Chapter 118

The alarm pierced the quiet like a slap.

Sutton jolted, blinking hard as the sound cut back to the here and now with brutal clarity.

the thick fog in her head. The noise wasn’t deafening, but it was sharp and urgent. It snapped her

Saved by the bell.

She looked over Luca’s shoulder toward her

rworkstati

the red light flashing on the security panel.

“Shit,” she muttered.

Luca stood quickly, already alert, already all business again. But when he turned to look at her, there was something softer lingering in his eyes. Something that she had never seen in him before.

“You okay?” he asked.

Sutton nodded, even though her body ached and her thighs still felt shaky. “Yeah. Just… give me a second.”

She pulled her dress down as best she could and stood slowly, ignoring the dull ache that followed. Her underwear was gone. Didn’t matter. Her limbs were jelly, her head still going over everything that had passed between them. She moved toward her desk and silenced the alarm.

The screen lit up.

System breach alert.

Her heart stuttered.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she

breath

“What is it?” Luca asked, already moving in beside her.

She didn’t answer right away. Her fingers were flying across the keyboard now, checking logs, cross–referencing data, scanning for the entry point.

“It’s not a breach,” she said finall

“It’s an internal trigger I set up without anyone knowing to monitor tampering attempts on the server.” Her jaw tightened. “Someone just tried to wipe a backup file connected to Kingston.”

Luca’s expression hardened. “From inside the building?”

Sutton nodded once. “Yeah.

From a secured login.”

His voice dropped. “Nicole?”

we need proof and I’m going to get that proof. That’s why I set up the trigger.” She glanced up at him. He didn’t expect her to do it without telling him. “But at

she said, “but I couldn’t risk her getting away with it. I also didn’t want anyone to

Nicole, I have to say this has to be very upsetting. She has been with me for years,

the access log,” Sutton said, already sliding into her chair. “You might want to lock down executive–level credentials while I do. Maybe lock everyone out of the system, including the development

slowly, then looked at her… Sutton flushed. She knew how she looked, hair mussed, lips still pink, her skin still glowing

He hesitated.

“Sutton.”

She didn’t stop typing.

meant what I

keyboard. Her

now, we’ve got

moved to

across the keyboard, getting to

this puzzle. Soon,

went to work doing his job. It didn’t take

her, reading over her shoulder. “Only you and me have

muttered, already

internal audit tools, tapping straight into

was done being

backup files tied to

IP logs and copied the identifier. Then she opened a separate

“Fuck, Sutton. I’m glad

turned to grin at him before turning back to her computer. “I’m cross–referencing badge data with security footage,” she said, not looking away. “They logged in from the third floor east end of the building. We’re going to see

tracing the IP

s of

terminal used.

It pinged. She rerouted.

And the feed opened.

black and white, time–stamped, just past 3:12

in. There she was, Nicole. Just as she

but he was wearing a hoodie. His face wasn’t visible, but the security badge he had used to get

looked back at the man. No, it

“He used

tightened.

badge.”

larger than Jake Sutton agreed. They watched as Nicole handed something to the man…a drive?

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