Page 22 of Crossing Lines

“So?” he says. “I’m doing you a favor. If you refuse my help, you know Mom will come to clean it all herself.” I wince and he grins and says, “But seriously, I’m here to help you find out who hacked your house.”

“How do you know someone hacked my house?”

“I have my ways. Do you have any suspects?”

I debate if I should tell Zeki my thoughts. That it might be Mert. When I cut ties with Mert and fled to America, I told my family that Mert tried to oust me from my own company by turning the board against me, but that I sold it before he could get his hands on any money.It’s a lie. Mert got his hands on money, far too much, all to protect Zeki. Zeki doesn’t know that Mert’s blackmail was related to him.

Zeki’s offer to help me is unexpected, but it’s not like he has the skills to help find out who hacked my house. I’m also not used to telling him about my problems; that’s not the type of relationship we have. But he looks so sincere, and he does have an expansive network, especially back in Istanbul. Maybe he might be able to tap into that to find out what Mert’s doing.

“Besides Mert?” I find myself saying. “No.”

“Have you pissed anyone off lately?” he asks. I scoff and he says, “More than usual, I mean.”

I think about it for a minute. “Well, a major sponsor—Stonehaven Bank—recently pulled out, and I was a little rude to their CEO after he told me that.”

“Hmm, that could be something.” He says it with more seriousness than I’ve ever heard from him. “Anything else weird happen related to the sponsor topic?”

“Actually, yes. Every company I’ve called over the past week to begin sponsorship discussions has refused to take my call or call me back. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’m starting to wonder if Stonehaven is spreading rumors about me.”

“Did you tell Nate about this?”

I shake my head. Potential rumors about me are not a security risk and there’s no need to tell Nate about it. But Zeki frowns before typing something on his phone.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“Getting someone to look into Stonehaven and put some feelers out to confirm if anyone is spreading rumors about you.”

“I… That would be helpful.” A large part of me doesn’t trust that this is going to work out well for me. Zeki isn’t the most reliable person and there’s a big possibility he won’t follow up with whoever he just wrote, and I’ll just have to redo all the work he’s doing now myself.

“Does anyone else come to mind?” he asks. “Anyone you’ve pissed off lately?”

“Nope, well, except my roommate, but?—”

“Roommate?” Zeki sits up suddenly. “Since when do you have a roommate?”

“It’s not a big deal. Stella insisted I stay at her house.”

“And is this roommate a woman?” he asks.

I ignore his question and stare at my computer screen.

“I see.” He grins. “How did you keep the fact that you have a girlfriend a secret?”

I glance at him. “We’re not dating. It’s not like that.At all.She’s a friend of Stella’s and I’m pretty sure she hates me…”

“Well, now I have to meet her. What’s her name?”

“Nina.”

Zeki laughs and doesn’t stop for a good three minutes. “She’syour roommate?” He chuckles again. I’m seriously regretting ever telling him about Nina all those months ago when loneliness loosened my tongue unexpectedly. “It’s official, we’re having dinner all together tonight so I can meet her.”

“No, and you’re not moving in with us.”

“Why not?”

“First, the house is completely unfurnished.” In Turkish culture, Zeki would stay with me without question, even if I didn’t have room. But I’m not going to do that to Nina. “But also because Nina’s already pissed I’m there, and I don’t want to make it worse.”

“Fine. But I’m coming over tonight to meet her.”

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