ZANE.
I sat at the edge of the polished mahogany table, my hands braced on my tablet, where I monitored the meeting with the PR team that was happening virtually at the site of the bombing. The board members' faces were etched with worry, their panic staring back at me through the screen. The bombing had rattled them, and the PR team's rapid-fire suggestions for damage control only added to the chaos. Clenching my jaw, the weight of the loss was bearing down on me. But beneath that, my mind was distracted by what was happening a few feet away from my study in the tech room. Sienna was unraveling secrets I was eager to know.
I moved away from the table, walked around it to my cushioned seat, and sat. Resting my head against the headrest. My earpiece crackled softly, and I muted the Live meeting to listen to the audio feed from the tech room's CCTV. Sienna's voice, followed by Belinda's teasing and some guy, Travis, discussing encryption.
I knew they were accessing the flash drive the moment they had plugged it into the old desktop, since it was synced through Atlas's network, which was accessible on my tablet. I had initially wanted to give her the privacy of knowing the flash's content, trusting her to be loyal and report to me. But as I saw her image flicker on my screen, I decided to watch the secret unfold as they worked their way to finding the passwords.
I was going to act oblivious, regardless; it was a test to see if she was as loyal as she wanted me to believe. I would be damned if I let Sienna uncover something without me knowing. Not when the cartel was breathing down my neck too.
I forced my attention back to the boardroom just in time to hear Madison's suggestion about security upgrades.
"You need not worry about it. We're doubling patrols, installing new biometric locks, and rerouting critical data to off-site servers," I paused, making sure they were focused on me. "This will never happen again. Trust me."
"Bypassed the initial encryption. But I have narrowed down the firewall to a seven-letter word. Any ideas?"
My pulse spiked, my grip tightening on the tablet. They were close to discovering what was on that drive. Would there be evidence tying Sienna to the cartel? Or proof of her innocence? Or something worse, something that could unravel Atlas and everything I had built?
The PR lead cleared her throat, pulling me back to the meeting. "We've drafted a statement expressing support for the casualties," she said, just as I received notification of a shared document from her. "Public donations to the victims' fund, a press conference tomorrow to show transparency. We need your approval."
I scanned the document, the words blurring as Sienna's voice crackled through my earpiece: "Try E..L...L...I..S...O..N."
My breath hitched at that word. Ellison? There was no way she was linked to that name. The desktop's soft chime confirmed access, and Belinda's squeal pierced the audio feed. They'd cracked the flash drive and now its contents were waiting to be exposed.
"Zane?" The PR prompted, her brow furrowing.
I stood abruptly. "Looks solid," I said curtly. "Run it. I need to go make an urgent call."
The PR lead just stared at me blankly before she nodded. I smiled at the screen before punching the red button to drop the call.
My earpiece fed me every sound from the tech room as Belinda's demand for privacy. My thumb hovered over the tablet, the live feed ready to show me everything they saw. Part of me wanted to storm to the tech room, rip the drive from their hands, and demand answers. But another part needed to know who Sienna really was, what she'd been hiding, and whether I had been a fool to let her get under my skin.
I slid onto the leather couch, creaking under me, and propped the tablet on the edge. The tech room's CCTV feed filled the screen; Sienna and Belinda hunched over the desktop, their faces illuminated by the monitor's glow. Sienna's fingers were trembling as she clicked the folder. "Here we go," she whispered.
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The tie around my neck felt like a noose, and I yanked it loose, the silk slipping through my fingers as my eyes burned into the wall. The tablet propped on the desk, its screen mirroring the old desktop in the tech room where Sienna and Belinda were unraveling my world. The folder glared back from the screen, its awful content twisting in my gut.
My father, Gregory Calloway, had been murdered not by some rival gang, like I had been made to believe, but by Frederick Ellison's order. The man I had seen laughing with my father over whiskey during their presumed business meetings. I had always known Dad's death wasn't random, but this was a gut punch. Ellison had covered it up, ensured the case went cold, and I had been too naive to question it. And now, his daughter...Sienna. My Sienna was sitting two floors away, holding the key to my destruction.
My chest tightened as her face flashed in my mind, those hazel eyes, the way her lips curved when she thought I wasn't looking, the quiet strength that had drawn me to her from the moment she walked into my office. I had fallen for her, hard and fast. I had protected her, kept her safe from the vipers circling my world, but now I saw the truth. She was Frederick Ellison's daughter, the heir to his bloody legacy, and she was holding a drive that could burn everything I had built to the ground.
