Wicked Attraction (The Protector) Read online

  “But, see, Mr. Donahue, I don’t want to go against the law. It just says you can’t upgrade the tech that’s already been installed, right? And you can’t use it on anyone new. But I don’t want to do that, Mr. Donahue. What I’m talking about is accessing the existing tech.” Jordie spun on his heel, a broad grin stretching his lips over his teeth. “Using it as-is, but enabling new functions, stuff the tech’s already capable of doing, if only you reprogrammed it a little. The base tech is . . . well, it’s close to brilliant, Mr. Donahue.”

  Ewan held back a grim laugh at Jordie’s assessment, which might have been meant as a compliment, but sounded more like a patronizing pat on the head. “Thanks.”

  “Imperfect though. But you know that.” Jordie spun again, this time in a complete circle. “I can make it so much better.”

  Bitterness flooded Ewan’s mouth. He remembered being an arrogant young apprentice, but he didn’t think he’d ever been this cocky. “What exactly are we talking about?”

  “Remote functions.”

  “Snacks,” said Nina from the doorway. She held up a platter of sandwiches. “Peanut butter and jelly. Hope that’s shiny fine with both of you.”

  “Mr. Donahue, I bet you have the good stuff. Real jelly, right? Real peanut butter. Not synth.” Jordie went still. No more twitching. His hands rested calmly at his sides, thumbs hooked into his pockets. “Of course you do. You’ve got enough money to have the best of everything. Including her. Right?”

  Nina crossed to put the platter on Ewan’s desk. “Kid’s got a point.”

  She sounded light about it. Ewan didn’t feel the same. He was still thinking over what Jordie had begun to tell him. The kid had already grabbed up a sandwich and was taking a bite, making loud noises of appreciation and smacking his lips together.

  “Slow down,” Nina cautioned. “You’ll choke.”

  Jordie chewed and swallowed with an exaggerated motion of his head. “Thanks. You got any synthmilk? Or real milk, yeah, that would be even better.”

  “Sorry, no,” Nina said with a look at Ewan.

  The food seemed to calm the kid even more, and that made sense, if he was on a candy rush. Ewan didn’t take a sandwich, but he did sit at his desk and pull up the apprentice portal on his monitor. He scrolled quickly through Jordie’s previous requests. He hadn’t noticed a pattern to the kid’s previous work, but looking now, he could see there were definitely parallels in the projects he’d chosen.

  “Jordie.” Ewan watched the kid chew, swallow, and nod. “I’m not going to be able to approve any research or work on projects related to the enhancement tech.”

  Nina’s head swung around, her eyes widening. She might be able to control her body’s involuntary physical reactions, but this was clearly an emotional one. “What about it?”

  “I have some ideas, Ms. Bronson. Some really amazing ideas, about how to fix up that tech, make it really more useful. . . .” Jordie paused to shove more sandwich in his mouth, which silenced him while he chewed it.

  “Upgrades?”

  Ewan couldn’t miss the glance Nina flicked his way. “He’s not talking about . . .”

  Jordie faced Nina, his brow knitted. His mouth twisted as he swallowed the last bites of food. Crumbs clustered in the corners of his lips, and he didn’t even bother to lick them away. He cocked his head to stare at her intently. “Mr. Donahue says they’re illegal. We can’t work on them.”

  “I know what Mr. Donahue says,” Nina told the kid quietly, “but I’d like to know if you have something in mind.”

  Frustrated, Ewan shook his head. The urge to shout the kid down was intense, but he held back. Screaming at sugarheads never did any good; you couldn’t rattle them. “Jordie, I’ve already told you that I can’t condone any kind of illegal work in my lab. No compromise on that.”

  Before Nina could speak, Ewan held up a hand. “I refuse to allow kids to risk their futures for any of this, Nina.”

  “I see.” She looked angry, but nodded.

  Jordie had started pacing again. “It’s not illegal, I mean, technically, it can’t be, since nobody’s thought it up yet, so they didn’t outlaw it. I could get to work, it would be great, you’d be so rich, Mr. Donahue, you’d be so rich. We’d all be rich . . .”

  “It shouldn’t be about money,” Nina said.

  Jordie stopped then, for the first time seeming to really listen to what someone else was saying. “Well . . . if it’s not about money, Ms. Bronson, what should it be about?”

  “I won’t approve any proposals related to the enhancement tech, Jordie,” Ewan said firmly and stepped in front of the kid to catch his attention. “You need to go home, now.”

  “Is that . . . is that your final answer?”

  Ewan, aware of Nina’s gaze upon him, kept his eyes on Jordie’s. “Yes it is. You’ve had a lot of great projects. I suggest you focus on one of them. Put this one aside.”

  “Okay. Fine. I guess you’re the guy in charge.” Jordie snagged another sandwich from the platter. “I’ll take this to go, is that all right, Mr. Donahue? I haven’t had real jelly in a long time. Well, never, I don’t think. It’s not like my parents can’t afford it, you know what I mean? But they spend their money on other things. Usually other spouses. Real jelly is hyper delish, Mr. Donahue. So good, am I right? Ms. Bronson knows. She does, I can tell.”

  Nina gave Jordie a half smile. “Yes. It’s good. Hyper delish, for sure.”

  “I’ll get out of your way now, Mr. Donahue.” For a moment, Jordie’s shoulders slumped. “I sure do wish you’d reconsider. This idea that I have, if you’d only listen to it, I promise you it could change everything.”

  Jordie didn’t give Ewan the chance to protest or even to agree. He lifted the sandwich in the air and gave Nina a nod. He left the office and Nina went after him to stand in the doorway, watching as let himself out the front door. She turned to Ewan.

  “He’s a strange kid,” she said.

  “Yeah,” he said. “He was hopped up on candy, that was easy to see. Beyond that, I don’t know what all that was about. He’s always been one of the more creative kids in the program. Some of his work’s been really far reaching, broad scope, very inventive. Most of it didn’t work the way he’d anticipated because he tends to dive in too deep without all of his research done first, but he often managed to get close.”

  “What was his idea? For the enhancement tech?”

  Ewan straightened. “It doesn’t matter, Nina.”

  “It could,” she told him. “I wish you thought differently.”

  “Would it matter, even if I did?”

  “It might. To me,” Nina said.

  Ewan sighed. “It would still be against the law, Nina. You’ve told me more than once that you’re not willing to get any upgrades unless all of you can. And none of you can, not legally.”

  “It would matter to know that you wanted to.” Nina picked up one of the sandwiches but put it down without taking even one bite. “I guess it would make a difference to know that you would if you could. If you think it’s important and worthwhile. I don’t know, Ewan. I guess I’d like to know that you’ve changed your mind about it.”

  He hadn’t, at least not in the way she wanted him to. Changed his mind about reversing the Enhancement Repeal Act, yes. About the use of the tech, no, and especially after watching the way it had affected her, it didn’t seem as though he ever would.

  “You mean everything to me, Nina. Can’t you see that?”

  She nodded after a long minute, her mouth pulling into a frown that hurt his heart to see. “I do see it. That’s why this is all so hard, Ewan. Believe me, I’ve never been the sort of girl to wail and whine and cling on when someone doesn’t want me—”

  “I do want you!” he cried, frustrated that she couldn’t seem to realize that. He calmed somewhat at her expression, but only a little. Softer, he added, “I want you, and I want to be with you. That should be so obvious.”

  “And I’ve nev