the house in Tarifa. It seemed the Kyōdaina were exceptional at countersurveillance—or they had someone on the inside. I wouldn’t put it past them to have both.
Sitting in the shadows, waiting for Ken’Ichi to reemerge, I couldn’t help but feel, once again, the weight of Violet’s disappointment. It hung on me heavier than my father’s words the night before. I couldn’t escape the vision of her pale eyes flashing at me, sending me repeated dares that I wanted to give in to. Not only to kiss her but to unburden myself of the truth. If I could choose one person in this world to always think the best of me, it would be her. Truck and Dax were right behind.
It was well past midnight by the time Ken’Ichi finally came out and got into another SUV with a different driver. He went right back to the penthouse. Another fucking wasted night. Another failure.
Four years. Four years, and I had so little to show for it.
I waited for thirty minutes before I abandoned the CarShare and entered the silent penthouse. I wasn’t sure I’d get any more sleep than I had the night before, and I was in desperate need of it. Once Dax and I got on the water, we’d be at the helm for hours at a time. There was going to be little chance for rest if we wanted to break the record. And I had to break the record…not just for me, but for Jada. For Malone. To make sure Ken’Ichi saw it as a success, and we got what we needed on the entire fucking organization.
At some point, I must have dozed off, because my alarm was what jolted me back to the land of the living. I took a cold shower, trying to bring my body and brain back to the level of alertness I needed for the day. Then, I headed out to the yacht club and the appointment Ken’Ichi had thrown in my face the night before.
The guard at the gate to the private pier knew me well. He grinned and asked, “Still planning on leaving in the morning?”
“As long as the weather holds,” I said.
“Joe and I have money on you and Armaud,” he replied.
I smiled. “Well, we’ll do our best to bring home a win for you.”
His grin widened, and he buzzed me through.
I parked the Aston Martin next to Dax’s BMW that matched the yacht. It was sleek, black and gray with hints of red. The yacht and the car were made as a pair, but Dax never drove the car. It was a collector item, a deal we’d brokered with BMW to match our yachts with their vehicles in an attempt to entice the billionaires in the world to buy both. For now, the car was just a shiny toy that went with the shiny one on the water.
While the car did nothing for me, the yacht made my heart pound with joy. For a brief moment, I let the stress of my undercover life leave me, and I reveled in the thing I loved most. The water. Being in a boat on the water. Even with all the other things tangled up with the race, the idea of skyrocketing across the Atlantic in it to beat the world record made my fingers tingle with adrenaline. As I walked down the pier, it felt like the yacht called to me almost as much as a purple-eyed genius.
We’d designed the Ada Mae to the exact specifications we needed to win this race. The yacht was a never-seen combination of a power, cigarette, and jet boat. Dax and I had worked from start to finish on it with the shipyard. If we were a success, everybody and their uncle was going to want one. The trademark we had on it would be worth millions. If Truck thought the purses I’d won were a big deal, this would blow his mind.
The fact that we had three finished and ten more in various stages of production was sort of mind-boggling. It was a piece of my life I sometimes forgot while juggling my work with Malone.
When I reached the boat, I ran a hand along the outside of her. The Ada Mae. I smiled. If I couldn’t run my hands along Violet’s skin, this was a good consolation prize. It was named after two of Violet’s beloved female scientists: Ada Lovelace and Mae Jemison. I wondered if she would even realize the reason