Chapter 11
ELIZABETH
I walk into the lobby of the Knight Enterprises building and go to one of the three smartly dressed women receptionists behind the reception desk.
I tell her that it’s my first day and I’m working for Matteo Knight in cybersecurity.
She flashes me a friendly smile, before picking up the phone and less than a minute later, another woman comes out and greets me.
“You're working in tech?” she asks, sounding slightly surprised. She's smartly dressed; her dark hair neatly tied back into a ponytail.
“Yes.” I feel a little nervous already, going in on my first day, and the way she asks the question unnerves me a little.
“This is a first.” She smiles and hands me a lanyard.
“Is it?”
“Never had a woman working there in the five years I've been here.”
I'm shocked, but I shouldn't be. The few clients I've dealt with in my cybersecurity business have all been men. Even in Vlad's small team, I was the only female. I just expected not to be the only female here in Matteo’s department where I assume the team will be bigger. I didn’t even think of asking Paul those questions.
We wait for the elevator but my stomach is in knots, my throat dry.
I can’t work out if it’s a fear of getting trapped again, or the thought that I’ll be facing Matteo soon.
I’m not fazed at all by what’s expected of me because I’m good at what I do, and this short-term stint at Knight Enterprises is something I know I can handle easily.
I think it’s Matteo being here that unnerves me. Having him be my boss. It was so different that last time, not knowing who he was when we were in an enclosed space. He's hot, gorgeous and broody and him stroking my wrists, making me feel all sorts of horny, was okay when I thought we were equals.
But now? The dynamics will shift.
At least this is temporary. That's what I tell myself. It's what I told myself as a child, and then a teenager, before I aged out of foster care. This won’t last forever. I'm not a permanent full-time employee and I get to leave once I’ve finished my assignment.
The doors glide shut as soon as we get inside, and the elevator glides smoothly. I suddenly notice that it’s going down, not up, as I’m expecting.
“Where are we going?”
“To the basement.”
“The basement?”
The receptionist blinks a few times. “That's where the tech lab is. Were you not told that?”
“No.” I feel even more uneasy at the idea of having to work underground. Thoughts of walls closing in make me feel nauseous again.
I try not to focus on it and attempt some humor. “There I was, preparing to take forever going up to the seventy-fourth floor.”
She gives me a reassuring smile. “Now you only need to go down one floor to the tech lab.”
I bite down on my teeth to brace myself. It's so quick. A few seconds later the doors slide open, and I step out, but the receptionist remains inside.
“Good luck,” she says.
“Thank you.” I start to feel like I really will need it.
There's no one here to meet me. There's no reception desk. It's just a lab. I walk in and see rows of sleek long black desks. No cubicles. Everything is open plan. Mostly.
At the far end I catch a glimpse of Matteo sitting at the back in a huge office. It has glass walls facing out onto the open plan area, which is why I can see him so clearly inside. The sight of him immediately sends a rush of heat up the back of my neck.
A guy turns and sees me, then walks towards me, carrying a file in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He looks to be around my age, maybe a few years older, and he has caramel-colored skin and dark hair.
“Hey. You must be the new hire. Sorry, I’d shake hands but …” He gives me an apologetic smile. “I’m Sonny Bains. You must be Elizabeth?”
“Yes.” I sound more nervous than I feel, and wonder what Matteo’s been saying about me. He seems friendly, and I feel the warmth in his eyes.
“I'm one of the lead engineers here and—”
“I'll take it from here, Sonny.”
A ridiculous flutter erupts low in my belly at the sound of his voice.
It's him.
Matteo Knight.
My heart slams against my ribcage. I was so transfixed on Sonny, I didn’t even see Matteo coming. Now my insides are in turmoil, excitement warring with restraint. I hear my heartbeat, and pray my boss doesn’t.
He glances at his watch. It’s a black-faced sports watch and it gleams against the worn leather bracelets on his wrist. “I see you made it right on time.”
Is he having a dig at me already? “I'm always punctual.”
“Good to know. Follow me.”
I follow him across the open plan office and become acutely aware of the glances, the way people stop and then quickly continue, as I walk past.
Everything is glass and sleek black surfaces, giving the lab a futuristic feel. The keyboards make minimal noise, and men, mostly in quarter-zips and expensive watches sit facing the glare of giant screens.
