Page 38 of Matteo

“That’s your desk.” He nods at the empty desk and a knot forms instantly in my stomach. I’m sitting directly outside his office which means he can see me clearly.

I'll feel like I'll be constantly watched. He sets off again, leading me to the corner of the room where more windowed walls enable me to look inside and see rows of server racks with cables tumbling out of them.

“This is the server room.” He uses his lanyard to open the door.

“You love your all-seeing windowed walls,” I remark, my stomach still uneasy from having seen my desk. I don't like the idea of being constantly surveyed by this man. By anyone, but especially by Matteo. He's annoyed by his father's decision to hire me, and he's going to make sure I pay the price.

He doesn’t trust his father, and now, by extension, he doesn't trust me.

Rows of black cabinets stretch across the floor. Lights flicker and blink in the cold, dark air.

I shiver. “It's colder than I expected.”

“Machines perform better in the cold. You should know that.”

He walks around, a low energy hum breaking the silence. It helps to calm me down because for some inexplicable reason, my heart is beating faster than usual. I tell myself that it’s nothing to do with Matteo's black T, or the corduroy shirt he's casually thrown over it. Or the fact that his sleeves are rolled up, and his tattoos on display for me to see.

Family and truth.

I’m beginning to find a little thread of something, given the interaction I’ve seen between him and his father, and the vague answers Matteo gave me when I asked about his tattoos.

“You're here to do a security audit, so I guess you can get started with that.”

“You don't sound too happy about me being here.”

His jaw tightens, and I know I've hit the truth.

His eyes hold mine. “My father hired you, and I wasn’t privy to any of the discussions or the hiring process. I'm not sure what to do with you.”

I raise an eyebrow. “You're not sure?” My voice turns seductive. I have no idea where that came from. Maybe it's because I was trapped in the elevator with him, and felt like I was getting to know him.

The skin around his eyes tightens. My breath hitches as I brace myself for a cold rebuke. But he says nothing. Instead he watches me a little too closely, almost like he doesn't know what to make of me, or how to be around me.

“Everything that runs Knight Enterprises passes through this room.”

I look around calmly. “Including the glitches?”

His Adam's apple bobs, but once again, he doesn't say anything.

Stop with the lame jokes.

“What sort of issues are you experiencing?” I ask, before he goes ahead and fires me.

“Minor things mostly,” he says. “Employees temporarily losing access to systems they should be able to access. Credentials being revoked without authorization. Two programmers were locked out of the dev server last week.”

“Nothing catastrophic. Nobody's stolen data. Nobody's brought down a server. It seems to be just low-level stuff at the moment.” He wipes a hand across his brow. “But that’s the problem,” he says, glancing at me. “Individually, none of it is serious. Together, it suggests someone's messing around in our systems, and we can't figure out why.”

I nod, already mapping it out in my head.

“I’ll need access to your authentication logs, user permission structures, and any recent security patches or updates. If there’s a pattern, it’ll be in there. I’ll also want to run a controlled access test—see how your system behaves under pressure.”

“All the issues so far have been minor,” he insists, dismissively.

“That's not how your father sees it.”

He presses his lips together.

I need to get this off my chest. Clear the air. If we're going to be professional then I at least need to say it out loud. “You hate that your father hired me.”