“Boyfriends?” Kevin perked up.
“No way. Dalton and I never…would never. Please don’t ever say that in front of Ford,” he finished in a rush.
“Wait, when were you going to tell me…boyfriends?” Kevin gestured like he was seriously upset to have been left out of the loop. “Dude.”
“Dude,” Andrew shot back, “it’s not like I ever tried to hide it. I admitted to you that one of my first ever crushes was Vegeta from Dragon Ball Z.”
“Yeah, but…Vegeta.”
“The important thing,” Candace spoke over them, “is that you’re taking on a job for Avalon. This is huge.”
“I still technically need Vallancourt’s go-ahead. She’s meeting us too. But I think she liked me when I was a detective.”
“I can’t believe Dalton called you over his dad.” Candace shook her head. “Does he not trust Ford either?”
“It’s sort of…complicated.”
“Like they’re secretly in cahoots, and Dalton’s the next Artifice in training?” Kevin said.
“No, he’d never—”
“Wen!”
“There’s our order.” Kevin hopped down from his stool. “I’ll pass judgment on Artifice Junior after I meet him.”
Andrew just hoped that, if either of them noticed the fourth coffee he was picking up, they’d assume it was for Vallancourt. He’d have to come clean with Kevin, but with Candace, he planned to hold off for as long as possible. They both hated Ford, but she took the competition even more personally than Andrew had.
“You boys play nice now.” She hopped down after them, snagging her to-go cup. “Tell Dalton I want to see him soon, okay?” She waved as she turned to head out.
“Sucking up to Vallancourt?” Kevin noticed the fourth coffee immediately.
“I, uhh…may have left out a few things about today.”
Chapter 4
“I still can’t believe we’re bringing Ford coffee,” Kevin groused. “Since when are you so accommodating?”
Andrew refrained from admitting—since he sucked my dick at Christmas.
“Though you two fake dating may be the craziest thing I have ever been asked to lie about.”
Kevin had not changed the subject since they left the coffee shop, even now that they were walking through the mostly empty R&D labs at Avalon. They’d chosen a time when Dalton said everyone else should be in meetings or testing labs so they could talk in private.
“You don’t have to lie,” Andrew said. “Don’t even bring it up. I just needed you to know in case Dalton says something. But if he does, feel free to express how you a hundred percent do not support the idea of us as a couple.”
“No brainer there, dude.”
After all, sex and dating were two completely different things—and Kevin did not need to know that.
Dalton waved them over to his now cleaned workspace as they drew closer, with no one else in the immediate vicinity.
“Did we beat Ford?” Kevin asked, glancing around in suspicion. “That guy is meticulous to the second, so if you’re planning some ambush—”
“Kevin,” Andrew chided.
“He’s got a few minutes yet.” Dalton smiled without seeming at all bothered by Kevin’s distrust. “It’s nice to meet you. And you two are the best for bringing coffee. I didn’t sleep well last night. My mind has been too focused on the case.”
“You mean the case of your supervillain origin story?” Kevin pushed.
“Does that mean I get a super cool nickname like Artifice?” Dalton said, but then looked to Andrew nervously. “Not that it was ever proven he and Dad were the same person…”
As if that mattered anymore. “Ford was acquitted of all but one of those crimes, and that one he paid for.”
“What about Guile?” Kevin played along. “Or is the Street Fighter copyright too iffy?”
“Kid Cunning?” Dalton suggested.
“The Boy Bandit!”
They laughed together. Dalton could win over anyone.
“Stop naming my son.”
His father, on the other hand…
The three of them turned toward the disembodied voice coming from the darkest corner of the room where there had to be a hidden door, or else Ford had skulked along the wall to make his entrance that much more dramatic. Andrew wouldn’t put it past him.
Slowly, he materialized out of the shadows, spotlighted ethereally beneath the overhead lights like he’d walked onto a photoshoot. How someone could make basic black clothing look so stunning, Andrew would never understand.
