Everyone wanted the CEO’s attention at singles night until she crossed the room and chose me

We didn't run; running caused panic. We moved with rapid, lethal efficiency down the carpeted hallway toward the IT security core.

The corridor was bathed in rhythmic crimson pulses from the emergency lights. The automated building voice was repeating in a smooth, emotionless female tone: *Security breach on Level 34. Access restricted. Security breach on Level 34.*

I reached the server room door first. The reinforced magnetic lock was disengaged—the green LED glowing steadily.

I shoved the heavy door open.

Inside, the chill of the industrial air conditioning hit us like an Arctic blast. Tower racks of servers were humming, their green and blue fiber-optic arrays blinking furiously.

Standing in front of the primary terminal was a figure in a Mercer & Row facilities uniform, an external hard drive connected directly to the master routing port.

“Step away from the console,” I shouted, stepping forward.

The figure turned around, pulling down the dark ballcap shading his face.

My breath caught in my throat.

“Noah?” I whispered, stunned.

Noah Bennett—the nervous, twitchy internal events coordinator who had handed me the Table 7 card at the rooftop mixer—was standing there with a pair of high-gain data extraction keys in his gloved hands.

“I’m sorry, Grant,” Noah stammered, his voice trembling, but his hands moving with practiced speed to disconnect the external drive. “I didn't have a choice. You don’t know what Julian has on me.”

“Noah, put the drive on the table,” Vivian said, stepping past me, her voice cold as dry ice. “Whatever Julian offered you, it won't cover twenty years in a federal penitentiary for industrial sabotage.”

“He has my sister’s medical debt!” Noah yelled, backing away toward the server room’s secondary service exit. “He bought the collection rights through his Cayman fund! He told me if I didn't pull the Swiss audit files off Vivian’s private drive tonight, he’d execute the liens on her house tomorrow morning!”

I stepped between Noah and the exit door. “Noah, listen to me. Julian is using you as a shield. The moment you hand him that drive, you become the liability. Do you really think he’s going to protect you when the SEC investigates?”

Noah looked between me and Vivian, tears brimming in his eyes, his breathing shallow and panicked.

“You don't understand how deep this goes, Grant,” Noah whispered, his voice cracking. “It’s not just Julian. It was never just Julian.”

“What are you talking about?” Vivian demanded.

“Arthur Pendelton,” Noah choked out. “Arthur isn't being manipulated by Julian. Arthur *hired* Julian two years ago. Your father found out Arthur was skimming from the firm’s pension trust to cover bad real estate investments in London. Your father was going to remove him from the board. But then... your father’s heart gave out.”

Vivian froze. Every trace of color drained from her face, leaving her ghost-white under the red emergency lights.

“What did you say?” she whispered.

“Arthur was with him that night,” Noah said, his voice barely audible over the hum of the cooling fans. “In the office. Julian has the security footage from the private suite. He’s been using it to blackmail Arthur into forcing the sale to Apex. If Apex buys the firm, the pension records are incinerated in the merger, and Arthur walks away clean.”

The room went dead silent.

The entire conspiracy hadn't been about a hostile takeover by an arrogant vice president. It was an elaborate cover-up of a murder, orchestrated by the man Vivian’s father had trusted most in the world.

Noah looked down at the hard drive in his hand. Then, with a sudden, desperate motion, he threw it across the room.

I caught it against my chest.

“The Peninsula dinner tomorrow night,” Noah whispered, his chest heaving. “Julian isn't meeting Meridian to pitch them. Arthur is going to be there. They’re signing the voting proxy over dinner. Once Arthur signs the proxy, Julian controls fifty-one percent of the board. The emergency meeting on Monday is just a formality.”

Noah turned, shoved open the emergency stairwell door, and vanished into the darkness of the fire escape before I could stop him.

Vivian stood in the center of the server room, staring blankly at the floor.

I walked over to her. I could see the tremors running through her arms, the crushing weight of a horrifying truth shattering everything she had ever believed about her father’s legacy.

“Vivian,” I said gently, reaching out and placing a firm hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at me. The vulnerability was gone. In its place was something terrifying, ancient, and incandescent with rage.

“We’re not crashing their dinner tomorrow, Grant,” she said, her voice dropping into a register that sent a shiver down my spine.

“What are we doing?”