Chapter Six: Under His Nose
945 Words
Chapter Six: Under His Nose
The Voss International executive floor was nearly empty, lit only by the low hum of emergency lights and the green glow of computer monitors left on standby. It was nearly 10:00 p.m.—prime time for secrets.
Alina’s heels clicked softly as she made her way to the IT access room. She’d watched the security guard’s patterns for days, noted the blind spot in the hallway camera, and memorized the keypad code Marla used when she thought no one was looking.
This was the last risk she’d take for the week—but it was necessary.
Inside the server room, icy air poured from ceiling vents and fans whirred in steady rhythm. Alina kept her breaths shallow and her fingers steady as she booted up the terminal connected to internal comms. She wasn’t looking for merger updates tonight.
She wanted communications between Damon and Arclight Capital’s legal reps.
If she could get that email thread, confirm that Damon knew Arclight was the same investor that backed his first acquisition—she could finally prove intent. Not just coincidence. Not just strategy.
Destruction.
She worked fast, fingers dancing across the keys, back hunched in focus. Five folders in, she found it: a chain of encrypted messages labeled only by initials—D.V. and H.L.—the senior partner at Arclight. Hidden under “asset restructuring.”
She decrypted the first attachment.
Terms. Timelines. A clause that confirmed what she feared: Voss knew the funding trail. Knew it had backed his takeover of her father’s company. Knew they were strong-arming multiple small businesses into failure before swooping in.
And he still did it.
Her chest hollowed. This wasn’t just corporate aggression.
This was engineered ruin.
Her father’s death wasn’t just collateral. It was strategy.
She copied the email chain onto her secure drive and reached to disconnect it—
The server room door opened.
Her heart plummeted.
Damon.
No tie. Sleeves rolled. Jaw clenched.
“What exactly are you doing?” he asked, stepping inside, voice lethal in its quietness.
Alina spun around, clutching the USB drive in her palm so tightly it dug into her skin.
“I.... I was following up on a data recovery request from Jenna’s team,” she said quickly. “They said some old merger files were misfiled under......”
“Stop,” he said.
He walked closer, slow and deliberate.
“First,” he said, “you’re not authorized to be in this room after hours. Second, Jenna doesn’t even know this access point exists.”
Alina swallowed. “I was just trying to help—”
“Don’t lie to me.”
He was inches away now. The cold air made the tension sharper. His voice dropped. “Tell me the truth, Alina. Or I swear I’ll find it myself.”
She did what she did best: deflected.
“Why do you care so much about a junior employee? Why follow me instead of sending security?”
His eyes darkened. “Because I’ve dealt with spies before. They’re subtle. Calculated. And stupidly brave.”
“I’m not a spy.”
“No,” he said, “you’re something else.”
Their eyes locked, breath mingling in the cold.
For a second—a dangerous, electric second—neither moved.
Then Damon reached past her and shut down the terminal.
“Get out,” he said.
She didn’t argue. Didn’t run. Just walked past him, steady despite the adrenaline hammering her chest.
But as she reached the door, he said quietly:
“You should be careful.”
She turned.
“About what?”
He held her gaze. “Pretending to be someone you’re not.”
The elevator ride felt like a free fall.
Alina clutched the USB in her pocket like it was a weapon and a ticking bomb all at once.
She’d crossed the line.
And he knew it.
But he hadn’t stopped her.
That scared her more than anything.
Damon didn’t sleep.
He replayed every second of her expression. The way her pupils shrank, the stammer in her first excuse, the fact that she never fully denied his suspicion.
She was here for a reason.
And it wasn’t a job.
But the real question wasn’t what she wanted to find.
It was who she was working for.
He opened his encrypted system and typed her name into a private database—one that scraped employment, financial, and social data across global servers.
Alina Cross.
No matches beyond what was already in her file.
Then, on impulse, he typed: Alina Cole.
One hit.
A daughter of Leonard Cole—the founder of Cole Distribution. The man whose company collapsed just before Damon’s meteoric rise.
A man whose downfall... had made room for Voss’s first acquisition.
Damon sat back in his chair, the truth clicking into place like a puzzle snapping shut.
She wasn’t just ambitious.
She was coming for revenge.
And he’d let her get this far.
Back in her apartment, Alina stared at her laptop screen as the decrypted documents unfolded line by line.
She had it.
Proof of collusion between Damon and Arclight. Proof they’d used the same blueprint—sink, buy, build—for a dozen companies. Her father’s was just one of them.
She should’ve felt victorious.
Instead, she felt cold. Shaken.
Because for the first time, she saw something else in the data: Damon hadn’t needed to do it. Cole Distribution hadn’t posed a threat. Its collapse hadn’t been essential.
So why?
Why had he done it?
Power?
Profit?
Or had he been someone else’s pawn?
She didn’t know anymore.
And the worst part?
She was starting to care.
- Writer