“Dad,” Dalton said in exasperation, “you were supposed to text me.”
“Figured I’d check the place out on my own.” Ford strolled up to the workstation. “You were right. Security here needs work. Almost as bad as Andrew’s offices.”
Andrew refrained from rolling his eyes.
“Funny.” Kevin crossed his arms like a shield.
“Just letting you know. Now,” he leaned over the tall testing table and clasped his hands together, “shall we get to work?”
Getting Ford and Kevin up to speed went by quickly, since Dalton had covered plenty with his dad, and Andrew had already gone over most things with Kevin. All that remained was the results of the CSI tests Steven had shared with Andrew from the few pieces of evidence they did have, which would have been easier to focus on if Andrew wasn’t distracted by the obscene way Ford kept wrapping his lips around his coffee lid.
“Everything alright, Andrew?” he asked without an ounce of innocence.
“No. Yes. Fine.” Andrew tore his eyes away from Ford’s smug smirk. “Just glad you’re enjoying that coffee so much.”
“Andrew? The evidence,” Kevin urged.
Right. Continuing his assessment of what the police had found yesterday, Andrew ended with, “The strangest thing might be lack of hair or fibers.”
“So? The thief’s smart.” Ford shrugged.
“You don’t understand. Enough fibers aren’t always found for evidence, but they still exist everywhere, even if they’re minuscule. This time there was nothing.”
“The cleaning crew would have been finished by the time of the theft,” Dalton said, “and they take their job of sterilizing the labs very seriously.”
“Exactly, so any foreign object meeting that pristine of an environment should have left something behind.”
“You’re saying it was a ghost?” Kevin joked.
“Or someone who can make themselves seem like one. Anything off about the firewall or security protocols?”
“Besides how easy this place would be to hack?” Kevin scanned the technical readout Andrew had given him, but then caught Ford’s satisfied smirk. “Shut up. I’m not admitting you’re right, just meant for me it would be easy. Other than that, not really. I mean, standard setup, good overall. Only a serious hacker could break into this place with this minimal a trail left behind unless they had an advantage.”
“I swear,” Dalton urged, “it can’t be an inside job.”
“While I appreciate the sentiment,” Ford said, “you’ll understand if I don’t take anyone’s good nature to heart. Other than yours.” He smiled softly at his son, and then turned to Andrew. “Dig anything up on the roster yet?”
“No. The only new employee in the last year was Dalton. Vallancourt is pretty strict about who she hires. And before you ask, yes, I put Dalton’s background check through the same ringer I would anyone else, and his record came out squeaky clean.”
“You must be so disappointed,” Kevin snarked.
“What about timeframe?” Ford cocked his head with a dangerous grin.
“If you assume it took a handful of minutes for them to get inside while avoiding the cameras,” Andrew said, “they then had to bypass security guards to get upstairs, move across the floor, download Dalton’s files, grab the equipment, and they were gone. So, twenty, twenty-five minutes tops?
“They were in a hurry too. I don’t think the broken equipm
ent was purposeful. Otherwise, with this clean of a getaway, since we know it wasn’t you,” he teased Ford, “they’d almost have to be superhuman.”
“Such flattery.” Ford grinned wider.
“Ahem.” Kevin cleared his throat—Andrew really needed to stop getting pulled into their banter. “If police are at a loss with suspects, what about intent? What could someone do with this equipment and research? You already mentioned building a bomb.”
“Plenty of easier ways to do that,” Dalton said.
“Then why would a layman steal all this when they obviously didn’t understand the full scope?” Ford asked, seemingly already having an answer, given the look he gave Andrew.
Andrew did too. “They were hired by somebody else.”
“Which means whoever hired this thief was someone who did know the research, had a buyer who did…or had reason to target you,” Ford nodded at Dalton, “and not the research at all.”
“Dad, you’re being paranoid. Right, Andrew?”
