Chapter 1
The soldering iron hissed softly against the motherboard while smoke curled slow through my apartment.
The joint rested between my lips as I leaned back in my chair, eyes locked on the custom liquid cooling system sitting half-built across my desk.
My monitor glowed low in the dark room, blueprints and specs covering one screen while an old Mortal Kombat tournament streamed muted on the second.
Rain tapped against the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking downtown HighVille.
Peace.
That’s what this was.
Most niggas went to clubs after work. Some went chasing women. Some blew money to prove they had it.
I liked the quiet and taking complicated shit apart just to see if I could rebuild it better.
More efficient.
More powerful.
I adjusted my glasses and took another pull from the joint before reaching for the graphics card sitting in the anti-static bag beside me.
It was top-of-the-line and hadn’t even hit the market officially yet. Perks of owning the damn company that made it.
My phone buzzed against the desk.
Wolf.
I ignored it.
The shit buzzed again immediately after.
Then again.
I finally answered on speaker while lining up the GPU carefully.
“What.”
“Damn nigga you answer the phone like somebody bothering you.”
“You interrupted me.”
“You always building some nerd ass shit when I call.”
“It’s a PC.”
“Ain’t that the same thing I said?”
I ran my tongue across the top row of my teeth. “What do you want?”
“You coming Saturday or not?”
My eyes stayed on the motherboard. “To what?”
“The probate meet-up.”
I paused.
“Why.”
“This nigga said why like he don’t pay dues.” Wolf laughed. “You been ghost for like two months. Folks think you joined the Illuminati or some shit.”
“I been working.”
“Nigga you own the company.”
“Exactly.”
That shut him up for half a second.
Czar Tech had tripled in the last year alone. Contracts stacked back-to-back. Athletes. Clubs. Businesses. Private schools. Half the rich side of HighVille trusted my systems more than the police department.
As they should.
I took another slow pull from the joint before setting it in the ashtray.
“You still ain’t answered my question,” Wolf said. “You coming or not?”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Translation: no.”
“Probably.”
“This why you still a virgin now.”
My hand stopped midair. “…You called me to harass me?”
“Nah. I called because you need hobbies outside them damn computers.”
“I have hobbies.”
“You beating niggas in Mortal Kombat tournaments don’t count.”
“It absolutely counts.”
“That’s exactly why Sevyn gone eat yo ass alive.”
Silence.
My eyes narrowed slightly toward the phone. “Why are you mentioning her.”
Wolf got louder immediately. “OOOOOH THAT HIT A NERVE.”
“It didn’t.”
“Nigga please. You done brought that woman up three times in the last month.”
I slid the graphics card into place carefully. “She owns a business.”
“And?”
“And she needed security.”
“And?”
“And nothing.”
Wolf started cackling through the speaker.
“You like her.”
“No.”
“You absolutely do.”
I leaned back in my chair slowly. “I do not know that woman.”
“You know enough apparently.”
I exhaled once through my nose and rubbed my beard.
The problem wasn’t that I liked Sevyn. The problem was I remembered her too clearly.
The little pink gloss she wore that first day. The tattoos on her thighs disappearing beneath that tiny skirt. The way she smelled like vanilla and expensive body oil every time she walked past me.
The way her eyes stayed focused even when she smiled.
And worst of all—The fact she told me I smelled good and my brain had been malfunctioning ever since.
One compliment.
One.
At twenty-eight years old, I had negotiated million-dollar contracts without faltering, that woman smiled at me one time and suddenly I forgot how shoulders worked.
Pathetic.
“She got a man?” Wolf asked casually.
“She has a child.”
“Her having a child don’t mean she got a man,” Wolf said.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Why are we even talking about this.”
“Because you been acting weird ever since you installed that lady security system.”
“I have not.”
“Nigga please.” I could hear him opening something on his end. “You usually forget people exist the second the invoice clear.”
“That’s not true.”
“You forgot my birthday last year.”
“I sent you money.”
“Exactly.”
I ignored him and reached for the screwdriver again, tightening the bracket into place.
The PC was finally starting to come together now. Matte black tower. Custom cooling. Dual graphics cards. Silent fans. Good wiring.
Pretty, well my kind of pretty anyway.
“You still ain’t hit her?” Wolf asked.
I groaned. “Nigga.”
“What? I’m asking.”
“No.”
“You got her number?”
“…For business.”
That loud ass laugh hit my speaker immediately.
“Oh yeah you cooked.”
“I’m hanging up.”
“Nah wait.” He was still laughing. “So you telling me you ain’t seen her since the install?”
“No.”
“And you still thinking about her?”
My jaw tightened slightly because that was the irritating part. I hadn’t seen Sevyn in a month. But somehow she still crossed my mind at random times during the day like a damn system notification.
A woman with curly red hair walked past me at the grocery store last week and my stupid ass looked up thinking it was her.
I’d caught myself opening the Studio 7 security dashboard more than necessary too.
Not on no creepy shit.
I was just… Checking functionality. Making sure everything worked properly and the building stayed secure.
That’s all.
“You know what your problem is?” Wolf said.
“I don’t have one.”
“You think too much.”
“I literally own a cyber security company. Thinking is the job.”
“Nah. You overthink human shit.” He paused. “You like structure because structure predictable. Women like her ain’t predictable.”
My eyes stayed on the monitor in front of me.
Sevyn definitely wasn’t predictable. She talked with her hands. Rolled her eyes when she got irritated and every time she looked directly at me, I had this strange feeling she could see straight through people.
That alone made me keep my distance.
Women usually liked me immediately. Not because I was doing too much either. I knew how to carry myself. Years of fraternity life and business meetings handled the social part. But Sevyn? She looked at me like she was studying me. That shit was unsettling.
“You should ask her out,” Wolf said.
I actually laughed at that. “She would say no.”
“Based on what?”
“She’s extroverted.”
“And?”
“I’m not.”
Wolf went quiet for a second before sighing hard as hell.
“You six-five, tatted, own a tech company, got locs down your damn back, and built like a Marvel character. You think women care you introverted?”
“That’s not the point.”
“What is the point then?”
I looked down at my hands for a second.
Truth was… I didn’t know how to do any of that.
Dating.
Flirting.
Sex.
None of it.
And the older I got, the more ridiculous admitting that shit sounded.
Especially looking the way I did.
People assumed things. Women especially, but the reality was simple. I never wanted random experiences just to say I had them. And I definitely wasn’t about to learn with somebody careless.
“You got quiet,” Wolf said.
“I’m thinking.”
“That’s your problem right there.”
I smirked slightly and leaned back in my chair just as my monitor lit up with a security notification.
STUDIO 7: ENTRY ACCESS DETECTED.
My eyes flicked toward the timestamp automatically.
11:42 PM.
I frowned.
Why the hell was Sevyn at the studio this late?