Chapter 8
MATTEO
I get into the elevator to go back to the tech lab, but I feel like a pressure cooker that's ready to erupt.
It's not like me to blow my top. I don't often lose it, not outright, Tarzan style, but the old man going behind my back like this is another level of fuckery.
We've always known him to be a sneaky, lying, conniving piece of work, but this, going behind my back and hiring someone to work for me, is another level. He’s always meddling in our businesses, in one way or another, but this feels like he's taken things too far.
That's why Dex and Rio kept going on about it. I wonder if he's said anything to them.
I wonder if he's starting to lose faith in my ability.
I wonder if he's got something planned for me like he did with the others.
I’ve often wondered why the hell I stay here. Why we all do. It’s torture, this constant rollercoaster of duty, control, family pressure and resentment. We all feel it, even if we don’t outright discuss it.
I stay here, working for the old man because it’s owed to me, to us.
To Mama. The old man took so much from her, from us as a family, that working here, ensuring we are all set for life long after he dies, feels like the right thing, the only thing we can do.
I inhale a deep breath, and try to let it all out, the stress of this morning, and she comes vividly back into my thoughts.
Elizabeth. The woman who intrigued me enough that I was going to ask for her number, now presents me with a dilemma. The last thing I need is her working in my department.
She’ll think I have the hots for her. She’ll think … I don’t know what she’ll think. I was about to tell her that it wasn’t a good idea for her to work here, but I figure she would have seen and heard enough to make her own mind up.
I managed to keep my mouth shut and leave.
Just as the elevator gets to the tech lab, I hit the buttons to ascend. I need to have it out with the old man.
“When were you going to tell me?” I cry, striding into his office moments later.
He looks up at me, calmly. “In due course. Once I'd interviewed every candidate.”
“You didn’t think I needed to be involved? I'm the fucking head of cybersecurity.” My jaw tightens. She doesn’t bother me as much. It’s the fact that he went about the entire hiring process behind my back. As if he has no faith in me.
Arrogant prick.
“You are, and as of yet you still haven't fixed the security issues.”
Heat flares inside me. “Like I keep telling you—”
“It’s been over a month.”
He’s always so rude and condescending and always interrupting.
He’s been this way for most of my life. I get fragments of happier times, when he was nice, when we had laughter in our house on those rare occasions that he’d “come back from business”.
Rio reminds me because he seems to remember a lot from our childhood.
“It. Takes. Time,” I grind out. “We're looking at the server logs. These issues aren’t easy to find.”
“Consider this as a way of you getting more assistance.”
“You don't think I need to know that you're hiring someone to work in my department?” It’s fucking outrageous. One day I’ll walk in to find he’s fired me.
He stares back at me in silence.
“You don't think I need to know whether these people will fit in with my team?”
“Fit?” he asks. “What qualities are you looking for? Bra size? Height? Attractiveness?”
I wonder if his mind is always in the gutter. Does he view women as objects? Is that what he was thinking when Elizabeth was giving her presentation?
I rub my lips together, taking a few moments to ground myself. “That's all you’ve got?”
“She’s smart. Very, very smart, believe me.”
“Where did she study?”
“Self-taught, apparently.”
I can't believe my ears. “She didn't go to college?” We only take on Ivy league grads. How the hell is he even allowing her to interview here?
“No, she didn't.”
“How do you know she's smart?” I snap. Does he … does this dirty scumbag have other designs on her? I can’t help thinking about Maya’s mother.
“Because I know.”
“How?” I hiss. “What has she done?”
“You saw the presentation, did you not? You have to agree, she's smart.”
I did see the presentation, and I was thinking that for someone who is clearly claustrophobic, who’d been trapped in an elevator, who'd been as scared as she was, to then discover that I wasn't the maintenance guy, but Paul Knight's son—this news must have come as a hell of a shock.
And to know that she then had to do a presentation, and to have presented it as flawlessly as she did, leaves me in awe.
If I’d been in her shoes, it would have shocked the shit out of me.
She is smart.
I've interviewed people before and Elizabeth Raven is super smart.
But something doesn’t add up. She’s not Ivy League. She doesn’t even have a college degree. She’s the type of candidate the old man would normally dismiss without a second glance.
“Where is she working at the moment?” I ask. “I need a copy of her resume to look over.”
“What for?”
What for?
I swipe a hand through my hair, force myself to remain calm, but quickly lose it again. “Because if you intend to give her the job, working for me, in my department, I need to have a fucking idea about her background.”
“You sure you don't want her phone number and address?”
I jab my finger in his direction. “I don't think with my cock.”
He laughs, loud and unapologetic.
“You're really something, you know that?” I hiss, feeling bile in my throat.
I don't understand why he's so invested in her. A part of me is already guarded that he might want to take Elizabeth on for other reasons.
Over my dead body.
But that theory falls apart almost as quickly as it forms. The old man doesn’t make decisions based on attraction. He makes them based on leverage. So what is it about Elizabeth Raven that has him so interested?
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Dex walks in first. “What the hell is going on in here? Your shouting is preventing me from taking a nap.”
I know he wasn't taking a nap. He said that to piss the old man off.
Jett wanders in. “What's going on?” But his cell phone rings and he steps out of the office just as Enzo and Zach walk in.
“What’s with the commotion?” Zach looks at me.
“Ask him.” I nod at the old man. Everyone turns to look at him.
“Why don't you tell them?” he throws back.
Jett walks in again. “Is this something to do with the tech issues?”
I huff out a harsh breath. “He's interviewing candidates behind my goddamn back.”
Jett blinks a few times. “What's wrong with that?”
What the fuck is this guy on? He wouldn’t put up with this same bullshit from the old man if it was done to him.
“It’s my department and if anyone needs to hire, it should be me.”
Jett turns to the old man. “He's right, Matteo should be leading this, but also,” Jett turns to me, “Are we surprised?”
“No. I'm not. I guess none of us are.” I stare the old man him down with a pointed look. “Do whatever the hell you want. I'll adjust accordingly.”
The old man clasps his hands together and rests them on the desk. “I just need her to get the job done.”
“Get what job done?” Rio asks, suddenly appearing. “What’s with the noise?”
“Her?” Enzo asks, looking at me. “You hired a woman? Well done. About time, too.”
“A woman in tech, brother?” Dex nudges me on his way out. “Didn’t see that one coming.”
“I didn’t hire her, he did.” My fists are curled by my sides as I glare at the old man.
“Tell that to Raquel.” Dex grins. “She'll be thrilled to hear Knight Enterprises finally found a woman for something other than marketing.”
“Who’s been hired for what job?” Rio asks, looking around at everyone for answers.
“Matteo has a new hire in the tech lab. And it’s a woman.” Jett walks out, followed by Zach.
“What's her background?” Rio wants to know.
“No idea,” I snap. “Apparently I’m the last person anyone felt the need to tell.”
Whether that means keeping my distance from Elizabeth if he hires her, or figuring out why the hell she’s here in the first place. Because nobody walks into a job with Knight Enterprises easily. And nobody lands an interview with Paul Knight by accident.
And I don’t believe in coincidences.