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“What? No…”
I didn’t let him finish. “Good,” I smiled at him, condescension dripping from my tone, “because you have two options. I can either fire you, or you can take a pay cut and a demotion until you prove you can do the work on your own without the assistance of those around you.”
“What?” He jumped his feet, the chair beneath him falling to the floor with a dull thud. “You can’t do that. You aren’t my boss!” Travis’s gaze slid over to Maksim in disbelief. “Are you really going to let her do this, man?”
Maksim raised his eyebrows, his shoulders shrugging, mouth tugged downward.
“Sit back down,” Maksim ordered. Travis immediately obeyed, straightening his chair before he took a seat. “I’m not the boss here.” Maksim raised an eyebrow at him and jerked his head toward me. “She is.” Everyone in the room sat straighter in their chairs, except Travis, who was staring at me with his mouth open in shock.
“For those of you in this room who don’t know who I am,” I spoke to the entire room, my head high, “my name is Avaleigh Dashkov, and from here on, I am the CEO of Arctic Security and Associates. That means you all answer to me. Anyone got a problem with that?”
Everyone but Travis the bigot shook their heads.
Inclining my head, I looked him over. The way his eyes shifted nervously and the sweat clinging to his brow. He was nervous, but about what? Getting found out? The embarrassment I caused him? Or was it something deeper? We had a mole in the division somewhere. Only a handful of people at Arctic knew about the detonation sequence, and most of them were in this room.
Which is why it was time to set up the game.
“We have a mole in one of the departments,” I told them. “Someone with access to classified information on the construction of the Dashkov building leaked the codes and blueprints to our enemies. They hacked into the mainframe of the building and downloaded a code-sensitive virus that triggered the building’s self-destruct.”
“That shouldn’t even be possible.” One of the analysts spoke up. Sam, I believed his name was. He was a promising analyst who once worked with the CIA before they burned him. “The self-destruct sequence is on its own separate server. To download a virus, you must be directly linked to the server as a hardline. You can’t do it remotely.”
“Exactly,” I smirked at him. “And the only people who have direct access to the servers are in this building.”
“Including us,” Travis pointed out. “Are you accusing one of us of sabotage?”
“No,” I told him honestly. “I’m accusing you of murder and espionage.”
A terrified silence fell through the room. They were each waiting for the gavel to come down on them, but it wouldn’t. Not yet.
“Your job is to find me the mole.” My gaze swept over each one of them, taking in every minute facial expression. They all twitched nervously. Their hands twisting in their laps, chests rising and falling rapidly. They were all signs of anxiety, but not necessarily guilt.
Yet.
“Mr. Crenshaw or Dorchester or whatever you’re called.” The analyst clenched his jaw but kept quiet. “You’ve got janitor duty for the next month. Then we’ll talk.”
“Are you kidding me?” he asked incredulously. “A janitor? What is that supposed to do?”
I smirked. “Teach you some humility.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “Also, good luck with trying to get those men to do your work for you. They’re some mean bastards.” I pointed toward the door. “You can start now. Your access to this floor will be restricted. Have fun.”
The room snickered quietly when he all but stormed out of it, slamming the heavy door behind him. “I’ll make sure his access is revoked,” Sam told me. I smiled at him and nodded before turning to leave.
“Um, ma’am.” Clove held up her hand from her station nervously. I turned back toward her.
“Ava is fine, Clove,” I informed her. “I’m not big on titles or formalities.” Plus, being called ma’am by someone who was my age made me feel old.
She cleared her throat and bit her lip before nodding at her computer screen. “You might want to see this.” There was a guilty look on her face, as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
I walked past the analysts at the head of the table and stopped when I’d reached her.
“Travis had me monitoring his floor today, which is the main office between Arctic and the associates,” she rambled quickly. “None of the offices have cameras, but the hallways, stairwells, and elevators do, you see.” She pointed at her laptop screen, where the security footage showed Matthias coming out of the elevator with a woman on his arm. He wasn’t smiling, in fact, he looked downright pissed. The woman had his arm wrapped in both of hers, a dewy smile on her face as she stared up at him. She was wearing a contoured body dress and fuck-me heels.
Serena.
That bitch.
Matthias telling me why he had taken Serena to the gala hadn’t eased the betrayal I felt that night. He did it to get information about his mother’s grave since her father had been the one to bury her that night on Kirill’s orders. In return, he’d promised to pay off the suitor her father had lined up for her. I wasn’t sure who he was, but he didn’t sound pleasant.
He’d wanted Serena as his fourth wife.
