Lana had always known Damian Wolfe was a ruthless man, but she hadn't expected him to be this relentless.
The moment she walked into the office that morning, he was already waiting for her. He didn't say a word just stood there, flipping through a file with slow, deliberate movements, like he had all the time in the world. Lana kept her shoulders straight, refusing to let his presence intimidate her.
"Since you're so eager to prove yourself," Damian finally said, his voice like ice, "I have a little test for you."
Lana raised an eyebrow but didn't respond.
Damian pushed a folder across the desk. "This is the Wolfe Corporation's quarterly financial report. There's an error in it. Find it."
Lana stared at the thick stack of papers. This had to be a joke. A report this large would take hours to go through, and yet he was expecting her to find a single mistake?
Still, she knew this was another one of his games, and she wasn't about to lose. "How long do I have?"
"Thirty minutes," he said, sitting back in his chair, watching her like a predator watching prey.
Lana took the file without hesitation and moved to her desk. The moment she flipped open the first page, she realized what kind of challenge this was a calculated attempt to make her fail.
The numbers blurred together as she scanned the report, her mind working faster than ever. She had always been good with numbers, good at catching discrepancies. But this… this was different. He was testing her under pressure, waiting for her to crack.
She wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
Twenty minutes passed. Then twenty-five. Damian hadn't looked away from her once.
Then, just before the thirty minute mark, Lana's eyes caught something a miscalculation in the revenue column. It was subtle, something most people wouldn't notice at first glance, but it was there. A three million dollar discrepancy.
She grabbed a pen, circled the error, and stood. Without a word, she strode into Damian's office and dropped the folder on his desk.
"There's a mistake in the revenue total," she said firmly. "Three million unaccounted for. Whoever prepared this didn't carry over the correct figures from the previous quarter."
Damian's eyes flickered with something unreadable as he picked up the file. He glanced at the page she had marked, his expression remaining cold and unreadable.
Then, after a long pause, he smirked.
"Not bad," he murmured.
Lana didn't react to the backhanded compliment. She knew better than to expect anything more from him.
But just as she was about to turn and leave, Damian leaned forward, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "You got lucky, Lana. But luck doesn't get you far in this business."
Lana met his gaze head-on. "It wasn't luck. It was skill."
His smirk deepened, but before he could say anything else, his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen, his entire demeanor shifting in an instant.
Lana caught the name flashing on the phone before he turned it away. Lawrence Carter.
The name rang a bell—a high-profile investor, one of Wolfe Corporation's biggest partners.
Damian's jaw tightened as he answered the call. "Carter," he said coolly.
Lana couldn't hear what was being said on the other end, but she could tell from the sudden tension in Damian's shoulders that it wasn't good news.
Then, without warning, his eyes flicked to her. "Stay," he ordered before pressing a button to put the call on speaker.
"Damian," Lawrence Carter's voice came through, clipped and urgent. "We have a problem. Someone's leaking information from inside Wolfe Corporation. We think it's coming from your department."
Lana's blood ran cold.
"Do you have a name?" Damian asked, his tone deadly.
"We don't know yet," Carter admitted. "But whoever it is… they're working fast. If we don't get ahead of this, we could be looking at a serious breach."
Damian's expression darkened, his fingers tightening around the edge of his desk. His gaze flicked to Lana for a fraction of a second, and she could see it the flicker of doubt. Did he think it was her?
Lana held her breath, refusing to react.
"Find out who it is," Damian said, his voice steel. "And when you do, let me know first."
Carter agreed before the line went dead.
A tense silence filled the office.
Damian didn't say anything at first, just studied Lana like he was trying to see straight through her.
Then, finally, he spoke. "I don't trust easily."
Lana met his gaze. "I don't expect you to."
He leaned back, tapping his fingers against the desk. "If I find out you're involved in this, Lana…" He let the threat hang in the air.
"I'm not," she said firmly.
Damian's eyes locked onto hers, searching for any hint of deception.
Then, after what felt like an eternity, he exhaled and leaned forward. "Good. Because if you betray me… you won't live to regret it."
That night, as Lana sat in her apartment, she opened an anonymous email with only four chilling words:
We know who you are.