Chapter 4
ANDREW
“I still can’t believe we’re bringing Ford coffee,” Kevin groused. “Since when are you so accommodating?”
Andrew refrained from admitting—since he sucked my dick at Christmas.
“Though you two fake dating may be the craziest thing I have ever been asked to lie about.”
Kevin had not changed the subject since they left the coffee shop, even now that they were walking through the mostly empty R&D labs at Avalon. They’d chosen a time when Dalton said everyone else should be in meetings or testing labs so they could talk in private.
“You don’t have to lie,” Andrew said. “Don’t even bring it up. I just needed you to know in case Dalton says something. But if he does, feel free to express how you 100% do not support the idea of us as a couple.”
“No brainer there, dude.”
After all, sex and dating were two completely different things—and Kevin did not need to know that.
Dalton waved them over to his now cleaned workspace as they drew closer, with no one else in the immediate vicinity.
“Did we beat Ford?” Kevin asked, glancing around in suspicion. “That guy is meticulous to the second, so if you’re planning some ambush—”
“Kevin,” Andrew chided.
“He’s got a few minutes yet.” Dalton smiled without seeming at all bothered by Kevin’s distrust. “It’s nice to meet you. And you two are the best for bringing coffee. I didn’t sleep well last night. My mind has been too focused on the case.”
“You mean the case of your supervillain origin story?” Kevin pushed.
“Does that mean I get a super cool nickname like Artifice?” Dalton said, but then looked to Andrew nervously. “Not that it was ever proven he and Dad were the same person…”
As if that mattered anymore. “Ford was acquitted of all but one of those crimes, and that one he paid for.”
“What about Guile?” Kevin played along. “Or is the Street Fighter copyright too iffy?”
“Kid Cunning?” Dalton suggested.
“The Boy Bandit!”
They laughed together. Dalton could win over anyone.
“Stop naming my son.”
His father, on the other hand…
The three of them turned toward the disembodied voice coming from the darkest corner of the room where there had to be a hidden door, or else Ford had skulked along the wall to make his entrance that much more dramatic. Andrew wouldn’t put it past him.
Slowly, he materialized out of the shadows, spotlighted ethereally beneath the overhead lights like he’d walked onto a photoshoot. How someone could make basic black clothing look so stunning, Andrew would never understand.
“Dad,” Dalton said in exasperation, “you were supposed to text me.”
“Figured I’d check the place out on my own.” Ford strolled up to the workstation. “You were right. Security here needs work. Almost as bad as Andrew’s offices.”
Andrew refrained from rolling his eyes.
“Funny.” Kevin crossed his arms like a shield.
“Just letting you know. Now,” he leaned over the tall testing table and clasped his hands together, “shall we get to work?”
Getting Ford and Kevin up to speed went by quickly, since Dalton had covered plenty with his dad, and Andrew had already gone over most things with Kevin.
All that remained was the results of the CSI tests Steven had shared with Andrew from the few pieces of evidence they did have, which would have been easier to focus on if Andrew wasn’t distracted by the obscene way Ford kept wrapping his lips around his coffee lid.
“Everything alright, Andrew?” he asked without an ounce of innocence.
“No. Yes. Fine.” Andrew tore his eyes away from Ford’s smug smirk. “Just glad you’re enjoying that coffee so much.”
“Andrew? The evidence,” Kevin urged.
Right. Continuing his assessment of what the police had found yesterday, Andrew ended with, “The strangest thing might be lack of hair or fibers.”
“So? The thief’s smart.” Ford shrugged.
“You don’t understand. Enough fibers aren’t always found for evidence, but they still exist everywhere, even if they’re minuscule. This time there was nothing.”
“The cleaning crew would have been finished by the time of the theft,” Dalton said, “and they take their job of sterilizing the labs very seriously.”
“Exactly, so any foreign object meeting that pristine of an environment should have left something behind.”
“You’re saying it was a ghost?” Kevin joked.
“Or someone who can make themselves seem like one. Anything off about the firewall or security protocols?”
“Besides how easy this place would be to hack?” Kevin scanned the technical readout Andrew had given him, but then caught Ford's satisfied smirk. “Shut up. I’m not admitting you’re right, just meant for me it would be easy.
Other than that, not really. I mean, standard setup, good overall.
Only a serious hacker could break into this place with this minimal a trail left behind unless they had an advantage. ”
“I swear,” Dalton urged, “it can’t be an inside job.”
“While I appreciate the sentiment,” Ford said, “you’ll understand if I don’t take anyone’s good nature to heart. Other than yours.” He smiled softly at his son, and then turned to Andrew. “Dig anything up on the roster yet?”