As much as Andrew wished he could reassure him, he knew well how deep resentments went. “The deal your dad made at Christmas caught a lot of attention. Dozens of inmates went back to prison, and he didn’t get any added time.”
“I guess I didn’t realize,” Dalton said sadly. “Dad won’t talk about it.”
“Because you don’t need to know,” Ford said sternly.
“Fine. Then it’s only fair I get to call the shots with this.” Dalton slapped the table with fervor, summoning back his smile. “Kevin, why don’t you help me grab the rest of my equipment from other labs? I didn’t get the chance to gather it all yet. We can leave these two to brainstorm what we’ve forgot.”
“Uhh,” Andrew floundered at the suggestion, “okay…”
“Does that mean I get a tour of Avalon’s testing labs?” Kevin scurried to Dalton’s side.
“By a pro. There’s a total sensory deprivation chamber, full sterilization. Don’t tell Vallancourt, but a couple times between cleansing cycles, I setup LED lights and played racquetball like in an episode of Next Generation.”
The expression on Kevin’s face was one reserved for drunken confessions and new issues of his favorite comic books. “I love you. I love this guy.” He turned to Ford. “How do you have a son this cool?”
With a pat on Kevin’s shoulders to solidify their budding friendship, Dalton dragged him away with a final parting smile.
“That’s what this is about,” Ford declared.
“…huh?”
“Andrew,” he tapped his fingers in slow succession on the table, “don’t be naïve. You were a detective. Look at the evidence. Certainly, both our expertise can be of assistance on this case, but Dalton went out of his way to get us together…and left us alone.”
A clang sounded in Andrew’s head as he came to the same conclusion Ford must have. “He is not parent-trapping us right now.”
“He is.”
“Why?” Andrew bemoaned. “This is your fault.”
“I’m aware.”
“Oh, you can admit when you’re wrong? Never would have guessed.”
“What are we going to do about this?” Ford asked with an unimpressed head tilt.
“Nothing. When he sees that his scheming isn’t going anywhere, he’ll let it go. There’s no getting us back together when we were never together in the first place. He’ll realize how wholly incompatible we are and give it up.”
“Incompatible?” Ford dragged his fingers more slowly across the tabletop, back and forth like tracing patterns on skin—and very purposely drawing Andrew’s eyes. “I certainly wasn’t about to ask you out to dinner, but I thought we agreed there’d be a next time.”
“We did, but…what about Dalton?”
“Apparently, he’s all for it.”
“For us dating, not fucking around.”
Ford changed course of his trailing fingers to tiny circles, as he scanned down Andrew’s body. “You don’t think we can be secretive? A little spy versus spy?”
Andrew felt his face heat up. “The other day was…It had been a while, okay?”
“Since dear Miss Park…cheated on you? Dumped you?”
“I dumped her,” Andrew snapped.
For what? Ford’s stare seemed to ask.
The only way to get him to stop bringing her up was to be honest. “She was using me for stories.”
Ford stilled.
“Best reporter in town, because she had the inside scoop. I didn’t realize at first, thought it was coincidence or that she was just that good at her job. Then the coincidences got too frequent, and I noticed how she’d subtly needle me for details about cases.
“She was my girlfriend. I never thought I had to say ‘off the record’. When I called her on it, she didn’t even try to defend herself, just shrugged like it was no big deal, like I was overreacting. It had gotten bad enough that IA was asking questions. Everyone at the precinct already hated me. I had to quit.
“Steve tried talking me out of it, so did my dad, but I needed to live my life without a shadow hanging over me. Not Dad’s, not Steve’s, and not Liv’s. Not yours either, coz don’t think your career change helped any. I don’t need to be used by anyone else.”
Andrew hadn’t meant to get so visceral. He had needed relief the other day, and he’d planned to ask for more, but he had no illusions about how a tryst with Ford would end. Even if Ford’s business was on the level, he’d still use this team-up to get what he wanted from Andrew, and then leave again.
