Zane
Oh! yesssss.... Right there!
The words echoed through my head as I woke up the next morning, and they kept popping up at will. I can still remember the satisfying moans that followed those words when her orgasm hit while I plunged into her. The alluring pose of her spine arched up against my hips had left me breathless. I chuckled, knowing I had more in store for her. I felt a slight tingling of emptiness as I noticed she was no longer beside me; she was gone.
The passionate feeling filled my head as I tossed off the tangled sheets that smelled like her and crawled out of bed. Ache rocked my body from the night before, but it was such a rewarding pain after all. The lush memory stayed with me as I wore my custom suit and slipped on the leather shoes. I didn't get rid of it even as I headed over to the penthouse elevator and all the way to my office wing.
Sienna. The subject of my thoughts...
She was already there when I arrived, sitting at the long glass table outside my office. Her chic-style blazer hugged her body, reminding me of how I had wrapped my arms around it hours before. She was flipping through a file like she hadn't spent the night moaning about my name. Like she hadn't fallen apart in my arms. I barely made it two steps inside before she looked up, pinning me with those hazel-knowing eyes.
"Morning, boss," she said in a light voice, but I caught the challenge beneath it, like she was daring me to acknowledge what had happened between us.
By the time I made it to my office, Sienna followed after me, and I could feel her pressing against me, threatening to crack the control I was holding onto by a thread. "Are we really going to pretend this morning didn't happen?"
I clenched my jaw, keeping my eyes on my laptop screen. "Is this you wanting more already?"
I heard her inhale sharply before she let out a quiet laugh, but there was no humor in it. "Wow," she muttered. "You really are an ass." I finally looked up at her. Her arms were folded under her breasts, lifting the flesh higher. Oh, Sienna, the things you do to me.
My phone buzzed, distracting me from my train of thought. I reached for it, and then everything shifted as I glanced at the screen. It was a single text from an unknown number. I scrolled down and found they had attached a photo, too. It was a shot of Sienna. Not since last night. Not from anywhere she should have been watched. But from this morning. Taken right here at my office.
My blood ran cold. I felt the shift in my expression before I heard her voice. "What?"
I looked at her. "You're being watched."
Her brows pulled together, but I could already see it. That flash of fear before she locked it down. "What do you mean?"
I turned the screen toward her, and she stiffened immediately. The photo showed her walking into the building, coffee in hand, unaware of the camera trained on her.
Then, below the image, a single message. She's not as safe as you think.
I rose to my feet, already dialing. Liam picked up the second ring. "We have a problem," I said. Someone had been watching her. I need extra security on her now."
Liam swore under his breath. "How close are they?"
"Close enough to get inside the penthouse."
"On it," Liam said, no questions, just action. "We will tighten the perimeter." I hung up, turning to Sienna. "My friends are coming. They will help keep you safe."
She shook her head, her arms crossing over her chest. "More guards? More eyes on me? I'm not some damsel in distress, Zane. I've survived this long on my own."
"And look where it got you. You need us, Sienna. "It is high time you stop acting like a brat," I shot back, trying not to lose my patience with her.
Her eyes blazed at me as she stepped closer. "I need my freedom, not a prison. You don't get to decide what's best for me."
"I know what you need, safety."
"You don't know me, Zane. You don't know what I did to keep myself safe. "You have no idea at all." Her lips parted, a flash of hurt crossing her face before she masked it.
"This is not me undermining you. This is a threat that they're watching you, Sienna. This proves it."
"And you think locking me up is the answer? You're suffocating me, Zane. I can't live like this, being controlled, waiting for the next attack."
I stepped toward her. "You don't have a choice. Not until we figure this out."
Though the angry tension between us was charged, all I could focus on was her vanilla fragrance pulling me in. I wanted to grab her right then and kiss her to erase the distance she was putting between us. But I couldn't. Not again. I turned away, my hands trembling with the effort to regain control.
"Get to your desk. "We will handle this," I said, making sure the tone conveyed authority.
She didn't move and didn't say a word. I felt her stare burning into my back for a few seconds before she turned, her heels clicking as she left the room, the door shutting with a soft thud.
I sank into my chair, holding my head in my hands, the photo of her filling my mind. The bastards were closer than I had thought, and Sienna was not safe. I needed answers to trace this back to its source. Perhaps it was time to dig deeper into Sienna.
Whatever had chased her from Baxters Corp. was going to provide a better clue to how the Carters had gotten so close. My fingers hovered over my laptop as I swiped the files for contact. When I found it, I picked up my phone and then dialed Sienna's former boss, Thompson Baxter. He had been her last employer before she landed at Atlas.
"This is Zane Calloway," I said in a gruff voice when he picked up after two rings.
"Mr. Calloway? What a pleasure."
"I need information about Sienna Carter. You worked with her. What can you tell me?"
There was a pause at his end before he broke into a laugh. "Sienna? You should stay the hell away from her, man. She's bad news. Always was, always will be."
My grip tightened on the phone. "Explain to me."
