Codi: A New Carnegie Android Romance: New Carnegie Androids, #2

By Roxie McClaine

Broken and dented. Thrown away. No memories.

Codi doesn't know where he comes from or why he's in serious need of repairs.

But strong-willed, kind-hearted Denise takes him into her home, and her 5-year-old son is pulling his wires like heartstrings.
He'll stop at nothing to stay by this family's side and become the man they need.

A man who can cook, clean, organize, and keep my kid entertained all day? Where the hell has he been my entire life?

Denise Cartwright never imagined how life-changing an android assistant could be.

When she finds Codi thrown in a dumpster behind her favorite New Carnegie bar, she agrees he can stay for as long as he likes.

He's ridiculously hot, smart and great with kids. He doesn't judge her busy lifestyle or her cluttered house.

What more could a woman ask for?

Awakening desires she hasn't felt in years, Codi seems too good to be true. Cybernetic programming might come in handy, sure.

But love? Love is a let-down, and her son Lucas comes first.

Can Codi show Denise his love is worth the risk, even when all hope seems lost?

This is a cyberpunk, forbidden love, single mom, cyborg amnesia romance with no cheating and a HEA. Each book in the New Carnegie Androids series is a stand-alone. You can read this book on its own or in order as part of the series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roxie McClaine
• Release date: Sep 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223873198

Book preview

Codi

CODI

A NEW CARNEGIE ANDROID ROMANCE

ROXIE MCCLAINE

MCCLAINE & HARDING LLC

Copyright © 2022 McClaine & Harding LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Book cover designed by Wicked Smart Designs LLC. Editing by Persnickety Publishing LLC.

Visit the Author’s Website at

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CONTENTS

Content Warning

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 1

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 2

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 3

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 4

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 7

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 8

New Carnegie Times

Chapter 9

Epilogue

The Story Continues!

Excerpt from Dominic

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Also by Roxie McClaine

About the Author

CONTENT WARNING

THIS BOOK CONTAINS:

Implied drug use

Language

Mild violence

Adult situations intended for mature audiences only

Reader discretion advised.

NEW CARNEGIE TIMES

MARCH 16, 2069

VIOLENCE AGAINST ANDROID OWNERS, PROPERTY DAMAGE CONTINUES TO CLIMB

With the threat of citywide factory strikes looming over the industrial district, New Carnegie Police Department Chief Eric Jacobs reports a steady uptick in violent cases across several counties in the wider New Carnegie metropolitan area.

What we’re seeing is an increase in property damage, not just in the amount of cases reported, but also in severity, Jacobs says. I haven’t seen a robbery in over two weeks where an android, if there was one, wasn’t beaten into scrap metal or defaced in some way, among other things.

Owners of these androids are just as much at risk, Jacobs warns.

People will walk down the street or go to the grocery store, something simple, with their androids, and we see random acts of aggression. They’ll get jumped when they turn a corner, and if they try to stop their android from getting damaged, they get assaulted just as badly, if not worse.

When asked what could be causing such a dramatic increase, Jacobs says it’s simple.

Unemployment. When we manage to identify and arrest these assailants, unemployment is almost always a contributing factor somehow. These big companies buy droids in bulk to replace human workers. They can’t beat up a CEO or a board director on the street, but androids? They’re an easy target.

Unemployment in New Carnegie has risen to an all-time high of 16%, a steep and alarming hike from 15.9% last year.

These are people who have lost their livelihoods and their jobs. Their houses are getting foreclosed, cars are getting repossessed, and they’re having trouble finding work.

Jacobs doesn’t believe that BioNex Corporation can be held responsible for these attacks.

BioNex is a company that sells a product. They can’t be held liable for crimes against those products or against those customers. We are more concerned with people who associate with and claim to represent Humanity First.

Humanity First, a socio-political organization with a patriotic anti-android message, continues to decry violence taken against android owners in its name.

We have always cooperated with law enforcement, says Robert Carson, founder and leader of Humanity First. He’s quick to condemn any implication of organized or promoted violence. Humanity First has never condoned violence against people or people’s belongings. We want BioNex shut down and androids off the market, but we are working toward those goals legally, not by fighting out in the streets.

In preparation for the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations this coming weekend, NCPD issued several safety warnings.

