Beneath Her Bastard Boss

Chapter 119

Chapter 119

Nicole had never considered herself a villain.

She wasn’t reckless. She wasn’t stupid. Everything she did, she did with purpose. With strategy. With the long game in mind and right now? The long

game was Luca.

He wasn’t in love with her, fine. He didn’t have to be. Men like Luca De Santis didn’t marry for love, anyway. They married for legacy. For business. For alignment. And Nicole had aligned herself with his world for almost six years. She knew his schedule, his temper, his instincts, his needs and wants. She’d bled for his empire while women floated in and out of his life like moths. He had no staying power, that’s why in the end he would marry, not for love.

But then Luca had bought Cyber10 out of the blue, hunting for some pregnant mistress in the USA. How… pedestrian and common. But from what she could gauge, he hadn’t found her. Nicole was sure that if the woman had been here and couldn’t get money from Luca, she would’ve aborted the baby.

Then there was Sutton. She was beautiful… like enough to stop traffic. Nicole hadn’t wanted her around when Luca turned up. He had an eye for pretty

faces.

Nicole didn’t know why she had almost been impossible to get rid of. After some digging into her background, she had a coding education but no work experience. Whatever. She didn’t belong in a development role and a security tech company. She looked like she belonged on a magazine cover, not

around Luca.

Even pregnant, she had this… presence. That was the problem. Sutton didn’t try. She didn’t flirt. She didn’t even smile that much. But she walked into a

room and men looked up. Even gay, Jake was impressed by her.

And Luca? He was acting differently since arriving at Cyber10. Nicole was worried he did have a thing for Sutton. Nicole had thought about hunting down the model he had knocked up so his focus would move away from Sutton. Because in the end a model would only bore him.

He was careful about his interest. The way he started lingering too long after meetings. The way his eyes followed her, like she was a puzzle he hadn’t

solved yet.

There was just something about Sutton. It wasn’t just her looks.

And Nicole hated her for all of it. Luca should have been hers by now.

felt it–that quiet,

dangerous.

know her story. She didn’t care. Even though she

Sutton had to go.

to Luca. No one knew him better. Not really. Not like she did. She kept his world spinning. She knew what coffee he liked. How to talk to his board. When to

lately.

another employee. She

Or she will be.

problems, Nicole hadn’t even been asked to

It had to stop.

really matter by showing up her work and her

even needed to get her hands dirty. The freelancer she found had the skills. She had the plan. All it took was a cloned badge,

him from the shadows of the server pod, hoodie up, hands on the keyboard. Nicole passed him the drive. He didn’t ask questions. That was the best part. He just

need his loyalty. Just his fingerprints on the crime. If he was caught, she would

would question Luca’s leadership. Luca would look for someone to blame.

It was perfect.

Sutton would be kicked to

but she played dirty because Sutton hadn’t

Nicole wanted Luca.

competition. Not from someone like

didn’t even try to

to herself as she slipped out of the room, calm

the villain. She was just

Sutton could take what was hers. She wasn’t going to wait much longer. She had a plan

keyboard. It wasn’t just about the Kingston files. Nicole didn’t know what she had just done. This man might have agreed to help Nicole, but he was here for his own reasons. Nicole’s

She whispered, “Shit.”

“What now?”

for Nicole’s dirty work. He is trying to get into your systems at the same time… Do you have any cyber enemies I should know about?” She didn’t look up, working on keeping the

laughed. “In my line of work, of course, I have‘

began isolating data packets. “I need to find out who he is first,” she muttered, eyes darting through lines