Page 22 of Matteo

I can scarcely breathe.

His son?

He’s from that family?

Now I understand what Matteo meant when he said Corporate won’t approve.

Corporate is his father, and clearly, he doesn’t approve, not just of how Matteo dresses, but of something more, something deeper, something fractured. But this is more than a fracture in their relationship.

I suddenly get a feeling about Matteo, about the words he didn’t say. About the tattoos on his skin. About the ink that tells a story. If only I had gotten close enough to dig deeper.

“Matteo, meet Elizabeth Raven,” Paul says. “Elizabeth runs her own cybersecurity firm. She’s on her final interview—”

“For what?” Matteo snaps.

“I’m looking for an external consultant to audit our systems—”

“To do what?” Matteo is pissed.

“To help your team to figure out what’s behind the software glitches we’ve been having,” his father says, unfazed.

“This is Elizabeth, and she’ll be doing a presentation—”

“We already met ... between floors.” Matteo’s hands are buried deep in his pockets. He glares at his father. “Why is this the first I’ve heard about this? Final interview, did you say?”

Paul puts his hands up and shrugs. “You’ve been too busy to deal with the technical issues, I figured you’d be too busy to do this.”

Matteo’s eyes burn with rage. “I’m on it, I told you. You don’t have to go around poking your nose in my business.”

They were arguing about this.

About me.

Matteo didn’t know and now that I think about it, all my meetings have been with Paul Knight. How does Matteo fit into all this? His jaw is clenched so tight, I fear he’ll grind his teeth down.

Paul turns to me. “Matteo is the Chief Technology Officer, responsible for tech and cybersecurity, amongst other things.”

Seriously? Every muscle in my body turns to stone. “W-will I be working alongside him?”

“Yes.”

My mind boggles. His father didn’t think to involve him in hiring me? No wonder he’s now looking at me like he wants to rip me to shreds.

Family and Truth, the words inked on his wrists.

This family feels like they’re at war.

Chapter 7

ELIZABETH

“I see.” My voice is barely a whisper.

“I need someone competent and able to do this job properly within a respectable timeframe,” Paul adds, a smug smile settling over his smooth face. This man is twisted.

I don’t even dare to look at Matteo.

“We are looking into this,” Matteo snarls, his tone deathly quiet. “These things take time. You just need to be patient.”