Dominic

26

_________

The penthouse feels too quiet. The kind of quiet that wraps around your chest and squeezes, forcing you to confront everything you’d rather bury. Eva sits curled on the couch across from me, her shoulders tense as she flips through a file. She hasn’t spoken in nearly an hour, not really, and every time her eyes dart to me, they hold a wariness I don’t recognize.

She’s pulling away.

It’s subtle—barely a shift—but I see it. Feel it. And it guts me in a way I didn’t expect.

“Eva,” I say, my voice cutting through the silence like a blade.

She doesn’t respond, her attention fixed on the papers in front of her.

“Eva,” I repeat, sharper this time.

Her head snaps up, her expression guarded. “What?”

The clipped tone stings, but I push past it. “You’ve been sitting there for hours. You should rest.”

Her laugh is short and humorless. “Rest? Really? That’s your solution?” She gestures at the papers scattered on the coffee table. “Every time I try to catch my breath, something else blows up. My past, your company, this hacker—there’s no resting, . Not when the ground keeps shifting under my feet.”

I step closer, shoving my hands into my pockets to keep from reaching for her. “We’ll get ahead of this. I promise you.”

She stares at me like she wants to believe me, but there’s a flicker of doubt in her eyes. A hesitation I’ve never seen before. “You don’t know that,” she says softly.

Her words shouldn’t hit as hard as they do. I’ve spent my entire life solving problems, fixing what’s broken, but this—her—she isn’t something I can fix with power or money. And that terrifies me.

“You’re not alone in this, Eva,” I say, my voice dropping. “You’re not.”

Her gaze softens for a moment, but then she shakes her head. “Aren’t I?”

She stands, the file slipping from her lap to the coffee table. “You’ve built this fortress around yourself, . You keep everything locked away, like you’re afraid to let anyone see the cracks.”

I take a step closer, my pulse pounding. “If I let the cracks show, everything falls apart.”

Her voice trembles. “But doesn’t it get lonely? Carrying everything by yourself?”

“Yes,” I admit before I can stop myself. The truth hangs heavy in the air between us, and for a moment, neither of us moves.

Then, as if pulled by some invisible force, she steps toward me, her eyes searching mine. “I don’t want to be alone anymore,” she whispers.

The vulnerability in her voice snaps something inside me. I close the distance between us, my lips crashing into hers. The kiss is raw, desperate—a collision of everything we’ve been holding back.

Her hands tangle in my hair, pulling me closer as if she’s afraid I’ll disappear. I press her against the edge of the couch, my body aligning with hers, and for a moment, the world outside ceases to exist.

But reality creeps back in too quickly. The sharp buzz of her phone breaks the moment. She pulls away reluctantly, her breathing uneven, and checks the screen.

Her face pales. “It’s Adrian.”

I nod, stepping back to give her space. She answers the call, her voice steady despite the flush on her cheeks.

“What is it?” she asks, her brows furrowing as she listens. “Send it to me.”

She ends the call and turns to me, holding up her phone. “Adrian found something.”

I take the device, scanning the email she’s pulled up. It’s dated months before the first breach, a warning from someone in my company about vulnerabilities in the system. The words blur for a moment as I realize the implications.

“You knew about this?” she asks, her voice trembling.

I look at her, my chest tightening. “No. I didn’t see this email.”

Her expression hardens. “How could you not see it? It’s addressed to you, .”

“I don’t know,” I admit, the frustration boiling under my skin. “But if I had seen it, I would’ve acted on it. You have to believe me.”

She takes a step back, crossing her arms. “Do I? Because right now, it feels like I’ve been fighting for you, for us, while you’ve been keeping secrets.”

“Eva, I didn’t know!” My voice rises, sharper than I intend, but the doubt in her eyes cuts deeper than any betrayal.

She shakes her head, her walls slamming into place. “I need time to think. I can’t—” Her voice breaks. “I can’t do this right now.”

I watch her retreat to the guest room, the door clicking softly behind her. The silence of the penthouse swallows me whole. I sink onto the couch, her phone still in my hand, the email glaring at me like an accusation.

Someone in my company knew. They saw the cracks before they became fissures, and they said nothing. Or worse—they let it happen.

And now Eva’s trust in me is another casualty of this war.

I run a hand through my hair, my mind racing. If there’s any hope of salvaging this—my company, my relationship, everything—I need answers. And I need them now.

As I pick up my phone to call Adrian, one thought consumes me:

The cracks are deeper than I ever imagined, and if I don’t seal them fast, everything will crumble.

The guest room door is shut, but the space feels colder than it should. The rift between Eva and me is no longer a crack; it’s a canyon. And I don’t know how to bridge it.

The email from Adrian’s team sits open on my phone, taunting me with its implications. Someone warned me—warned the company—months before Conrad made his first move. Someone tried to protect what I’ve spent my entire life building, and I ignored them.

But it doesn’t make sense. I don’t miss things like this. I’ve built my reputation on vigilance, on outmaneuvering everyone in the room. So how did this slip past me?

My grip tightens on the phone. Maybe it didn’t.

“Adrian,” I say into the phone, my voice low.

He picks up on the first ring. “. I was about to call you. We’ve isolated the metadata on the email Eva found.”

