“No, I mean, I don’t understand how you don’t know about it. Word around the office is that it was your access card that was used to breach the system.”

Her body went cold. Samiah relinquished her perch on the desk, rising slowly as she mentally fended off the escalating trepidation brought on by Amy’s pronouncement.

“What?” she whispered in a voice so thready she barely heard it herself.

Just then, there was an uptick in the muddled chatter that had been humming throughout the office. Samiah reached over to the keypad on her desk and turned the walls back to clear. At least a dozen of the men in the imposing windbreakers charged down the hallway, filing into the large conference room a few doors past her office. Quentin and Daniel brought up the delegation’s rear.

Daniel stopped just past her door and looked back at her through the glass wall, his soulful brown eyes teeming with remorse.

And just like that, she knew. He had lied to her.

Her shoulders curled forward as an acute sense of grief struck her dead in the chest. She had no idea when or where it happened, but the guilt she’d observed on his face was unmistakable. He’d taken her access card and used it to breach Trendsetters’ security.

He’d used her. All this time, he had been using her.

Pain—stark, vivid, and soul-crushing—speared her chest, searing through her like a fiery lance, and the foundation of trust she’d slowly begun to rebuild all but crumbled.

*  *  *

Samiah tilted her head from side to side, stretching her neck as she read the same paragraph on her monitor for the fourth time without comprehending a damn thing. Her shoulders ached with the need to relax, but the ability to do so continued to elude her.

Her breath caught in her throat as a silhouette appeared on the other side of her office’s frosted-glass door. There were three sharp knocks, followed by a soft “Trash collection.”

Air whooshed from her lungs as the wave of alarm retreated.

“Not today,” Samiah called.

Dammit! She had to get a handle on this. She dove straight into a fit of edgy panic the moment she heard footsteps clomping down the hallway.

She abhorred this feeling. Absolutely hated it!