Chapter 6 - Her Choice
Elara looked at Dario’s phone, then at Cassian. The question—What do you want?—should not have felt revolutionary. It was the sort of thing decent people asked every day. But in the last forty-eight hours, strangers had watched her home, a trusted colleague had betrayed her, and the most powerful man she knew had repeatedly tried to protect her by making choices for her. Hearing him stop and ask mattered.
“I want to know why Cole is going to headquarters,” she said.
Dario nodded. “Likely because he believes the files are there.”
“They aren’t.”
“Correct.”
“Then maybe he wants access to something else.”
Cassian folded his arms. “The building will be empty except security. We can lock it down.”
Elara thought of Cole. Proud. Angry. Convinced he had been undervalued. Men like that often wanted more than profit. They wanted vindication.
“Don’t lock him out,” she said.
Cassian’s face hardened. “Elara.”
“You asked what I wanted.”
“I did not promise to like it.”
“Good. Let him enter. Not freely. Controlled access. Make him believe Evan left the files in my office.”
Dario considered it. “We could isolate the floor and record everything.”
“No,” Cassian said.
Elara turned to him. “Why?”
“Because you’re about to suggest being there.”
“I wasn’t.”
He blinked.
“I was going to suggest Evan call him and say the files are in my desk.”
Dario covered a smile.
Cassian’s mouth tightened. “Fine.”
“You look disappointed that I’m being sensible.”
“I’m relieved and annoyed by the relief.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
“It is.”
The plan was set within an hour. Federal agents would monitor the building from an adjacent property. Blackwood security would control elevators and stairwells. Evan, under counsel’s supervision, sent Cole a message claiming he had panicked and hidden the backup drive inside Elara’s bottom desk drawer. The message included a photo of the office taken earlier that year, enough to look authentic.
Cole replied with two words: Stay home.
At 10:14 p.m., a camera captured him entering the parking garage through an employee access point using an old badge that should have been disabled.
Elara watched the feed from the safe house. Her stomach twisted when Cole stepped into the elevator. She knew his walk, his habit of checking his cuffs, the impatient tilt of his head when doors took too long to close. Familiarity made the betrayal stranger.
“He still has building access,” she said.
Dario nodded. “Another internal failure.”
“Or another favor from someone.”
Cassian glanced at her. “You think Reed?”
“I don’t know. But people keep treating each breach as a separate mistake. Maybe that’s why no one saw the pattern.”
Cole reached the executive floor at 10:21. The corridor lights were dimmed. He moved directly toward Elara’s office and used a small device on the electronic lock.
“Not improvising,” Dario murmured.
Inside the office, Cole opened drawers, cursed when he found nothing, then pulled out his phone.
The recording captured his half of the conversation.
“The drive isn’t here.”
A pause.
“No, I checked everything.”
Another pause.
“Elara isn’t at home. Blackwood moved her.”
Cassian’s jaw tightened.
Cole continued. “Then get her from wherever he put her. She knows too much.”
The room went silent.
Dario looked at Cassian. “That’s enough.”
Cassian nodded once. “Take him.”
Security entered the office thirty seconds later with federal agents behind them. Cole tried to run, made it to the corridor, and was stopped without a shot fired. When they searched him, they found two phones, forged credentials, and a flash drive containing shipment data from multiple Blackwood subsidiaries.
Elara sat back, exhaling slowly.
“That should feel better,” she said.
“It will,” Cassian replied. “Eventually.”
Dario’s phone rang almost immediately. He listened, frowned, then moved away from the table.
Elara watched him. “What now?”
Dario finished the call. “Cole is asking for a deal. Says Marco Valenti is not the one who ordered surveillance on Elara.”
Cassian’s eyes narrowed. “Who did?”
“He won’t say without counsel.”
Elara felt a familiar frustration rise. Another layer. Another name. Another reason to remain afraid.
She stood. “I need air.”
Cassian followed her onto the covered back terrace but stayed inside the doorway until she looked at him and nodded permission. Snow drifted over the frozen inlet. The cold bit through her borrowed sweater.
“I’m tired of being the thing people discuss,” she said. “Cole talks about me. Valenti asks about me. Evan gives people my schedule. You move me. Dario protects me. Everyone has a plan involving Elara except Elara.”
Cassian leaned against the railing. “Then make one.”
“I am trying.”
“What does it look like?”
She thought about the office she had kept running, the invisible labor, the way she knew the company’s systems better than executives who earned six times her salary. She thought about the kiss, too, but refused to let danger turn attraction into destiny.
“When this is over,” she said, “I want a different job.”
Cassian’s expression changed.
“I don’t mean somewhere else necessarily. But I’m done being your secretary.”
“You should have been promoted two years ago.”
“That is not flattering.”
“It wasn’t meant to be. It was an admission.”
She folded her arms against the cold. “What would you make me?”
“I won’t make you anything.”
She looked at him.
“I can offer you something,” he said. “You choose.”
“That answer is suspiciously healthy.”
“I’m learning.”
She smiled faintly.
Cassian continued. “Chief of strategic operations. Reporting to the board, not to me personally. Authority over executive logistics, internal controls, and crisis planning. Compensation adjusted accordingly.”
Elara stared at him. “You already thought about this.”
“For months.”
“And never told me?”
“I was trying to find a way to promote you without making it look like favoritism.”
“Which suggests there was favoritism.”
His silence answered her.
She looked out at the snow. “I won’t take a role because you kissed me.”
“I would be offended if you did.”
“And I want the board to interview me.”
“Agreed.”
“And a written scope.”
“Agreed.”
“And market compensation.”
“Higher than market.”
“Market.”
He almost smiled. “You negotiate badly.”
“I negotiate cleanly.”
“That may be why I like you.”
Her breath caught at the word like, simple and unarmored.
Before she could respond, Dario opened the terrace door.
“Cole named the person who commissioned the surveillance.”
Cassian turned. “Who?”
Dario looked at Elara first.
“Someone inside Blackwood Sterling,” he said. “Board member Helena Vale.”
Elara knew the name immediately. Helena had chaired the audit committee for eight years. She was elegant, meticulous, and one of the few executives who always remembered Elara’s name.
“She’s at the center?” Elara asked.
Dario nodded. “Cole says Valenti was the buyer, but Helena supplied access. She wanted leverage over Cassian before the January board vote.”
Cassian’s face went still.
Elara understood then. This was no longer merely about organized crime or corporate sabotage.
It was about control of Blackwood Sterling itself.
And for the first time, she had something more useful than fear.
May you like
She had a choice about what to do with the truth.
Before the operation began, Elara also asked for one condition: no one would use Evan as bait without his attorney’s approval and his explicit consent. Cassian agreed immediately. Evan did too, ashamed but determined to repair some part of what he had damaged. That distinction mattered to Elara. She was beginning to understand that control and safety were not the same thing, and that every choice they made now would define what Blackwood Sterling became after the crisis.
