Broken Circuits (VeeMark)

Chapter Nineteen

Vee blinked slowly and lazily stretched his body out, enjoying the experience of waking up when his body decided it was time rather than being wrenched from sleep to the blaring of an alarm. He and Mark had gone to bed early the night before after having a nice evening in at Vee's place. Absentmindedly, Vee reached out towards Mark's side of the bed then frowned when his hand only encountered cool sheets. Mark was not there. Sighing, Vee clambered out of bed, his mind and body still heavy with sleep, and headed out of the bedroom to find him. He padded around his apartment but did not find Mark; he was not in the living room, kitchen, or the bathroom.

Where was Mark?

It was quite early in the morning and there was plenty of time before work so they could have had a lazy morning in bed, but no. Mark had silently slipped out, leaving him alone. Vee frowned, a little irritated with both Mark and himself. Sometimes, he thought he might be too clingy, but he decided to firmly ignore that insecure feeling, knowing that if it bothered Mark he would say so.

Then came a clatter from the one room he hadn't checked: his home office. Vee groaned, shaking his head at his own stupidity. Of course, that's where Mark would be. His office should have been the first place Vee checked, mainly because it was more like Mark's office now. Vee never really worked at home, but Mark did. He liked working on his projects and fixing up random pieces of technology.

Vee gingerly opened the door, trying to avoid its tell-tale creak, then quietly tiptoed in.

His office's modern decor had been overrun with Mark's influence. The abstract canvas paintings hanging on the walls were surrounded by blueprints and sketched designs, bits of tech were leaning against minimalist statues, one of which was even being used as a weight to hold two pieces of a cover together as the glue dried, and one of his extra tables, that he usually used for parties and he thought was still hidden away in a cupboard, was folded out in the corner and littered with broken circuits. The expensive carpet was, luckily, rolled up and shoved against the wall so that it would not get damaged. And, finally, there was the desk. It was faced away from the door and towards the floor to ceiling windows, which was why Mark had not seen Vee yet.

Vee smiled, taking in the line of Mark's body as he leaned over the desk. Mark had obviously just climbed out of bed and headed straight into the office: his hair was adorably messy, his movements were still sort of lethargic, and, as Vee neared him, Mark tipped his head back in a wide yawn. This likely meant that something in one of Mark's dreams had given him an idea and he hadn't been able to wait to try it.

Seeing that Mark did not have anything sharp or hot in his hands, Vee decided it was safe to surprise him with a back hug. As per usual, Mark jolted but quickly relaxed back into Vee's arms and set the tiny round device back onto the desk. Now, normally, if Mark went for a kiss Vee was more than happy to lean in and he didn't think that anything could distract him, but Vee couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. When Mark turned in his arms, Vee realised Mark was wearing magnifying glasses and they had a rather amusing effect on his eyes. Mark looked simultaneously sort of creepy, like a mad scientist, and cute, like a Disney character with huge eyes.

"You! Your eyes!" Vee panted through his laughter, pointing at the glasses.

Mark blushed, realising what Vee found so funny, before rolling his eyes, unfortunately, with the glasses still on which sent Vee into another peal of laughter.

"Idiot," Mark muttered, without any real heat, as he whipped the glasses off.

"Yeah, but I'm your idiot."

"Mmm."

Vee let out one last giggle at the slightly indignant look on Mark's face before kissing him gently.

"Good morning," Mark whispered, maneuvering Vee's hands to the desk behind him so that Vee's arms were around him, making sure that Vee's body was supported by his hands, so that they ended up with Vee leaning over Mark.

"Great morning," Vee breathed and, not wasting another second of being in this position, pressed his lips to Mark's.

Sadly, their plans for a lazy morning were interrupted by the insistent ringing of Vee's phone from the bedroom and it was with a groan of frustration that Vee left Mark in the office to answer the call. It was Bar. And he had bad news.

Kade had made another move against them. This time he had launched a product that was an exact copy of one being developed at their company. In fact, they had not been far off from launching it themselves, having finished it a month ago. It was clear that the design had been stolen from them and now, for the second time that year, they had to search for corporate spies.

Vee's rush to get ready and head in to work was interrupted by Mark and, after telling him what was going on, a pale Mark had demanded to go with him. When they arrived, Vee was called into an emergency meeting with the other executives and he and Mark parted with a quick kiss goodbye. Mark had gone to search for evidence in the Product Development department, his department, as that was where the leak must have come from. There would not be many other people there as, for most people, work would not start for another hour, so he would be able look without too many questions and prying eyes.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was tense. It did not seem that long ago that they had found out about the previous whole network of spies and had to fire them all. The feeling of betrayal was magnified this time it seemed. Executives were arguing and some were even speculating about who could have been the leak. It was a waste of time. For the moment, they should be focusing on damage control as they did not have any evidence regarding the identity of the spy. Vee began to say as much but was interrupted by Bar.

"The independent security contractors I hired found evidence of hacking and a collection of listening devices."

Vee cut through the angry yelling that statement caused to ask an incredibly relevant question, "Did they manage to identify the culprit?"

Bar appeared to hesitate, his eyes flicking from the message on his phone and back to Vee. The room had fallen silent as they waited for his answer. Then, with a pained expression, Bar replied directly to Vee.

"It's Mark."