laptop, which, now that he mentioned it, had weirdly angular sides, almost as if it had been designed to look like an objet d’art.
“Yeah, okay, I hear you. I have friends at Falcon. They made it for me. I pretend it’s just a gaming laptop if people get weird. What do you have?”
Oscar crossed his arms. “Two desktops I built, and my original custom Origin. I travel with a Maingear.”
They stared at one another and seemed to reach some sort of computer nerd understanding.
Norah tilted her head toward the chair on her right, which Oscar claimed, his eyes glued to her screen.
Oscar had mentioned more than a few times that he’d heard of Norah, assuming she was who he thought she was. He’d explained that she was a pure hacker. She went after information that was purposefully hard to access. While Oscar did some of that, he focused on creating digital tools that could access and analyze data, both public and private, in order to answer questions, find patterns, and “mine” all available data for information.
Norah, he’d explained, was the kind of person who could dox misogynistic, racist, and homophobic assholes.
With Norah well-flanked, Selene and Luca exchanged a glance, then took the remaining two seats across the table. They couldn’t see the computer screen, but Selene didn’t mind. She sort of preferred to study the other faces at the table.
She had been unaware of her knee bouncing nervously underneath the table until Luca reached down and placed his hand on it, stilling the motion. She gave him a quick, apologetic smile. Her sudden case of the nerves wasn’t based on what Norah, Devon, and Oscar were doing, but rather the end result of what loading those designs to the dark web meant.
Her time with Luca and Oscar was about to end. She was mere hours away from…a broken heart. A shattered heart.
Luca gave her leg a squeeze and murmured “it’s fine,” in a low voice meant just for her. While neither Norah nor Devon appeared to hear, Oscar’s gaze shifted to the two of them, his brows furrowed with concern.
She gave him a quick wink, hoping to set his mind at ease. It worked. Oscar’s lips tipped up in what Luca had dubbed a grumpy smile. Only Oscar could pull off such a look, and just the sight of it sent a sharp, piercing pain through her heart.
Selene had been playing fast and loose ever since arriving in Boston, acting on her immediate attraction to Oscar, then Luca, inviting the latter to their bed. She’d assumed she could keep her physical desires for both men tucked safely in a box where emotions didn’t come into play, simply because she’d always been able to do so with other lovers in the past.
She’d been a fool.
“Okay, I scrambled all the public networks around us, and the hotel Wi-Fi is down for everyone but us.” Norah looked up. “We’re cleared to talk.”
Devon cleared his throat. “For the sake of clarity, and also to remind all of us of the gravity of this situation, I’ll restate the purpose of this meeting.” He looked at each of them in turn. “We are here to discuss the possibility of releasing a set of flawed, but still dangerous schematics for a backpack-sized nuclear bomb.”
Devon let that statement hang for a moment before continuing. “Agencies around the world are already monitoring known supplies of neptunium, which is the heavy element used in this design; however, if we release the plans, there are no guarantees that someone won’t attempt to create this weapon, and in the process, create something horrific.”
“Nothing can happen until my sister is safe,” Luca said. “I was promised—”
Devon held up a hand. “We are just discussing our options.”
“But you already have people watching neptunium,” Oscar countered. “Seems to me your mind is made up.”
“The fact that Mr. Campisi used neptunium in his design is evidence enough that we should have been monitoring it already.”
Norah looked up from the computer. “So what’s your deal, dude with the sexy accent? You evil or what?”
Selene narrowed her eyes. Hands off, bitch.
“I am well aware that I am not a good man,” Luca said slowly. “I am…”
“He grew up in a cult. They tortured him for being bi, forced him to learn how to make bombs, and are essentially holding his sister captive to keep him in line.” Oscar didn’t look away from the screen as he spoke. “How do you have access to all these sites on the