So this is what the command center of a billion- or trillion-dollar empire looks like.
“I didn't know I was going to be in the basement,” I say, following him.
“Would it have made a difference?”
“No.”
“Is it a problem?” He glances over his shoulder at me.
“No.” Yes.
But I'll get over it. I know I'm not trapped, or under interrogation, but this workspace will still take some adjusting to.
“Are you sure?” Matteo asks, “Because you look worried.”
“I'll be fine,” I say, cheerily. I so badly want to believe that there's still a glimmer of the nice Matteo hiding behind that stern face.
“Actually,” he turns around and we almost crash into one another. We don't touch, but for a tiny suspended second I smell his dark and dangerous scent, and I almost brush my hand against his black T. I catch a glint of the chain around his neck as I stumble back.
“Let me give you a quick tour of everything,” he says, turning course.
I follow him like a sheep to slaughter. So many pairs of eyes are on us. All young guys. Not a woman in sight. All looking at me like I'm some prized circus animal.
“As you can see, it’s open plan, mostly. Here’s the kitchen,” he says, dipping into a compact kitchen with sleek countertops, a refrigerator, a microwave, and rows of neatly stocked cabinets. Then he quickly walks back out and waves a hand before him at the rows of desks.
People start staring at us again. “This is all of our tech people.”
It looks like about thirty young guys.
“They're a mix of engineers, infrastructure specialists, analysts and tech architects, lot of IT support specialists,” he continues, talking fast, as if he’s rushing to get this over with. “You get the picture.”
“Interesting,” I say, sounding irritatingly breathless.
“They're all Ivy League grads.”
“You've seen my resume?” I ask, wondering if he's having a pointed dig at me.
“I did. My father finally emailed it to me this morning. It’s not bad for someone who has no college degree or much experience.”
I flinch at his words. He's not even bothering to hide his resentment towards me. All the fairytale delusions I had of how things might work out between us once we both got used to the idea of working together, just died a quick death.
“If you're so angry with your father for hiring me, you should take it up with him,” I snap in a low voice as we walk away from the open plan area and head towards his office.
“That's Alex in there.” He points to a big glass pod next to his office inside which sits an older guy. His dark hair is peppered with a lot of white, and he has a beard. He's on the phone and doesn't see us.
“He's my right-hand man. He's the Senior Director of Infrastructure and Cybersecurity Operations and he reports to me.
He's in charge of Sonny and Joel, who are the lead systems engineers. You met Sonny earlier.” He points to two glass pods next to Alex's office.
Sonny is typing away and is oblivious that we're watching him. In the pod next to him is a young-ish guy who’s smiling at me.
“That's Joel. The office joker and flirt,” Matteo warns.
“That’s your desk.” He nods at the empty desk and a knot forms instantly in my stomach. I’m sitting directly outside his office which means he can see me clearly.
I'll feel like I'll be constantly watched. He sets off again, leading me to the corner of the room where more windowed walls enable me to look inside and see rows of server racks with cables tumbling out of them.
“This is the server room.” He uses his lanyard to open the door.
“You love your all-seeing windowed walls,” I remark, my stomach still uneasy from having seen my desk. I don't like the idea of being constantly surveyed by this man. By anyone, but especially by Matteo. He's annoyed by his father's decision to hire me, and he's going to make sure I pay the price.
He doesn’t trust his father, and now, by extension, he doesn't trust me.
Rows of black cabinets stretch across the floor. Lights flicker and blink in the cold, dark air.
I shiver. “It's colder than I expected.”
“Machines perform better in the cold. You should know that.”
He walks around, a low energy hum breaking the silence.
It helps to calm me down because for some inexplicable reason, my heart is beating faster than usual.
I tell myself that it’s nothing to do with Matteo's black T, or the corduroy shirt he's casually thrown over it.
Or the fact that his sleeves are rolled up, and his tattoos on display for me to see.
Family and truth.
I’m beginning to find a little thread of something, given the interaction I’ve seen between him and his father, and the vague answers Matteo gave me when I asked about his tattoos.
“You're here to do a security audit, so I guess you can get started with that.”
“You don't sound too happy about me being here.”
His jaw tightens, and I know I've hit the truth.
His eyes hold mine. “My father hired you, and I wasn’t privy to any of the discussions or the hiring process. I'm not sure what to do with you.”