Nathan POV
Nathan Cross didn't hire people. He acquired them.
He sat in his penthouse office on the fifty-second floor, looking out at the city sprawling below him like something he could buy if he wanted to. The resume on his desk in front of him was Sophie Morgan's. Perfect credentials. Perfect background. Perfect everything.
Too perfect.
Nathan had learned a long time ago that perfect was a warning sign. Perfect meant someone was hiding something. Perfect meant someone was trying too hard to look like something they weren't.
He'd built a ten-billion-dollar empire by listening to instincts that other people ignored. While other men made decisions based on what they saw, Nathan made decisions based on what felt wrong. And this felt wrong.
Nathan picked up his phone and called his head of security.
"Marcus," Nathan said when the man answered. "I need you to run a deep background check on someone. Sophie Morgan. Applied for the personal assistant position this morning."
"I'll get on it," Marcus said.
"I need it done by tonight," Nathan said. "And Marcus? Be thorough. Very thorough."
Nathan hung up and went back to looking at the city. He knew what Marcus would find. He'd felt the wrongness the moment he'd read the resume. The social media accounts would be new. The employment history would be fabricated. The references would be paid to lie.
Someone was trying to infiltrate his company.
Nathan should have been angry. Most men would have been. Instead he felt something almost like anticipation.
His phone rang three hours later. It was Marcus.
"You were right," Marcus said. "Sophie Morgan doesn't exist. The social media accounts were created three months ago. All the employment history is fake. The references are real people but they've been paid to say things about her. Someone built her identity from the ground up."
Nathan closed his eyes. He'd known. But knowing and hearing the confirmation were different things.
"Who sent her?" Nathan asked.
"We're still working on that. But based on the quality of the fake identity and the access she had to forgers in Brooklyn, we think it's a journalist. Someone doing a deep investigation into the company."
Nathan's jaw tightened. Dimitri had warned him about this three months ago. Dimitri had mentioned a journalist sniffing around. Elena Park. Some woman who'd been investigating Nathan's operations for two years. Dimitri had been very clear about what needed to happen.
Eliminate the threat.
Nathan had refused. Dimitri hadn't appreciated that.
"Mr. Cross?" Marcus said. "Should I reject the interview? Should I have security pick her up?"
Nathan opened his eyes and looked out at the city again. The lights were coming on as the sun went down. The city transforming itself from day into night like it was changing costumes.
"No," Nathan said. "Approve the interview for Monday. Three PM."
"Sir?" Marcus sounded confused. "She's trying to infiltrate your company. She's probably working with someone dangerous. She could be—"
"I know what she could be," Nathan interrupted. "Approve the interview anyway."
Nathan hung up before Marcus could argue further.
He walked to the bar in the corner of his office and poured himself a drink. Expensive scotch. The kind that tasted like power and secrets. He drank it in one swallow and poured another.
Nathan had spent the last three years preparing for a moment he wasn't sure would ever come. He had documents. Bank records. Wire transfers. Witness statements. Everything he needed to prove that Dimitri Volkov had ordered the yacht sabotage that killed Nathan's father. Everything he needed to prove that Dimitri had been controlling Nathan's company from the shadows for two decades.
But having evidence and using it were two different things. Using it meant war. Using it meant Dimitri would come after him with everything he had. Using it meant Nathan would have to be willing to burn his entire world down.
Nathan had been waiting for the right moment. The right opportunity. Someone brave enough or stupid enough to help him.
Maybe Elena Park was that someone.
Or maybe this was just a trap that Dimitri had set to see if Nathan was stupid enough to fall for it.
Nathan finished his second drink and called Marcus again.
"There's something else," Marcus said before Nathan could speak. "We tracked where the forged documents came from. Brooklyn. Specific team of people who specialize in creating identities. It's expensive work. She spent a lot of money to become Sophie Morgan."
Nathan understood what that meant. This wasn't some casual investigation. This was someone who had dedicated serious resources to getting close to him. Someone who wanted something badly enough to risk everything.
Someone desperate.
"What else?" Nathan asked.
"Her real name is Elena Park. She's a freelance investigative journalist. Her mother is in the hospital with serious health issues. Medical debt is astronomical. Two years ago her mother's life fell apart when she was blamed for stealing from a company called Hartwell Textiles. The CEO was Richard Cross."
Nathan's heart stopped.
Richard Cross. His father.
Nathan felt the pieces clicking together. Elena Park's mother had been framed by Dimitri. Nathan's father had been killed by Dimitri. And now Elena Park was infiltrating Nathan's company to expose it.
She didn't know the whole story. She thought Nathan was responsible for what happened to her mother. She didn't understand that Nathan was trapped just like she was. Just like everyone was.
But she was brave. Or stupid. Or both.
"Mr. Cross?" Marcus was waiting for his reaction.
"Approve the interview," Nathan said again. "And Marcus? Don't tell Dimitri. Don't tell anyone. This stays between us."
"Yes, sir. But what do you want me to do about—"
"Just approve the interview," Nathan said and hung up.
Nathan went back to the window and looked out at the city. He thought about Elena Park sitting in some small apartment, thinking she was hunting him. Thinking she was going to bring him down. Not understanding that she was walking into something far more complicated than she could imagine.
Not understanding that Nathan had been waiting for someone like her for three years.
He raised his glass to the city and to the woman who was about to change everything.
Monday afternoon, Nathan sat in his office waiting for his three PM interview. His security team had the file on Elena Park memorized. Her real name. Her real background. Everything about her except what really mattered, which was why she would be brave enough to do something this dangerous.
A knock on his door. His assistant opened it.
"Sophie Morgan is here for her three PM appointment," the assistant said.
Nathan felt something shift inside him. A recognition that something important was about to happen.
"Send her in," Nathan said.
Elena Park walked into his office wearing a gray suit and a fake identity. She was trying so hard to be Sophie Morgan that Nathan could see the effort in her shoulders. In the careful way she held her hands. In the control she was exerting over every muscle in her face.
She was terrified.
Nathan studied her carefully. She didn't look like someone dangerous. She looked like someone who was drowning and had decided to jump into the ocean hoping to find land.
She looked like someone who had nothing left to lose.
Nathan gestured to the chair across from him. "Please, sit."
Elena sat. Her hands were steady but Nathan could see her pulse racing in her neck. She was trying so hard to hide the fear.
Nathan had made his decision. He would hire her. He would see what she was really made of. He would figure out if she was brave or just desperate. And maybe, if she was very lucky and very smart, he would use her to finally burn Dimitri down.
But first he had to play the game. First he had to pretend he didn't know exactly who she was.
Nathan leaned back in his chair and smiled.
"Tell me about yourself, Sophie," he said, watching her carefully. "Tell me why I should hire you."
Elena opened her mouth to answer and Nathan waited to hear what lies she would tell.