Page 60 of Digital Desire

“I just can’t even bear to look at him. I want to kill him for what he did to you, to us both,” Jack said looking pained.

“I know. I get it, but you have to try. Mum would be crushed if she knew,” he said looking out of the windscreen as a light rain began to fall.

“I will. I just need some more time to process it all before I face him,” Jack said.

“Fine. I’ll take Aubrey to meet Mum then, you can pretend you’re on a mission,” Will sighed.

“No, no, you’ve handled enough on your own. We do this together, and I’ll control my impulse to murder the man who fathered us.”

“Good plan,” Will said as he grinned. “Now, let’s get going. I want to visit Drew before the party tonight,” he said sobering at the thought.

“Any news?” Jack asked as they moved towards the door and Will let them both in.

“He regained consciousness about six am for a few moments but went back to sleep. But this time it was the pain drugs that did it, not his injuries.”

“Poor guy. I like Drew he had, has a lot of potential.”

“Yeah, he does. He has wicked computer skills and picks things up really easily, and on top of that, he’s a good guy, with good morals.”

“Do you think he would want a job with Eidolon as our computer guy as you refuse to work with us?” Jack said as they entered the conference room that was already full.

“Maybe. When he feels better you could ask him, but you’ll have to get past Zack first,” Will said throwing his brother under the bus.

“Get past me for what?” Zack asked from where he stood pouring coffee into a mug.

“Jack is going to try and poach Drew for the computer systems,” Will said as Jack sat down just as Alex moved into the room, his hair wet from the rain by the looks of him.

“Fucking try it,” Zack growled at Jack. There was no heat in it, but the warning was still real.

“Fine, let’s wait and see what happens,” Jack replied without saying yes or no which nobody missed.

“Right, now everyone’s here, let’s get started. I promised Ava I would help with the decorations for tonight and getting on her wrong side is not how I plan to start my New Year,” Zack said as everyone quieted down.

“First things first, an update on Drew as of an hour ago. He’s awake and stable. He has been given the news about his leg but as you can imagine has not fully taken it in given the drugs they have him on. I have reassured Lauren that she has our full support with his recovery and Will has very kindly offered to pay for a private rehabilitation centre when he comes out, so we can get him back to fully fit which we all know is important to Drew.”

People turned to Will, and he hated the attention but knew people wanted to acknowledge his contribution.

“Liam has been moved into a private room beside Drew thanks to Doc Turner, and Lauren and Dane have decided to spend New Year’s with them which we respect. Now as you all know this shitstorm in Colombia has a few loose ends which I’m happy to say I can clear up a few of them but first I would like to hand over to Jack,” Zack said giving Jack the floor as he sat down.

“Thanks, Zack,” he said standing. “To clear up any confusion, I met with Siren after the hangar was attacked. I knew Chopper was tailing me, and we didn’t want to involve anyone else given the risky situation. The plan was to let me get caught and when he had taken me where he wanted, to call in back up. As it turned out, he wanted Will too. Siren followed at a distance using the tracker on my watch. She was then able to intercept the van, and you know the rest.”

“How did you know how to contact Siren? You never mentioned her before,” Alex asked with suspicion.

“Roz called, it was her idea.”

“Let me get this straight, you and Roz worked together?” Alex asked disbelievingly.

“Yes, even I can play nice when the need arises,” Jack said through gritted teeth.

“What about Camila? What was her involvement?” asked Jace.

“She was in love with Flowers. She agreed to help them trap Will using Pierre as the bait.”

“Poor Pierre,” said Lucy.

“So, what was his beef with you, Will?” Lucy asked.

Will shrugged. “Difficult to say. I think it was plain jealousy. He saw the relationship between his brother and Fortis and my involvement and saw an opportunity to get revenge because I wouldn’t join him on his mission to cause mayhem on a global scale.”