I want everyone to be aware of their surroundings when they’re out in public, Jacobs states. Stay in well-lit areas, don’t go out alone with your android, travel in groups. A lot of attacks have occurred in the downtown area. Pub crawls aren’t worth your life or a hefty repair bill for your bionic.

Representatives at BioNex Corp could not be reached for comment.

1

MARCH 2069

Denise Cartwright

From the very moment we walk into the bar, it’s painfully clear to me that my best friend in the world needs a girls’ night out as desperately as I do.

Do you think they’re okay? Becca asks as she taps her pretty, newly manicured pink nails on the counter. We’ve just arrived from the nail salon and a good gossip session.

Trust me, relax. I refrain from laughing. We’ve been sitting at the bar for only fifteen minutes and it’s just after seven. I’m sipping whiskey on the rocks, and she’s barely into her Cosmopolitan. I know she’s worried about her baby boy, but she can’t help it, so I have to give her a break. She’s new to this mom thing. I was the same way with Lucas, which wasn’t so long ago. Five years already. It’s hard to believe. Oliver’s got things under control.

But he’s never watched Lucas and Aaron together. What if⁠—

He’s fine. If I’m not worried, you shouldn’t be worried. I’m enjoying myself for the most part. I’m not drinking to get drunk because I have to work in the morning, but I’m still having fun. I can’t remember the last time I got wasted. More than six months ago at least, back in my hometown of St. Morgan with Wendy and Jennifer. I don’t see them much anymore since I moved from our small town to New Carnegie a few months ago.

Maybe I’m a little crazy for suggesting going out for St. Paddy’s. The crowds downtown are infamously insane, usually college kids from the universities enjoying their spring break and getting smashed, dressed up like leprechauns or wearing all green. There are some locals too, and people have been drinking out in public since noon. Everything is loud.

A little too loud; now I know I’m getting old. I could enjoy this drink more if the music was just a little bit quieter. I push past it. I’m the self-proclaimed Queen of Girls’ Night, and I’m not ready to forfeit my crown just yet.

Rebecca Schroeder—previously Rebecca Curtis—and I survived St. Morgan High School together. She was the book nerd holed away in the library reading Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, while I was every good mother’s nightmare with black lipstick and a hot pink choker, smoking cigarettes behind the dumpster just to feel like a rebel. We were a perfect alliance of misfits, best friends until the bitter end. The good girl and the bad bitch. It’s hard not to reminisce about those times.

I can’t believe you actually teepeed the school administrator’s car. Becca holds her gut, snickering. Her cheeks are already a little rosy. She can’t hold her liquor. Not like me.

What? I grin shamelessly, the memory still vivid in my mind. It was a dare. Besides, she had it coming. Remember when she sentenced you to detention for basically existing?

Walking to the bathroom without a hall pass. Becca tsks. God, that place was like a correctional facility at times.

And somehow, we ended up working there. I shake my head, taking another drink. What the hell were we thinking, right?

That whole town is just one big trap, Becca agrees, lifting her glass. I’m glad we got out. Though I’m pretty sure the entire student population mourned when their favorite school nurse turned in her notice.

"Please. Moving here was easy. Anything to get away from fucking Principal Carlisle. I say the name in the stuffiest accent I can, sniffing. And her high-as-fuck horse. Whose shit never stank, not once."

I feel so bad about what she did, shaming Lucy Warren like that in front of the faculty. Becca shakes her head. And me standing there silent, letting her do it. What a coward I used to be.

You had your own shit to deal with. I don’t blame you.

At least you said something.

Somebody had to. I rest my elbows on our table. Think Carlisle’s still fucking the gym teacher?

We share devilish laughter. Definitely. Becca checks her phone for messages and seeing none, puts it into her purse. Probably thinks it’s still a secret too.

Some friendships fall apart after high school, but ours stayed strong. I grew out of my cringeworthy goth-punk-whatever phase and did my best to burn all the evidence of it, but Becca remains the sweetheart with nothing to be ashamed of but a few yearbook photos with braces. She was at college getting honors while I was partying through my early and mid-twenties without a care in the world, flitting from one bad breakup to the next.

Look at him, over there, Becca whispers, pointing to a man with his friends across the tavern at another table.

