by Chloe Barlow
A STEEL
TOWN
A GATEWAY TO LOVE NOVEL
CHLOE T. BARLOW
A STEEL TOWN
A GATEWAY TO LOVE NOVEL
PROLOGUE
“A.J., get over here and sit on my lap,” Trey urged, turning from his computer so he could reach a hand out to his girlfriend.
“There you go, ordering me around again,” she teased from her spot on the lone twin bed in his dorm room.
He’d spent one sleepless night during his freshman year infiltrating Stanford’s housing protocols to get himself assigned to a single room for his sophomore year. That effort was really paying off, because privacy was turning out to be vital.
“That’s right,” he answered. “And I’ll be even more demanding if you don’t get that cute ass of yours over here…now.”
“Oh yeah? Well, maybe I want to keep saying ‘no,’ then I’ll see how far I can push you before you break…”
“You’ve already broken me, so now I just want you near me. Come here. Look at what we were able to get.”
She unfolded her long legs, and quickly made her way across the room to stand next to him.
“Holy hell, Trey, it worked! Look at all this data.”
“It’s not just information. Our plan to get control over the whole university mainframe and its servers worked, too — all that power is right here at our fingertips. And there’s no tracing it to us because we’ve perfectly mimicked the system.”
“Wow! All this with just our little program?”
“Little? I think it’s pretty big,” Trey corrected.
“Not as big as I’d hoped, but I guess you’re right.”
“That’s because I reined it in some.”
Frustration streaked across her face, hardening her voice when she blurted out, “What the hell, Trey? I thought we were doing this together?”
“We are. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I made this change. But this is just for fun, right? To see if we can do it?”
“You’re right, I’m sorry. I just…I want it to be amazing, like what you told me you’d done when you were in high school.”
“What I did was too amazing. The hardest thing with a virus like this is containing it. We don’t want it to get away from us. It’s how shit gets out of hand.”
“I know…” Her voice was distant, fading off as her eyes began darting quickly around the room and back to the glowing screen in front of Trey. He could almost feel the nervous energy emanating from her.
“A.J., calm down.” He grabbed her wrist and dragged her on top of him, letting his hand slide up her arm, then down her shapely torso, settling finally at her waist. She giggled in response, relaxing against him.
“Sorry. It’s hard not to be excited. I’ve never done anything like this before. I spent all my days before I met you doing the right thing. It never even occurred to me to try something like this. If I hadn’t been partnered with you for this project, I would’ve kept on living my boring life, doing the actual assignment, creating antivirus software. But making a super virus? This is so much more fun!”
“I definitely enjoyed corrupting you, A.J. — both your brain and your body.”
A.J. met his eyes, then pulled Trey’s arms around her waist and said, “I enjoyed it, too. You were very good at bringing me to the dark side.” She kissed him quickly, smiling against his mouth, before turning back to the screen. “What else should we do with it?”
“What do you mean?”
“It seems like such a waste to use it as just a little school prank. Why can’t we do more?”
“Like what?” he queried slowly, concern spreading through him.
“Whatever we want. If we’re always scared of what bad thing might happen down the road, we’ll never find out what we can really do,” she persuaded.
“We have to be careful, A.J.,” he warned. “If Stanford gets wind of what we did with our ‘little’ sophomore year project…”
“We’ll get expelled?”
“No. We won’t just get kicked out of school. We’ll go to jail. Trust me, I know how much you want to take the credit…how you want to prove yourself…but I also know what it’s like to get picked up by the cops.”
“You were only fourteen.”
“Exactly, and they’ll be much less forgiving this time.”
“But your dad owns most of Silicon Valley. There maybe wouldn’t even be a Silicon Valley as we know it without him. He can get you out of anything.”
“I’m not asking that of him again. I gave him my ‘word,’ as he called it — swore I wouldn’t let shit get away from me like I did before.”
Trey made sure to keep his voice gentle, because disappointing her actually physically hurt him. Her sexy mouth twisted into a pout and his stomach immediately tightened in response. He’d never loved anyone before, but he was pretty sure what he felt for A.J. had to be it.
Yet, losing control of one of his little games almost broke whatever was left of his family once before. With the genius of the Adler line, came its own particular strain of madness — an almost pathological need to create and rule over your own reality, one separate from everyone else’s, and completely subject to your control.
This urge thrived inside of them, whether it was in relation to the collection of mortal beings in their lives, or over a pattern of ones and zeroes, such as those his father developed. One of them had even become the most important operating system of its time, revolutionizing the world in the 1980s.
This Adler “gift” was great for building an alternate world, but it was also perfect for devastating relationships in a real one. Trey was intent on controlling this side of himself so he wouldn’t lose A.J., but he had to balance this desire against the promise he’d made to his father.
“Fine. But I can’t help but want to shove it in that asshat, Professor Cooper’s, face. I’d love to show him a girl actually can be a hacker.”
A.J.‘s face turned into a mask of angry resolve.
“You’re still pissed about that?”
