Waiting For It - Allyson Lindt Page 0,37

the Shawn-voice from asking, Didn’t you?

“No, it won’t.” Luke’s tone was hard. “Anne made the right call, and no one’s life fell into a downward spiral because they had to change their password.”

Mike pursed his lips. “You’re the boss, which is why I’m here. What can I do for you?”

“We’re looking at the storyline leak that happened the other morning,” Luke said.

Thank God he was stern and cool, because my doubt was clashing hardcore with my knowledge.

Mike nodded. “The information that came from Billie’s account.”

“It looks like that on the surface, but we don’t think she’s the culprit. Which is why Anne made the call she did yesterday.” Luke’s expression was marble. A Greek god, carved wearing a modern wardrobe.

Mike maintained a faint smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “I’ll talk to her about our security protocols and get something written up with HR. I suspected she was sharing her login information, to make her job easier.”

He was awfully quick to cast blame in a specific direction. My irritation grew, drowning out anything else.

Luke shook his head. “I’ll take care of that. Thank you. I’m more interested in the fact that the leak happened before she entered the building. Early enough that only three of you were here at the time.”

The way Luke was handling this was sexy. I’d like to think I could be as direct, but I’d probably waver. Especially with the way Mike was blocking everything with misdirection.

Mike shrugged. “I assume she logged in from the VPN.”

“The leak came from within the building. Internal IP address, not a VPN connection.” I was tired of this. Mike had flaws, but he wasn’t stupid. There was no way he thought we were buying his story. Did he want to be caught?

The asshole still didn’t look at me. I slammed my palm on the table, sending a sharp smack through the room and making him jump. Good. Arrogant fucker. “We need to know you’re not responsible for the leak.” My voice was harder than I expected.

Mike finally turned toward me with a snort-laugh. “You sure do like to jump to conclusions. Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know. Why?” I bit back. His confidence made my doubt return. Why were we doing this? He couldn’t be guilty.

Mike narrowed his eyes. “I suspect whoever did it found out what a bullshit ending we’re about to be fed, and wanted the world to know how badly you fucked up.”

“Chloe has known how this series will end since Game One. And it’s a good fucking ending.” Now I was getting defensive and swearing. I needed to yank my emotions back in, but I couldn’t. “It’s incredible. Just because your tiny, homophobic, incel brain—” I snapped my jaw shut, but I’d already gone too far.

Mike’s infuriatingly subtle smile was back. “It’s bullshit, and people like you are the reason the industry—this company—are in decline. You vapid—”

“Enough.” Luke stood.

“Why?” Mike mimicked my earlier question. “People like her are the reason—”

Luke stepped closer to Mike and leaned in, palms on the table, silencing him. I’d never seen Luke look so terrifying. Or so incredible. He stared down Mike, their faces inches apart, but never touched him.

“Anne, call Zane. Tell him to lock down all the machines in the building now and completely remove Mike’s access. When you’re done, explain to everyone that they’ll be allowed back in soon, and ask them to please stay at their desks until I can talk to them. I’m going to make sure Mike has his belongings and see him to his car.”

I wanted to say yes, sir and salute. Luke’s presence evoked that kind of reaction in me. His command of the situation was fucking sexy. “Will do.”

“I’ll fucking sue you and this entire company for this.” Mike glared daggers at Luke as they left the room.

I made the request with Zane when they were gone. As I headed into the main room, I heard a quiet wave of what the—? roll through the cubicles.

“Everyone sit tight. We’ll explain soon,” I said.

No one heard me. Even the people sitting closest to me didn’t look in my direction.

“Excuse me.” I raised my voice.

Heads turned toward me, but not many. The volume in the room grew, as more and more of them stood to talk, and saw Mike boxing up his things.

“What’s going on with Mike?”

“Are they firing all of us?”

“This is bullshit. After all the work we’ve done?”

The questions and fear grew louder with each passing second. This needed to