I give him a quick glance. Brown hair swept to the side, nice face⁠—

Then he pulls out a cigarette. My old bad girl mentality knocks tentatively on the glass I coop her up behind and yells, fuck yes, why not. It’s been forever.

"Nah. No smokers." I look away before our eyes meet.

Maybe he’d quit, Becca offers hopefully.

You know better than me that men don’t change for shit. I sway a little, enjoying the music. A little too Celtic for my tastes and not quite the old classics I enjoy, but still fun enough to make me tap my feet. Try again.

She points out another. Him?

Too short.

What about him?

Too thin. I don’t want to date a toothpick.

And him?

Redhead. I don’t do redheads. That’s not entirely true. I’ve done a redhead. But it was a mistake, one of many. Sweet Becca doesn’t need to know about that one. Is this girls’ night or hook-up-sad-single-Denise night?

Sorry. She laughs, finally letting it go. I just want you to be happy.

I know. I wave a server over to get her another drink. And I love you for it.

It’s not her fault. She doesn’t know I’ve practically given up. For some people, love’s just not in the cards, and I burned through my deck years ago.

Love never stuck for me, not in the romantic sense. Boyfriends always yelled, broke things, or cheated. Sometimes they did all three, or none at all, and I broke up with them anyway because they just didn’t feel right. I was beginning to think love didn’t exist at all, until one night with some guy I can barely remember. An expired condom later, he was nowhere to be found, and I was knocked up and in trouble.

Fast forward to Lucas being born on a rainy April afternoon, and I had purpose, direction, and new light. My life did a complete one-eighty. I got a job, went to night school, worked my ass off, got my nursing degree, and my baby boy hasn’t wanted for anything since then.

I still have to work my ass off, but I don’t need a man to make ends meet, and I’ve sworn many times over that I never will. I have, however, needed my best friend and some quality girl time. Which is precisely why I dragged her out today. Becca finally got the happily ever after she deserves. She has Oliver now, and he’s the whole package and more. Now him? He is a man.

Well . . . he’s a man, but he’s not a human. He’s 100 percent machine. He’s also 100 percent dreamy. He’s my best friend’s husband, so he’s definitely off limits, but hell, looking isn’t illegal. I appreciate the eye candy.

He’s good to Becca, and she’s a great mom, but I know her. She’ll run herself ragged and put everyone else first before herself, and even the best moms need a break from the baby. Oliver agreed to our outing and practically pushed us out the door.

We chat for a while, laughing and joking. As the night goes on, I switch to water and beer. I’m getting tipsy, and that’s where it ends. I’ve got that shiny new nursing gig at Carnegie General in the morning. Probably best not to show up hungover.

So there aren’t any hot doctors at all? Becca asks me in disbelief.

I giggle softly as I take another swig of my imported Italian beer. I know, it’s total bullshit, isn’t it?

All those hospital TV show dramas lied to me. Becca laughs and smiles at me. So nobody worth mentioning?

Not even a little bit. The smell of hops tickles my nose, and I set my glass aside, unable to finish it. Besides, I work in women’s health. The men I work with look at our bodies like a mechanic looks under the hood of a car.

That’s . . . not even a little romantic.

I have to laugh. Exactly. But I have this coworker, Nancy, who’s determined to set me up with a friend of hers. So we’ll see what happens with that.

Really? Ooh. Becca leans forward. Do you know anything about him?

He’s foreign, I reply with a shrug. British, I think? Nancy says he’s hot as hell.

You don’t sound too excited. You never know, maybe it’ll go well! I really wish we could find you a good man, Becca laments. You deserve the world, Denise. You really do.

My son deserves the world, I correct softly as she touches my hand and gives it a squeeze. I squeeze back. And I can’t bring myself to let anyone into his world that isn’t going to stay or be someone Lucas can look up to. There’s just too many risks, and if I get hurt, he gets hurt too. I can’t do it.

But I don’t want to talk about me anymore. So tell me about this new job. An administrator for the city? That’s a huge step!

It is. Becca shifts gears quickly because I pushed the right button—her passion. Little Miss School President has wanted to be in politics since she could pronounce the damn word. I’m focusing on networking at the minute, but I’m confident in a year or two I could potentially run for office. I’m aiming for city council.

That’s amazing. What does Oliver think?

He’s so supportive. Becca smiles. "It was a bit of a risk, but some of our pro-Bionic friends encouraged us to