The first sign that something had shifted came in silence.
Not from my phone, not from Damien's updates from the sudden absence of movement on the monitors.
Sienna's meeting with Kai Louis had ended twenty minutes ago. No raised voices, no visible confrontation, just two people talking. Too calmly.
That was the problem.
Calm was never good. Calm meant someone had said something worth thinking about.
"Replay the last five minutes of the feed," I said.
Damien looked uneasy. "Sir, the audio..."
"—wasn't authorized, I know," I cut in. "Just show me body language."
The footage rolled back: Sienna leaning forward, arms folded, still but alert. Kai animated, smiling in that too-smooth way of his. Then, at the very end, he stood, said something, and walked out.
She didn't move. Not for a full minute after he left.
I rubbed my jaw, the muscles tightening. I'd seen that expression before not fear, not anger. Calculation.
"She's keeping something from me," I said quietly.
Damien hesitated. "With respect, sir… she's probably trying to protect the company."
"She doesn't need to protect the company," I said, too sharply. "That's my job."
And there it was the truth bleeding through.
Protecting her wasn't business. It was instinct. And instincts like mine were messy things.
I turned away from the monitors and faced the floor-to-ceiling window. The city was still bright, oblivious. But something about the view felt different now like the horizon itself had shifted.
"Any word from our contact inside Blackwood's network?"
"Not since last night," Damien replied. "We're tracing a data anomaly from Sienna's system, though. Someone accessed her confidential folder through your sync channel."
I froze. "My channel?"
"Yes, sir. It looks like an automatic update except it wasn't from our end."
A cold pulse ran through my chest. "Meaning?"
"Meaning someone's inside both networks yours and hers."
I turned slowly, the words settling like ice. Someone had slipped past two of the most secure systems in the country. That wasn't just infiltration. That was personal.
"Lock everything down," I said. "Every file, every encrypted channel. I want to know who touched that data and where it went."
Damien nodded, already typing.
"And Damien," I added, "I don't care what it takes if Kai Louis breathed near one of my servers, I want his entire digital history burned into a report by morning."
He hesitated. "And Miss. Hart?"
I looked at the monitor again at Sienna, sitting in her office, staring at something I couldn't see.
"She won't tell me what he said," I murmured. "Not yet."
I pocketed my phone and grabbed my jacket.
"Have the car ready. I'm going to her."
Because whatever game Kai thought he'd started, it wasn't his to play anymore.