“No. The only new employee in the last year was Dalton. Vallancourt is pretty strict about who she hires. And before you ask, yes, I put Dalton’s background check through the same ringer I would anyone else, and his record came out squeaky clean.”
“You must be so disappointed,” Kevin snarked.
“What about timeframe?” Ford cocked his head with a dangerous grin.
“If you assume it took a handful of minutes for them to get inside while avoiding the cameras,” Andrew said, “they then had to bypass security guards to get upstairs, move across the floor, download Dalton’s files, grab the equipment, and they were gone. So, twenty, twenty-five minutes tops?
“They were in a hurry too. I don’t think the broken equipment was purposeful. Otherwise, with this clean of a getaway, since we know it wasn’t you,” he teased Ford, “they’d almost have to be superhuman.”
“Such flattery.” Ford grinned wider.
“Ahem.” Kevin cleared his throat—Andrew really needed to stop getting pulled into their banter. “If police are at a loss with suspects, what about intent? What could someone do with this equipment and research? You already mentioned building a bomb.”
“Plenty of easier ways to do that,” Dalton said.
“Then why would a layman steal all this when they obviously didn’t understand the full scope?” Ford asked, seemingly already having an answer, given the look he gave Andrew.
Andrew did too. “They were hired by somebody else.”
“Which means whoever hired this thief was someone who did know the research, had a buyer who did… or had reason to target you,” Ford nodded at Dalton, “and not the research at all.”
“Dad, you're being paranoid. Right, Andrew?”
As much as Andrew wished he could reassure him, he knew well how deep resentments went. “The deal your dad made at Christmas caught a lot of attention. Dozens of inmates went back to prison, and he didn't get any added time.”
“I guess I didn’t realize,” Dalton said sadly. “Dad won’t talk about it.”
“Because you don't need to know,” Ford said sternly.
“Fine. Then it's only fair I get to call the shots with this.” Dalton slapped the table with fervor, summoning back his smile. “Kevin, why don’t you help me grab the rest of my equipment from other labs? I didn’t get the chance to gather it all yet.
We can leave these two to brainstorm what we’ve forgot. ”
“Uhh,” Andrew floundered at the suggestion, “okay…”
“Does that mean I get a tour of Avalon’s testing labs?” Kevin scurried to Dalton’s side.
“By a pro. There’s a total sensory deprivation chamber, full sterilization. Don’t tell Vallancourt, but a couple times between cleansing cycles, I setup LED lights and played racquetball like in an episode of Next Generation.”
The expression on Kevin’s face was one reserved for drunken confessions and new issues of his favorite comic books. “I love you. I love this guy.” He turned to Ford. “How do you have a son this cool?”
With a pat on Kevin’s shoulders to solidify their budding friendship, Dalton dragged him away with a final parting smile.
“That’s what this is about,” Ford declared.
“…huh?”
“Andrew,” he tapped his fingers in slow succession on the table, “don’t be na?ve. You were a detective. Look at the evidence. Certainly, both our expertise can be of assistance on this case, but Dalton went out of his way to get us together… and left us alone.”
A clang sounded in Andrew's head as he came to the same conclusion Ford must have. “He is not parent-trapping us right now.”
“He is.”
“Why?” Andrew bemoaned. “This is your fault.”
“I’m aware.”
“Oh, you can admit when you’re wrong? Never would have guessed.”
“What are we going to do about this?” Ford asked with an unimpressed head tilt.
“Nothing. When he sees that his scheming isn’t going anywhere, he’ll let it go. There’s no getting us back together when we were never together in the first place. He’ll realize how wholly incompatible we are and give it up.”
“Incompatible?” Ford dragged his fingers more slowly across the tabletop, back and forth like tracing patterns on skin—and very purposely drawing Andrew’s eyes. “I certainly wasn’t about to ask you out to dinner, but I thought we agreed there’d be a next time.”
“We did, but… what about Dalton?”
“Apparently, he’s all for it.”
“For us dating, not fucking around.”
Ford changed course of his trailing fingers to tiny circles, as he scanned down Andrew’s body. “You don’t think we can be secretive? A little spy versus spy?”
Andrew felt his face heat up. “The other day was… It had been a while, okay?”
“Since dear Miss Park… cheated on you? Dumped you?”
“I dumped her,” Andrew snapped.
For what? Ford’s stare seemed to ask.
The only way to get him to stop bringing her up was to be honest. “She was using me for stories.”
Ford stilled.