“Hell yes, I am. He spends every day of class acting like everyone who ever did anything with a computer had a penis. Especially stuff like this.” She waved her hand toward the screen, a vibrant symbol of just what this sexy, and voluptuous, girl could accomplish. “I mean, the school could be taken down with one keystroke…we did that. And you need to calm down, because we aren’t going to get caught.”
“You won’t rest until you prove the whole world wrong, will you?”
“Damn straight, I won’t. I showed you what I can do, which was hard enough. Taking on the rest of the world seems like a good next step.”
Trey smiled and stroked slowly over the length of her long, blonde ponytail, taking a moment to bury his nose into her neck.
“All I want is to feel you close to me, A.J. World domination is not really my thing,” Trey whispered against her skin.
“Oh, really? You seem pretty comfortable telling me what to do. Maybe simply lording over me is what you’re into.”
“I like the sound of that. But, even if I may need to dominate some things, the rest of the world can wait.”
A.J. giggled again. “Hey, remember when you told me every good virus needs a cool name?”
“I do. What should we call ours?”
“Hmm…” A.J. intoned. She crinkled her nose and squinted her pretty, light blue eyes, a sure sign she was deep in thought. “I was thinking we could call it ‘Starling.’”
“Like the bird?”
“Exactly! They are gifted mimics, and will actually take over another bird’s nest and control it.”
“They’re also beautiful, just like you,” Trey
whispered against the soft skin of her cheek.
“You’re gonna turn me into goo, Trey. Before I rip your clothes off, we need to record this moment of triumph, partner,” A.J. said gleefully, grabbing Trey’s digital camera from beside his keyboard. She quickly turned it around and snuggled up to him before snapping several shots.
Flipping through the pictures, Trey’s heart squeezed at the sight of them together — smiling, laughing, and sticking their tongues out. It was the most normal he’d ever felt, and it was amazing.
Her face turned serious when she looked over to him, wrapping her arms around his neck, the camera still dangling from her hand.
He pulled her flush against his chest and said, “I’d love to be able to give you whatever you want, A.J.”
“You make me so happy, Trey. That’s enough, I swear,” she whispered in his ear.
Five Weeks Later
“Trey…Trey. Wake up. Please.”
A distant, pleading voice was breaking through Trey’s sleepy brain as hands shook him vigorously. He slowly opened his eyes to see A.J.‘s face. Even in the darkness, he could see her eyes were wide and frenzied.
“A.J.?”
“I packed you a bag. We have to get out of here, fast.”
“Are you messing with me? Come back to bed.” He reached for her, but she shook him off quickly. The movement jarred him fully awake. He sat up, running a hand through his hair, trying to will his brain to process how crazy A.J. was acting.
“What’s wrong, A.J.? You’re shaking.”
As his eyes adjusted to the lack of light, he saw her bite her quivering bottom lip and look away from him. She was breathing rapidly and spun her head back to the door, but she let him hold her briefly.
A feeling Trey assumed was fear, accentuated by a hint of panic, started to pour through his veins like liquid mercury — slippery and toxic.
A.J. had become increasingly erratic over the last few weeks. The logical part of Trey’s brain sensed she was hiding something from him. Every aspect of her had been changing more by the day, and she would disappear for hours on end. Trey’s practical instinct told him to demand A.J. tell him the truth. He’d even considered spying on her and reading her emails.
Yet, he’d repeatedly let the stupid lovesick part of himself win out — choosing to trust her and their feelings for each other. He deliberately ignored whatever signs were warning him something terrible was coming to destroy what they had. Fury with his own stupidity started to boil that mercury coursing through his body — making him embrace his own form of insanity.
He gritted his teeth, desperate to take control of the situation. Maybe if he’d been more tough with her before, rather than let her have her way all the time, they wouldn’t be in this situation — whatever it was.
With firm hands, he grabbed A.J.‘s upper arms and twisted her body to him. Her silence enraged him, and he could feel his self-control slipping away.
He sensed the code of his Adler-family DNA taking over his body after so many weeks of suppressing it. Leaping to his feet, he stood her up roughly, shaking her body and shouting at her brusquely, “Goddamn it, A.J. — I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the fuck is going on. Now!”
Her mouth dropped open, clearly shocked at how he’d changed with her.
“We don’t have much time. Can’t I tell you on the way?”
He just growled in response, squeezing her arms harder.
“Trey, you’re hurting my arms.”
“You’re hurting me. Tell me…please,” he said, his voice somber and pleading.
“I-I started playing with the Starling virus. I wanted to see what it could do…”
“What?”
Trey’s hands fell, and the fury in his veins turned to chilling terror in an instant.
“I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. It was just to see if I could do it. I thought if I made it bigger and controlled it…you’d be so impressed.”
“Why would you want to do that? You already know I think you’re amazing.”
“But we created the virus together. When you scaled it back without telling me, I thought you were just trying to protect me. I wanted you to see I could handle all this on my own — to make you really believe in me.”
