Page 160 of Sexting the Boss

“We already pulled something,” Roman interrupts. He pulls a tablet from under his arm and shows me a paused frame of a surveillance video. A blurry outline of a man entering the back storage access—one only used by vetted personnel.

Roman’s voice is like ice. “The code used to unlock that door belongs to someone who’s been here before. It wasn’t forced. It wasn’t hacked.”

I stare at the footage. The timestamp. The familiar access point.

Roman meets my gaze. “Looks like an inside job.”

My stomach turns.

My eyes flick to the screen again, then to my mother. She’s watching me carefully, like she knows exactly what I’m thinking.

Someone let him in.

Someone who stood in these halls, ate at my table, looked me in the eye.

Later in my office, Roman and I review the footage.

Roman leans against the edge of the table, arms crossed, watching me with that unreadable look he wears when he’s winding up for something.

“Not going to like this,” he says finally.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Let’s assume I’m already not liking any of this. What now?”

He gestures to the footage again—the timestamp, the access point, the familiarity of it all. “I’ve been going through the entry logs from the last three months.”

I raise a brow.

“And?”

He gives me a look. “It’s strange that Nina showed up just days before the breach happened.”

I don’t react. Not outwardly.

He waits a beat. “You still think she wouldn’t?”

I stare at the screen, jaw locked. “She’s known my family for two decades.”

Roman shrugs. “And Lev knew yours for longer.”

He crosses his arms, quiet for a beat. Then, in that too-casual tone I’ve known long enough to be suspicious of, he says, “You remember what Sasha said about Nina?”

I don’t look at him. “Yeah. I remember.”

“She said she didn’t trust her,” Roman continues, leaning against the doorframe.

“I thought she was jealous,” I say flatly. “Which I didn’t mind at the time.”

Roman chuckles. “Sure. But the thing is—jealous people notice things the rest of us don’t. Small things. Subtle shifts.”

I glance at him now, eyes narrowing. “Get to the point.”

He shrugs, all harmlessness. “Just saying…you trust Nina. Sasha didn’t. And now we’ve got someone using a code that only insiders know. Could be coincidence. Could be someone riding the line between both sides.”

“Don’t.”

Roman tilts his head. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t turn this into something it’s not. Nina wouldn’t betray me.”

---