"Having you call me about her surely means she's started her trouble with you already. She's trouble, Calloway. Got me limping, for one. She took a swing at me with a club. When I tried to fire her, she said I was holding her back. Girl's got a temper, and a past she won't talk about. I heard rumors about some dangerous folks at her heels. She's either running from something or running it. Either way, she will drag you down with her."
"Oh, I see," I said. The image he was painting of her didn't fit the Sienna I knew. She was feisty, no doubt, but not violent. Or did it? Who was she, really? The victim had seen trembling in my arms, or was it the perpetrator that Thompson had just painted?
"You have a great reputation in this industry, Calloway. Do not let an ambition-hungry bitch ruin the hard work you have going for the Atlas," Thompson said, and I hung up without a word.
I leaned back, staring at the ceiling. Sienna had secrets, that much was clear, but Thompson's words gnawed at me. Was I wrong about her? Had I let my attraction blind me to the truth? I thought of her haunted eyes, the way she'd fought off that attacker at the alley. A victim, yes, but the mastermind? The thought twisted something inside me, and I hated that I couldn't untangle it.
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Liam burst through the door without knocking. He carried a laptop under one arm, his expression on edge. He didn't sit. "We've got a problem," he said as he slapped the laptop onto my desk, "A big one."
I glanced at the door, half-expecting Jason to follow. Sure enough, the door creaked open again, and there he was.
"Zane, Liam, what's this about?" Jason asked. He stood near the door, one hand on the frame, like he wasn't sure he wanted to commit to the room.
Liam didn't answer. He flipped open the laptop and lines of code scrolled past. Liam's fingers danced over the keys deliberately.
"What is it?" I asked, eyes on the green and red code lines.
"It's a Trojan," he said, not looking up. "Someone in IT let it in. Opened the gate, invited the bastard right into our system. Now they see everything our CCTV sees."
I leaned forward, the chair creaking under me. "Let it in?" I repeated. "Who did that shit?"
Liam's eyes flicked to mine, just for a second, but it was enough. Jason stepped closer into the office, "A Trojan horse? How bad is it? Are we talking about data breaches and financials? Down to our client lists?"
Liam didn't look at him. He kept typing, his fingers a blur, pulling up logs, timestamps, digital footprints that might as well have been hieroglyphs to me. "It's bad," he said.
I felt the room tilt, just a fraction, like the world had slipped off its axis. The accounts we didn't talk about, not with Jason. The ones who funded our darker operations, the ones who kept the gangs happy, the ones who kept us alive. I glanced at Jason. He was unaware of those accounts. He didn't know the cost of maintaining the machine.
"Who are they?" I asked calmly, but my hand was already reaching for the drawer where I kept the burner phone, the one that only rang when the world was about to burn.
Liam stopped typing. The silence was louder than his keystrokes had been. He turned the laptop toward me, the screen displaying a name and a user ID that had logged in minutes before the cryptic message from the unknown number.
"Martinez as Tommy Martinez, IT rookie?" I asked in disbelief. Tommy was the kind of kid who wore hoodies to work and thought he was untouchable because he could code. I had seen him in the break room, always with his earbuds in, nodding to music no one else could hear. Harmless. Or so I'd thought.
"Yes, that Tommy," Liam said, "He's the one who opened the door. Left a backdoor wide open for the Trojan to slip through. Logs show he accessed the system at 3 a.m. last night, way outside his shift."
Jason pushed his glasses up his nose. "Tommy? The kid with the skateboard? Why would he-"
"Doesn't matter why," I cut in. I stood, the chair scraping behind me, and crossed to the window. I could feel Liam's eyes on my back. "We need to talk to him. Now."
"Okay," Jason said, and left the office. Liam pushed back his seat and was about to step out when I stopped him.
"Wait a second" I said, nodding my head as a wicked idea crossed my mind.
"What?" Liam asked impatiently.
"Since we have our mark and know these fools are watching us, how about we give them a show of their lifetime? We wouldn't kill the movie but use it to get to them."
"I am lost, Zane. What are you planning?"
"Oh, Liam, we will use their style against them. They will see us coming, but will have zero idea when we will strike."
"Oh Zane... I think Damian and the others will love this one."
"Sure. It is time to meet in, the lounge."
"How about the chic PA?" Liam asked, glancing over to Sienna's wing.
"She will come with us, with Jason covering up as usual, only that he wouldn't be her only security. We are booking the entire space anonymously. "The patrons will be our men in disguise," I said with a deep grin.
"Texting the boys on the secret line," Liam said, tapping away at his phone.
I reached for mine, I glanced towards the glass partition towards Sienna's corner, and saw her with a friend. I texted her about coming to the lounge with me and the boys. There was no way I would leave her out by herself. For the plan to work, I needed to have her close in case the cartel plans didn't work.
When the text was delivered to her phone, she glanced my way briefly, then focused her attention on her friend again. I sighed, letting my head process the big plan for the evening. It was time to take back control.
