felt a chill roll through me as I thought of all the unethical ways memory technology could be used in the wrong hands.
Jay glanced up at me, his eyes swimming with pain.
“My dad and Luke got in a huge fight when a private buyer from a massive insurance company wanted to use our product to remove claimants’ memories of events and reduce liability. My father was furious that Luke would even consider selling to them and flat out refused.”
My jaw gaped at this as I shoved my glasses nervously up my nose.
Jay’s grip on my hips tightened as he continued.
“There was a fundraiser a few nights later, and my dad took one of Neurovance’s self-driving cars since he knew he’d be having a few cocktails…
the car… something was wrong with it. It drove itself off the road and into the ocean with him in it.
It took days for search and recovery to retrieve his body…
” Jay’s voice cracked, and I cupped his face gently, running my thumbs over his cheeks to wipe away his tears.
“I’m so sorry…” I whispered, and his sad eyes turned angry.
“Our cars are so safe, Milo. That shouldn’t have happened. NOVA does checks on all our vehicles’ operating systems daily. If there was something wrong with the car’s navigation system, she should have caught it.”
“Do you think… Do you think Luke…?”
“I don’t know,” Jay croaked. “I just don’t know.
NOVA and I ran diagnostics on the car after it was retrieved, and we couldn’t find any evidence of foul play…
It just… it feels so convenient, you know?
My dad’s will was written in such a way that his shares went to Luke in the event of his death before I turned twenty-five.
Once I turned twenty-five, I was technically supposed to inherit his shares, but Luke did some legal bullshit so that he still holds majority control. It all just feels so… messy.
“I don’t want to believe Luke would literally go so far as to kill my father, but after the meeting this morning, I’m feeling less and less sure.”
“What happened this morning?”
Jay recounted the entire meeting with the DARPA rep, and the cold feeling in my bones continued to grow until I was quivering in Jay’s lap.
“There’s no telling what they’ll use our tech for if Luke sells it to them, Milo. We can’t let them have it. I know this is your dream, and I have no doubt in my mind that you’ll be able to get the product working. I just… Maybe the world is better without that kind of technology in it, you know?”
I had to agree.
This was… so insanely sinister. I hadn’t even really thought about how nefarious people could use this tech for evil like this. It had so much potential to help people… It sucked so much that we had to worry about things like this.
“So… what do we do? I don’t want to quit, Jay.”
It wasn’t just about the job for me anymore.
I didn’t want to leave Neurovance and risk never seeing Jay again.
I knew he couldn’t or wouldn’t leave with me.
This company was technically his, no matter what kind of bullshit Luke had done to keep his shares from him.
This was his father’s legacy; he couldn’t just leave and let Luke destroy it.
“I don’t know,” Jay choked. “If Luke was responsible for my father’s death, he’s dangerous, Milo.
I already suspect he’s hurting Sebastian in ways he doesn’t talk about.
I’ve seen him flinch and limp around campus before when he doesn’t think anyone is watching.
I don’t like Luke, but I’m not afraid of him like Seb is… I think he’s controlling him somehow.”
Jay rubbed the insert in his forearm absently, and I frowned down at it. He seemed to touch it a lot when he was anxious.
“Does Seb want to sell the tech to the government?”
“No, he doesn’t. He hates it just as much as I do, but Luke isn’t giving us a choice. All we can do is delay development.”
“Hmm…” I hummed, my brain whizzing a mile a minute.
“So, Luke is the only problem.”
Jay let out a dark, sad laugh. “Yeah. But he’s a pretty big one. One I don’t know how to solve.”
Suddenly, I had an idea. A terrible, wicked idea that made me squirm uncomfortably in Jay’s lap.
“What?” Jay asked, raising a curious eyebrow at me.
“I just thought of something… but it’s… It’s a bad idea. We shouldn’t do it. It would make us just as bad as this Dr. Grey character…” I mumbled.
A sly grin spread across Jay’s mouth, and he tugged me closer to him, a mischievous glint shining in his eyes.
“You having naughty thoughts, baby?”
I let out a shaky laugh and nodded.
“Yeah. But not the sexy kind.”
“Tell me.”
“Well… stop me if this is too crazy, but… what if we did develop the manipulator and used it to… make Luke less… evil?” I winced, peeking at Jay nervously as my cheeks flushed in shame at what I’d just suggested.
God, he was going to think I was so messed up…
Jay’s eyes widened in surprise, and his mouth parted slightly. He was staring at me like he’d never seen me before, and my face grew even hotter.
“Never mind, that’s a stupid idea and bad, so, so bad. Forget I said anything.”
Jay’s grip tightened on my hips, and I squeaked as he abruptly flipped me onto my back on the couch. He sprawled out on top of me, grinning at me like a crazy person.
“That’s… a deliciously evil idea, Milo,” he purred, kissing me roughly on the mouth.
“It’s too crazy! We shouldn’t!”
“I disagree.” His eyes flashed, and I could almost see the wheels turning in his mind.
“I think it’s just crazy enough. Sometimes you have to get your hands a little dirty for the greater good.
Besides, if he really is responsible for my father’s death, it’s the least of what he deserves.
” Jay looked so angry for a second that I shivered.
“If we can get Luke to hand my shares back over to me and leave the rest of his to Seb, we can take control of Neurovance, and it can finally be what my father always wanted it to be. We can make tech that helps people. With Luke out of the way, we’ll have complete control…
My-loooooh…” he hummed, dropping sweet kisses all over my face as I squirmed beneath him.
“You’re so smart and…. surprisingly badass.” He laughed, and I couldn’t help but laugh with him.
“It will be dangerous,” I whispered. “Luke isn’t going to willingly let us use the tech on him.”
Jay pulled back and looked thoughtful.
“Maybe we can pitch it to him as a public demonstration of the prototype in the cortex once we’re ready to go public with it. I can convince him that letting people see the technology being used on him would be a show of faith that it’s safe. Like a PR thing.”
I nodded, feeling excited.
“Yes! And then we can make a few small changes and hopefully save all those people from being needlessly traumatized over and over.”
“Fuck, Milo… I’m so obsessed with you. You know that, right?” he asked, looking at me with something so close to love in his eyes I felt like I needed to pinch myself.
“I do now,” I whispered, and Jay smiled before slamming his lips into mine and kissing me until I moaned.
“So perfect…” he murmured against my lips, and I sighed.
We could do this.
I could get the manipulator working, and we could get Jay the parts of his company back that had been stolen from him. Then I wouldn’t have to quit, Seb would be safe from his abusive ass father, and Jay and I could be together, out in the open.
I was so excited about the possibility that it was easy to ignore the mean little voice in the back of my head telling me that I was Milo Murphy.
Murphquake.
The walking embodiment of Murphy’s law, and nothing ever went the way it was supposed to as far as I was concerned.
For now, everything felt possible, and I was content to let Jay convince me that was the truth.