Zayden made the call from his office with the door closed, voice low, deliberate.
"I need a background check on someone," he said. "Her name is Selene Whitmore, investigate quietly. Nothing that reaches HR, nothing that reaches her."
"Any particular concern, sir?"
Zayden glanced towards the glass wall separating his office from the floor beyond, where Selene sat at her desk, sunlight catching the edge of her hair as she worked through a stack of contracts without looking up once.
"Some irregularities came up in a conversation," he said carefully. "I want to understand them before I ask her about it directly. Not because I doubt her. Because I want to protect her, if there's something there worth protecting against."
"Understood. I'll have something within the week."
He hung up and sa
