The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

95. Setting Up The Computer

RILEY

I UNFASTENED THE SEATBELT and tried to shake off the mini-argument I'd just had with Luc in front of everyone. It didn't work. When it'd be just us, the topic would be inevitable. Was it so hard for him to understand how much I worried? That I couldn't agree to let him endanger himself without me?

My sight dropped on a patch of lawn near the driveway and I focused on my breathing. Hands fell onto the back of my car seat and Raymond's, breaking my focus.

I looked over at Lauren propped between us. Her eyes, as green as summer grass, slid to Raymond with a smirk that reminded me of Dad as he watched me unwrap a Christmas present.

"So... Are you ready to see what it's all about?"

I had the distinct impression of hearing the enthusiasm of a geek waiting to show another geek their gaming setup upstairs. And I welcomed it because it distracted me from what happened earlier.

"I can help unload it, too."

Raymond's eyes flew up from the steering wheel. "Let's hurry up."

Both shot out of the car faster than me but not inhumanly fast, and their arms were already messing around the trunk. Raymond groaned out a laugh as he hauled the computer in his arms. "Oh yeah, come to Daddy."

Lauren passed me a laptop, some cables, and a small but heavy safe box. She hauled a monitor under one arm and pulled down the trunk with the other. Raymond leaned a hip against it.

"Michael ratted you out and made sure you'd disappear, and now he just gives you these things and the house?"

She hopped up the steps and reached the door, ponytail swiping under the hood. "What was he going to do this time? Double outcast me? Tell them I was returning?" A low, sinister sound came out of her. "Threaten my family when I could destroy everything and everyone around him?"

He stilled over one step, and I thought I noticed his balance falter. "Couldn't he have told them where you were?"

Lauren knocked the door aside with a shoulder and crossed the hall. We traded a subtle look, and I fell in step as the door closed behind me.

"There's one thing you need to understand about that man," she explained, straightening after setting the monitor down in the living room. She swiped the hood off. "He's on his own side. Whatever saves his ass and keeps his interests. You wouldn't expect anything less from a businessman. I threatened to leak the lies about NIO and that he'd been aware of their activities—promised them to stay out of the way—this whole time. It was in the bag."

She spun to face us, hands planted on her hips with impatience. Stars went off in Raymond's gaze for a moment and he leaned into my ear. "Told you this one likes playing games."

He stalked toward his computer desk in the corner of the room, placing the new processor near Lauren's monitor. We got down to work, quickly plugging and connecting everything in.

By the time we were finished, the door flapped open under a warm breeze and Luc strolled in, running a hand through his hair. A jolt went through my spine as I watched him toss the sunglasses on the coffee table and shed off the jacket.

The stare he sent my way promised a later conversation. I didn't know why exactly, but I swallowed. Maybe because Lauren had related in the ride back what resulted out of the meeting, more or less, and I knew now what made him wary, on edge.

"What's in the box?" I prodded the thing that sat close to my knees on the floor.

Lauren rolled in her chair to me, having already typed in her login password. While she sat there, it just... struck me how she seemed much more in her element. It was all over her body, from the loose arm draped across the back of the chair to the easy tilt of her head.