I glance at the closed door again before moving to my desk. “What did you find?”

“The email came from inside Kane Enterprises,” Adrian says. “But here’s where it gets interesting—the sender isn’t in our employee database. Whoever sent this wasn’t a mid-level analyst. They’re a ghost.”

My stomach tightens. “So someone planted the email?”

“Looks that way. And if I had to guess, it was meant to misdirect. Whoever sent it wanted you to see it, but they didn’t expect it to come up now. It’s like they were setting the stage for something else.”

Adrian’s words hang heavy in the air. A trap. This wasn’t an oversight; it was deliberate.

“What about the recipient address?” I ask.

“That’s where it gets even messier. The email was routed through three proxy servers before landing in your inbox. But I found a partial match—it’s tied to the same offshore server Reyes uses for his operations.”

Reyes. Of course, it’s him. He’s been lurking in the shadows of this mess from the start.

“Keep digging,” I say, my voice sharp. “And Adrian—double the security on every system we have. If Reyes has a way in, I want it shut down.”

“Already on it,” he replies before the line goes dead.

I set the phone down and lean back in my chair, staring at the city skyline. The answers are out there, but every step forward feels like sinking into quicksand.

Eva’s words replay in my mind. “How could you not see it?”

I don’t know how to explain to her what it’s like, running something like Kane Enterprises. The constant flood of information, the decisions that pile up until they blur together. I’ve learned to trust my instincts, to prioritize what feels most urgent.

But this wasn’t just a missed email. This was deliberate. And the fact that it’s driving a wedge between Eva and me makes it feel like I’ve already lost.

I push away from the desk and move to the guest room. The door is still shut, and for a moment, I hesitate. What if she doesn’t want to see me? What if this is the beginning of the end?

No. I can’t let that happen.

I knock softly. “Eva. Can we talk?”

There’s silence on the other side, and my chest tightens. Then, finally, I hear her footsteps. The door cracks open, and her face appears, shadowed and wary.

“What is it?” she asks, her voice cool.

“Please,” I say, keeping my voice steady. “I need you to hear me out.”

She studies me for a long moment before stepping aside and opening the door fully. I step inside, the small space feeling even smaller with the tension between us.

She crosses her arms, leaning against the edge of the bed. “I’m listening.”

I take a deep breath, the words heavy on my tongue. “I didn’t see that email, Eva. And not because I ignored it or dismissed it. Someone planted it, routed it through proxies to make it look legitimate. This wasn’t an oversight—it was a setup.”

Her brows furrow, doubt flickering across her face. “A setup? By who?”

“Reyes,” I say firmly. “Adrian traced the metadata back to one of his offshore servers. He’s been pulling the strings from the start, and now he’s trying to turn us against each other.”

She looks away, her arms tightening across her chest. “And what about Conrad? He was your CTO, . He worked under you. How did he get away with so much without you noticing?”

The question stings, but it’s fair. “Because I trusted him,” I admit. “I trusted him to do his job while I focused on the bigger picture. And he used that trust to gut my company from the inside.”

Her eyes snap back to mine, a spark of anger igniting. “Trust is a funny thing, isn’t it?”

My chest tightens. “Eva—”

“No,” she says, cutting me off. “You’re right. Trust is the foundation of everything. But when it’s shaken, when it cracks, how do you rebuild it?”

Her words aren’t just about Conrad. They’re about us.

“I don’t know,” I say honestly, my voice soft. “But I want to try. Tell me how to fix this.”

She exhales sharply, her posture softening just slightly. “I don’t have all the answers, . But I can’t keep feeling like an outsider in this fight. If we’re going to move forward, I need to be in the room with you, not watching from the sidelines.”

“You are in the room,” I say, stepping closer. “You’ve been by my side every step of the way. And I know I’ve failed you by not being transparent, but that ends now. No more secrets. No more walls.”

Her gaze holds mine, searching for something—truth, maybe, or the promise of something better. Finally, she nods. “Okay. But don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I won’t,” I say, and I mean it.

As the tension between us begins to ease, my phone buzzes again. I pull it from my pocket, my stomach sinking as I read the message:

“You’re running out of time. Reyes isn’t the only one watching.”

Eva leans in, reading over my shoulder. Her face pales. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” I admit, dread pooling in my chest.

The phone buzzes again, this time with an attachment. I open it, my blood running cold. It’s a photo of Eva and me in the penthouse, taken through the window.

They’re watching us.

Eva steps back, her hand covering her mouth. “, how—”

“I don’t know,” I say, my voice sharp with anger and fear. “But they’re escalating. They want us to feel vulnerable.”

Adrian’s voice rings in my head. They’re setting the stage for something bigger.

I take Eva’s hand, squeezing it tightly. “We’ll figure this out. I won’t let them touch you.”

Her eyes are wide, but she nods. “What do we do now?”

I glance back at the phone, the photo burning into my mind. “We go on the offensive.”

As I move to call Adrian, the lights in the penthouse flicker, then go out entirely. The room plunges into darkness, and a heavy silence falls.

“,” Eva whispers, her grip tightening on my arm.

“Stay close,” I say, my voice low and steady.

A faint noise echoes from the hallway—footsteps.

They’re here.