“I told you — you can’t push it. Did the school find out? What happened?”
He rushed to his computer and started damage control — deleting every file and all the information they’d received, desperately trying to turn back time.
Her voice came through the room, thick as cotton candy, “Then I saw how much money we could make. I thought we could be set for life…”
Trey’s fingers stopped and he turned to her. It was suddenly far too clear to him.
“No, A.J. Please tell me you didn’t. Who?”
“Trey…”
“Who did you try to sell it to?” he roared.
“I don’t know their names, but they’re from Russia.”
“Holy shit. Russians?”
Trey felt like someone had kicked him in the gut. He bent at the waist, running his hands through his hair so hard it hurt his scalp. The world he’d been trying to build with A.J. was shattering right before his eyes, as though a catastrophic earthquake had split the ground beneath them — wreaking havoc on everything in their vicinity — and all he could do was helplessly watch.
Trey swallowed roughly around the strangling sensation from the destruction of his own stupid reality, and choked out, “Are you nuts, A.J.? You’re going to get us killed.”
“I swear, I had it all set up. I was using dummy accounts, fake identities, and everything. But I never got the payment yesterday. I was going through all the information today and they accessed it from just a few miles away. They’re here, Trey. I mean it…we have to leave.”
“Yes. We have to get fucking gone,” he answered stonily. Trey felt his head nod involuntarily along with his words. He moved quickly through the dorm, grabbing his computer and other necessities, as A.J. collected the bag she’d packed for him. Her mouth was moving, but all he heard was static and noise, like he’d been punched in the head and his ears were still ringing.
He took her hand and led her out the door. He felt his feet break into a run, bringing A.J. along with him. None of his motions felt real, he’d switched over to running a program — his own internal survival software was clicking through his muscles and joints, setting the pace of their quick steps.
Whatever force controlled his movements, also shot them out of the building to the deserted parking lot. Their feet slapped over and over on the wet pavement, but he felt them being directed to his parked car. It waited to transport them to the safety of a different world.
Trey released her hand so he could unlock his car with his key fob, the accompanying blinking light reflected off the wet droplets covering its dark blue paint, creating a halo of safety. He could feel his chest relax slightly as he reached back for A.J.‘s hand to help her get in the car. All he found when he grasped for her was empty air, and the terrifying sound of her scream.
As Trey turned, he saw the forms of two men; one was holding A.J. around the waist and she was sobbing uncontrollably. He lunged for them, but the other man grabbed him from behind.
“Say good-bye to your girlfriend,” he ordered, his accent thick and unmistakable.
“Help me, Trey, please,” she whimpered.
“I promise, I will. I promise!” Trey shouted. He tried to lunge for her again, but a fierce blow to his lower back doubled him over in pain. An elbow came down on him from above, hitting at the base of his neck. He fell to the ground, the wet pavement jarring his knees and seeping through his jeans. The cold didn’t even register in his brain, because his body had already turned to ice.
“Sorry, but you asked for that. It’s not nice to lie to a woman, Mr. Adler,” the man holding A.J. said, taunting him. “You will be fine, the ransom we can get for you is too high to pass up. Now this one here, though? We aren’t sure what she�
��d be worth. Probably too much trouble, right, Ivan?”
“Your choice, Vlad.”
The one called Vlad chuckled, “I like that. Choices are good.”
A.J. turned her head to find Trey’s eyes. Her face became fierce with power and strength. He tried to shake his head at her, tell her not to do anything stupid, but he couldn’t tell if any part of him had moved — the glacial chill of doom had already frozen his whole body.
She slammed her heel down hard on the top of Vlad’s foot, and then elbowed him in the stomach. He growled furiously, grabbing her hair in his hand, making her cry out in response. He yanked her body around by the hair repeatedly.
“A.J.!” Trey shouted after them, finally finding his voice. He heard a gunshot and saw the bright flash of the bullet’s report. A.J. made the oddest sound — a combination of shock and pain, then her body crumpled to the ground.
Before he could see her face one more time, Trey felt a brutal impact against the back of his own head.
Blackness invaded the edges of his eyes, and with his last conscious thought the crushing reality hit him: this was what it really meant to be an “Adler” — he was not a creator of worlds, but a destroyer of them.
CHAPTER ONE
Approximately Ten Years Later
Claudia McCoy slammed the driver’s side door of her car shut behind her so hard it sent reverberations through the metal handle, rattling her hand and jarring the length of her arm in response. For good measure, just in case the offending automobile wasn’t perfectly aware of how supremely pissed off she was, she delivered a firm kick to her front left tire. The rounded tip of her leather boot connected perfectly, bringing a grim smile to her tense face.
The satisfaction faded quickly, leaving her with jangled nerves. She cringed at her lost temper, taking a moment to peer at the door and make sure it was okay. It wasn’t really her car, after all. It was the safe and reliable ride her brother, Wyatt, had bought for her as a college graduation present — another gift she’d never asked for, but could certainly not decline.