I leaned back in my chair and raked my hands through my hair. How had I missed it? The reports after the Ellison fire incident had said the whole family was dead: Frederick, his wife, and their daughter. I had mourned them, or at least the idea of them, but Sienna had survived. Was it chance? Or had she known who I was all along, biding her time, waiting to use that drive to take what my father had died for? The thought made my stomach churn, but I couldn't shake it.
If she decides to leak those files, it would tie me to my father's cartel, expose Atlas as a front, and bring every rival gang in LA down on us. Everything I had bled for would collapse. But worse, it would expose her, too. Sienna Ellison, daughter of the devil himself. Did she know that? Did she care?
I got out of my seat and walked away from my desk, stopping by the window, pressing my forehead against the cool glass. My friends all looked to me to hold this together, to keep Atlas standing and the cartel's enemies at bay. Liam and Ethan would understand, maybe even forgive Sienna if I could convince them she wasn't a threat. Noah, sick as he was, wouldn't care either way. But Damian? I could already see his sneer, his eyes darkening at the mention of Ellison's name. He would never accept her, not once he knew who she really was. He would see her as a snake, just like her father, and he would push me to cut her out permanently. Could I look at Sienna, whom I had fallen for, and see only her father's sins?
I turned back to the tablet, clenching my hands. The files were still open; if Sienna wanted power, she could have it. Those documents were enough to take me down, to rally the cartel's remnants under her, to make deals with our rivals. She could be queen of this city, just like her father had been king. But would she? That was the question gnawing at me. Was she loyal to me, to Atlas, or to herself? To her father's dark desires? I needed to know. I needed to test her, to see if she would come to me with the truth.
My mind raced faster, spinning through my options. I could confront her right away and demand the drive just to see how she would react. But that would tip my hand, show her I had been watching alongside them. Or I could wait, play dumb, let her think I hadn't seen the files. Give her a chance to come clean and to prove she was still the woman I had trusted and loved. Love? The thought of that word suddenly felt odd. Could I still love the daughter of the man who had killed my father? Could I trust her not to finish what he started?
The study door creaked, and I flinched, my hand instinctively dropping to the drawer to hide the tablet. But it was the housekeeper, poking her head in. "Mr. Calloway, dessert is ready in the dining hall. Will you be joining Ms. Carter and Ms. Adams?"
I forced a nod, my throat tight. "Yeah. I will be there in a minute."
She disappeared, and I leaned forward, scrubbing my hands over my face as I walked out of the study to the hallway. Sienna would be there, probably still reeling from what she had seen on that drive. I could watch her to see if she gave anything away. If she looked at me differently, or her eyes avoided mine. I would know then, wouldn't I? If she was planning to use the drive against me, or if she was as lost as I was.
My heart thudded with each step, feeling heavier than the last. What would I say? How could I look at her, knowing what I knew, and not let it show? I was drowning in my own head, the questions piling up every second.
The dining hall opened before me, and my eyes found her first. Sienna sat by the window with Belinda across from her, a glass of wine in her hand. Her eyes flickered towards me as I entered and our gazes locked. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her lips parted slightly, like she was holding her breath.
"Zane," she said, "I didn't hear you come in."
I forced a smile. "Got caught up in some work." My voice sounded calm, but inside, I was a storm. I took the chair at the head of the table, my eyes never leaving her. "Everything okay?"
She hesitated, her fingers tightening around her wine glass. "Yeah. Just... a long day."
Belinda's gaze darted between us. "You look like you have seen a ghost, Zane," she said,
I laughed. "With that bomb earlier, I believe I have really." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't the truth either. A server poured me a glass of wine, the liquid sloshing slightly. "What about you two? What's got you holed up in the tech room?"
Sienna's eyes flicked to Belinda, then back to me. "Just... going through some old files," she said. "Nothing important."
My chest tightened. She was lying. Or at least, not telling the whole truth. I took a sip of wine and leaned back, watching her. "Old files, huh? Anything I should know about?"
Her fingers twitched, and she set her glass down. "Not really. Just... personal stuff."
Belinda raised an eyebrow, but stayed silent, her eyes on Sienna. I wanted to push for the truth, but I held back. This was the test. Would she come to me and tell me about the drive, or would she keep it hidden to plot her next move? I needed to know, but every second I looked at her, I saw her father's shadow, and it tore me apart.
I had built this Atlas to honor my father, to prove I could be more than the son of a cartel king. But now, with Sienna sitting across from me, the daughter of his killer, I didn't know what I was fighting for anymore. All I knew was that I had to play this carefully, or I would lose everything. And as her eyes met mine, soft and searching, I wondered if I already had.
