43. Kiera
KIERA
Trailing behind Leo, I tried to keep the irritation from my face. I wasn’t sure why Dom had to breeze through every room like a wrecking ball, or why she was treating Leo’s mere presence like an offense.
Spending time back in the Zeus offices put her on edge, and when Dom was on edge, it was all of our problem, apparently.
I also didn’t understand why she was wearing that stupid leather jacket on such a hot day. Certainly she could afford a more breathable riding outfit, but I had to give it to her, she was committed to the aesthetic: clean black trousers, a fitted button down, and that stupid jacket.
The black leather looked like it was sculpted to the curve of her broad shoulders, straining between her shoulder blades as she leaned forward on the bike.
Most annoying of all was the fact that I still found her attractive in that nonsense outfit.
Brainworms. She’s given me brainworms.
And I knew the feeling was mutual. After all, Dom only ever got this pissy when she found one of her roommates playing with what she assumed to be hers.
If she thought that was bad, I should give her a real show with Leo.
But I swallowed down the petty urge: the favor that Leo was asking for was bigger than any petty grievance I had with Dom.
“What do you want?” Dom scowled.
“I’ve been looking into shit with my parents.”
“I remember.”
“Well, I keep hitting dead ends, and—”
“Maybe that’s because there’s nothing to find,” Dom rolled her eyes. “Maybe your father isn’t as Disney villain evil as mine.”
Leo shook her head, refusing to cow to Dom’s attitude. “No, there’s gotta be something. I know it.”
Dom sighed, throwing her head back as she killed her bike engine. “Spit it out, then. What do you want?”
“Emails,” Leo’s eyes lit up. “You can get access to company emails, right? If not on some digital server, maybe some sort of external hard drive?”
Dom furrowed her brow. “You think some company memos on happy hour are going to help you with your search?”
“No,” Leo shook her head. “I’m looking for blackmail. Something Isaac would have kept buried, something he didn’t want deleted. If you can find an email cache like that on the Zeus servers, I’d be willing to bet that my father’s on it.”
Dom blinked, catching up with Leo’s line of reasoning as the Major smiled proudly at the breakthrough. “If a cache like that exists, it would have to be somewhere with a lot of physical room to store the drivers. But you guys are a tech company. You’ve gotta have some sort of server room or—”
“No,” Dom frowned, pulling on her helmet. “It’s too risky, and there’s no benefit for the cause. Isaac’s already gotten too close to our scent. I don’t need to give him extra chances to catch me breaking his rules.”
“There is a benefit, though,” I piped up, earning a steely glare from Dom.
“Email evidence like that doesn’t just look bad for the people Isaac was blackmailing.
I bet there’s plenty in there to implicate Isaac and Gabriel — all of their lackeys, really.
We have no idea what they have planned for us, but evidence like that could be the difference between taking them down or dying under their thumb. ”
The words came out a bit more dramatic than I’d intended, but the sentiment hit all the same. I could tell that, despite her stubbornness, Dom was tempted to say yes. She just needed one final push.
Leo glanced over her shoulder at me for support, and I nodded.
I’ll back you. Make the ask.
Then, rolling back her shoulders, Leo crossed her arms over her chest. “Listen, I know that I’ve been cooler than Kiera and Spencer about the bullshit you spun all of us on.
But that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook with me.
I don’t ever ask you for anything. You owe me, Dom.
And I’m coming to collect. Get me the emails, and we can call it even. ”
Dom’s eyes took on an icy edge at Leo’s demand. But the sharp irritation quickly melted down into resignation. Between my pleading look and the threat of losing her friendship with Leo, Dom knew she was backed into a corner.
“Fine,” she growled, twisting the ignition on her bike. “But I won’t put the mission in danger to do it.”
Leo smirked as Dom lifted her kickstand. “Thank you, Dom.”
But Dom just shook her head, “You know, for a second, I thought you might not be as needy as the others.”
“Love you too,” Leo laughed as Dom flicked down her visor and peeled out of the carriage house. Her hulking form quickly transformed into a tiny black dot on the horizon, and then to nothing at all.
And though I knew this had been a victory, a pit still grew in my stomach as I watched her disappear: both at the thought of the horrible shit she might find, but also at the potential consequences if she was caught.
Was the risk we were taking worth the reward? And would anything we found really help us take down the man at the top of it all?