Page 25 of Matteo

“When the hell were you going to tell me about those?” Matteo snarls, his quick temper startling me. I feel uneasy, like I shouldn't be here.

“I still run this company. The technical issues are a worry—”

“I heard you, for the hundredth time, I heard you,” Matteo hisses.

“We don't need to have this discussion in front of one of our potential candidates, do we?” Paul says calmly, then he looks at me. “Elizabeth …”

I grasp my glass tighter and wait for him to say it.

Say it. Say it. Say it.

Say you know about my hacker past.

But he doesn't.

I set down my empty glass of water.

“As I said, we have more interviews to conduct, and HR will inform you either way. Thank you for your time.” He walks out, leaving me whiplashed at the speed with which he ended the interview.

Matteo gets up. He's quiet. I gather my things together, glancing at him occasionally. He walks towards me, and I brace myself, not sure which version of Matteo I'm about to get. The kind, caring guy from the elevator or—

He opens his mouth, then stops himself. Clamps his lips shut, then walks away and out of the office. I exhale a bottled-up breath, feel my shoulders slump from a release of tension.

I wonder what he was about to say.

I leave the office with conflicted thoughts. Even if I get this job, I don't want it. I really don't. There’s no way in hell I can work here with that guy.

I get into the elevator going down, still reeling from the interview. I close my eyes as it all comes rushing back—the memory of being trapped again, in such a small space, with Matteo.

Heat prickles along my skin as I recall the way his thumb brushed across my wrists, how he made me feel, how he cared for me when I was so scared and felt so trapped. I’ll never forget the way he told me to breathe, how he looked at me with such tenderness. I've lived in foster homes for weeks and months, with people who never cared, but this guy, within twenty minutes, made me feel safe and special.

I wish we’d exchanged numbers.

My eyelids fly wide open. There’s no way in hell anything would happen between me and him.

We’re so different.

And if I worked for him, he would no longer be that caring guy.

He’d hate me.

He’s so mad that his father went behind his back, he’d take his bitterness out on me.

I don't want this job anymore, even though it would help me to ethically rebrand and rebuild myself, to shake off my past as a grey-hat hacker. It would help me to conform. To establish me as a legitimate professional.

And yet, my gut warns me to walk away.

Chapter 8

MATTEO

I get into the elevator to go back to the tech lab, but I feel like a pressure cooker that's ready to erupt.

It's not like me to blow my top. I don't often lose it, not outright, Tarzan style, but the old man going behind my back like this is another level of fuckery.

We've always known him to be a sneaky, lying, conniving piece of work, but this, going behind my back and hiring someone to work for me, is another level. He’s always meddling in our businesses, in one way or another, but this feels like he's taken things too far.

That's why Dex and Rio kept going on about it. I wonder if he's said anything to them.