Ford remained serious, though, as he leaned toward him. “It’s not using if we both want and enjoy it. Unless you start liking me too much,” he finished with a grin.
He was impossible—because Andrew already liked him too much.
“Aren’t you two cozier than expected,” came a sharp voice that prompted Andrew to lurch away from Ford.
“Doctor Vallancourt,” he all but squeaked at the sight of her stepping out of the same shadows Ford had materialized from earlier. There had to be a door back there.
“Andrew,” she said, smiling congenially, “I have asked you repeatedly to call me ‘Eliza’.”
The tension faded; apparently, she did like him.
Eliza Vallancourt was a striking woman, with poise and strength of character, greying hair that was neatly bobbed, and fierce blue eyes almost as mesmerizing as Ford’s.
“You, however,” she shifted to Ford with frosty disapproval, “despite my respect for your son, may call me Doctor.”
Andrew snorted.
“I assume you’ll be informing your brother of this. We’ve had several chats since the break-in.”
“Uhh…I might leave out the team-up part. He isn’t a big fan of Ford’s and doesn’t know Dalton is his son. I’m glad you’re so understanding about his background though.”
“Understanding has nothing to do with it. I want to protect my investments, which includes Dalton. If you’re the man to help accomplish that, Mr. Ford,” she returned to him, the table the only barrier between their matching stares, “so be it. It would be unfortunate if you didn’t care about your son’s future here, but I get the impression that won’t be a problem.”
“My firm is on the level,” Ford said, possibly contemplating how to push Vallancourt’s boundaries but thinking better of it, reminded that this was his son’s boss. “And I expect to be handsomely compensated for my time.”
“If you’re successful. Consultation is without pay, Mr. Ford. Bring me a proposal on how to update my security, and we’ll draw a contract. Help catch the thief, and I’ll make the deal more interesting. Andrew,” she concluded and headed out the way she’d come in.
At least they had the job if they could prove they were worth it.
“Does she know you’re the one who put me away?” Ford asked.
“Maybe. I don’t know her that well, but she doesn’t leave much to chance. When Dalton suggested us working together, she probably looked into it. Are you sure he hasn’t?”<
br />
“He promised he wouldn’t. Said he’d rather wear me down to tell him about my past myself.”
“So, why don’t you? He already knows you’re Artifice.”
“You never proved—”
“We could just tell him—”
“And explain why we lied in the beginning by admitting what? Unless you want him to find out about us fucking around, as you put it. Or would you really prefer that part ends?”
Andrew felt warm all over just from the power of Ford’s stare. He shouldn’t give in, not again, but he couldn’t stop wondering what that ‘next time’ might be like.
“That magnet is two-hundred times stronger than anything in a hundred-mile radius.”
“No way!”
Andrew lurched backward far more swiftly than he had when Vallancourt came in, but before Dalton and Kevin could return fully, he subtly shook his head. He didn’t want it to end.
Ford grinned.
“Dude,” Kevin said good-naturedly when they reached the table, each carrying several documents and pieces of equipment, “the universe has almost made up for creating you,” he pointed at Ford, “by creating him. Kid Cunning is awesome!”
“Don’t call him that,” Ford growled.
“Artifice Junior then? I’m partial to Guile too.”
“Lopez—”
Andrew’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
A second later, Ford’s did too.
It was obvious they’d received similar messages once Andrew read his—one of his police notifications for anything related to his business.
Burglary in progress.
He and Ford eyed each other with a touch of their usual evasiveness.
“While working together, why don’t we agree on an honor system,” Andrew said. “We share everything we find out until this case is over. For Dalton.”
“Riley got an alert about a robbery,” Ford relented. “It seems the MO was like our mystery thief, but when they tried to leave, they tripped an alarm. After all these break-ins, they hit in the middle of the day and finally messed up.”
“All these break-ins?” Dalton repeated. “You mean this thief has struck before?”
Public Enemy, Undercover Lover Page 7