“And by contacting IT, you’ve low-key outed what your saboteur is doing, ensuring it won’t be easy for them to keep going without getting more people involved in the cover-up or exposing themselves.Well played.”
“Thanks.I think so too.”
“So who do you think it is?Lianna?Your coworkers?”
I sighed.“They’re the obvious ones, which makes me doubt it's them.Do you know my position has turned over four times already this year?And not just mine.There’sa lotof turnover among new hires at Steele.Apparently, most of the people applying are only there for the CEO.And it’s not just a rumor.I heard it from the other applicants when I went in for the interview.At the time, I thought it was just a weird group of women.”
“Who wouldn’t want to bag a rich, single CEO?”
“Me.But if you’re interested, you can try applying for a position.Or if you like them older, I think the elderly CEO of Hestian Group is looking for wife number seven…or was it wife number five?When you outlive so many of them, you tend to lose count.”
“I’m not sure if I should be interested in that bit of gossip or concerned you know it.”
I grinned at her but didn’t admit how I knew.I didn’t want to pull Miranda into my family drama.Boy drama was her department.
“Go with interested.Do you know what else will interest you?Konni has been coming in to see me almost every night, and he’s been perfectly non-creepy since you talked to him.You never said how that conversation went or where it went down.Did you track him to his house?”
“Better.I met up with him while I was out shopping.The conversation was polite—this time—and I’m happy to report he was alone.No woman with him.”
I rolled my eyes.“He can have all the women he wants.I’m not interested.”
She sniffed, smelled my lie, and slowly grinned.
“Shut up,” I grumbled.
“So what are you going to do about the workplace drama?”she asked.
“Stay alert until I can figure out who it is.”
“You’re not going to quit?”
“Hell no.It’s an amazing job and a great opportunity.The reports Lianna is having me do are giving me access to stuff someone in my position probably shouldn’t know.”
I swore.
“What?”
“I wonder if that’s the next setup.Will something I had access to be leaked?Hmm… No.Since I’m sending the information to others, nothing links back to me alone.It would really suck to lose this job.”
“Why?It sounds stressful.Come work with me.”
“I don’t do backdoors.”
She burst out laughing, and I shook my head at her.
Before we finished lunch, she suggested I stop by Steele’s HR department to share my concern about the confidentiality level of the work I’m being given.
“I don’t want it to sound like I don’t want the work, though.I do want it, just not the blame when something goes wrong.”
“Tell them that.Voicing your concern before it happens might be enough to protect you.”
I doubted it, but knew it was better than doing nothing.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Although I’d cutmy lunch short to meet with the woman in HR, I was still twenty minutes later than usual when I returned to my desk, where Lianna was standing, waiting for me.Her perfectly manicured nails gleamed in the office lights as she crossed her arms to scowl at me.
“The allotted lunch hour is sixty minutes from the time you leave your desk until the time you return to it.”
