“What the hell?”I mutter.
Caleb is beside me in an instant, his hands moving over my keyboard with surprising expertise.“Don’t touch anything.”
“What are you?—”
“Your system’s compromised.”His voice is grim as code scrolls across my screen faster than I can follow.“Someone’s been copying your files.”
My blood turns to ice.“What kind of files?”
“Everything.Vendor contacts, project timelines, budget information.”He continues typing, his fingers flying over the keys with the kind of precision that comes from serious training.“There’s a data mining program running in the background, sending copies of everything to an external server.”
“That’s impossible.I would have noticed?—”
“Not if it was installed by someone with administrative access.”He glances at me, his expression dark.“Someone who could input it during normal work hours when you wouldn’t think to look.”
The implication hits me like a physical blow.“Someone on our team.”
“Looks like it.”He continues working, windows opening and closing as he traces the program’s origins.“This is sophisticated stuff.Professional-grade surveillance software.”
I watch him work, and despite everything, I can’t help but be impressed.This isn’t casual computer knowledge—this is expert-level programming and security work.
“How do you know how to do this?”I ask.
“I majored in computer science before switching to business,” he says without looking up.“I like to keep up with coding.Good for my business.”
I sit in silence, watching in awe as he focuses on the screen.He’s usually so relaxed, almost lazy even, when he’s working.Seeing him like this, hyper-focused, all business, it makes something inside me unfurl.
“Got it,” he says finally, hitting a final key sequence.“The program’s disabled and removed.But Eve...”
“What?”I try to keep my voice steady.
He turns to face me, his expression serious.“Whoever did this has been collecting your data for months.Every vendor contact, every strategy meeting, every confidential detail about the Serastra project.”
The room feels like it’s spinning.“You think that’s how our competitors knew to target Martin and the others?”
“Has to be.”His voice is grim.“This explains everything.Someone’s been feeding information to rival companies, letting them know exactly who to target and when.And it’s through your laptop.”
And as the full scope of the betrayal hits me, I realize that working all night to save the Serastra project might be the least of our problems.
It’s past midnight, and Eve’s still at her desk.Her head keeps dipping forward, jerking back up as she fights sleep, her pen slowing over the list of vendors she’s been combing through for hours.I told her to go home an hour ago—hell, I told her three times—but she shot me that stubborn look of hers and said she wasn’t leaving me to do this alone.
Now her eyelids are finally losing the battle.
I watch her nod off, chin brushing her chest, until the pen slips from her fingers and clatters to the desk.She doesn’t stir.
Sighing, I push back from my chair and cross the office.She’s lighter than I expect when I scoop her up, all soft curves tucked against me.She murmurs something incoherent, her head falling against my shoulder, and I bite back a curse at the way it makes my chest tighten.
I carry her down the hall to the break room and ease her onto the couch.She curls instinctively toward the warmth I leave behind, frowning in her sleep.Even unconscious, she refuses to give an inch.
Figures.
I make myself a cup of coffee, leaning against the break room table, cup in hand.The bitter scent fills the air, comforting in its own way.Across the floor, the light in Iris’s office is still on.No surprise there.She’s been running herself ragged.She took a power nap a couple of hours ago, and now she’s back at it.
We’re all burning out trying to plug leaks, and Eve… She’s killing herself to keep pace.
I glance at her again, stretched out on the couch, hair tumbling in dark waves across her cheek.She looks almost peaceful like this, the sharp edges smoothed away by sleep.
Watching her, I wonder what I’m doing, offering to be her fake boyfriend to get rid of her ex.I stay out of troublesome situations.I shouldn’t have volunteered and then insisted when she was reluctant.But something about Luis bothers me.It’s the way he looked at her, the manner in which he spoke to her.He’s not the kind of man who’s going to back off, even if he knows she’s with someone.But with me around all the time, he’s going to have a hard time getting to her.
