Until You (Off-Limits)

I’m nervous as I sit down at my desk. I’m still feeling out of place, and it’s clear that this is a very close-knit team. I should’ve asked Gray why he hired me to work in this specific team, but I haven’t had the courage. I’m scared he won’t have an answer for me, that it’s all just a favor to Noah.

My phone lights up at my desk, and I smile when I see Noah’s name.

Noah: How are you doing, Ari? New job okay?

I grin as I type my reply. I miss him. It’s only been a few days, but I’m worried about him.

Aria: I’m good! The new job is great! How are you? Are you eating? Sleeping enough? Please don’t forget to function like an actual human being!

I almost facepalm myself. That’s way too many exclamation marks. He’ll know everything isn’t as good as I’m saying it is, but it’s too late now.

Noah: Yes, Ari. Don’t you worry about me. I’ll call you later, okay? I want to hear all about the new job.

I’m about to reply when someone slams a cup of coffee down on my desk, making it spill over the edge. I look up to find Riley standing next to my desk. I’m not sure about his expression, though. Is he… smiling? It looks more like a grimace, and it freaks me out a little.

“Your work yesterday wasn’t awful.”

I relax in my seat and bite back a smile. “It wasn’t awful?” I repeat slowly.

He crosses his arms and shakes his head. “Some might actually say it’s good.”

“Some… but not you?”

Laura walks past my desk and shakes her head. “This is painful to watch,” she says, grabbing her headphones from her bag.

Riley ignores her and looks away, seemingly hesitating. “It was, uh, it was good. Look, I was wrong. There, I said it. Happy now?”

I cross my own arms, mirroring his posture. “What makes you think I care about your opinion at all?”

Laura chuckles and I realize she might be wearing her headphones, but they clearly aren’t plugged in.

Riley sighs. “Will you let me take you out for a drink and make it up to you? I feel like we’re starting off on the wrong foot, and we’ll be working together for the foreseeable future. I should’ve known Grayson wouldn’t have hired you if you weren’t a good fit for the team.”

I’m surprised, and Laura is staring at us in surprise, too. Before I can make up my mind, a heavy hand drops down on my shoulder. Gray leans over me and puts down a cup of English breakfast tea before grabbing the cup of coffee that Riley made me. Gray hands the cup back to Riley, and he takes it reluctantly.

Gray’s grip on my shoulder tightens as he stares Riley down, towering over him. “She doesn’t drink black coffee,” he says, his tone clipped. “And I don’t pay you to stand around chatting shit. Get to work.”

Riley tenses, his eyes dropping to mine before he nods and turns to walk to his own desk. I’m instantly nervous. It’s only nine and I know I’m not slacking, yet I suddenly feel like I am.

Gray leans against my desk, his eyes roaming over my face and down to my blouse, almost as though he’s checking me out. He straightens abruptly and turns to face the rest of the team.

“Since Riley spent all day wasting Aria’s time yesterday, I’d better take charge myself.”

Elliot and Laura rise from their seats and walk up to us, forming a little circle around my desk. But Riley stays seated, looking guilty and uneasy.

“I formed this team specifically for high budget projects,” Gray says.

“Visionary type of shit,” Elliot chimes in, and I smile nervously. Finally. I finally get to find out what they actually do here.

Gray walks up to the glass board on the wall and places his hand on it. It isn’t until that that I realize it isn’t just a fancy whiteboard. It’s a screen of some sort.

“We’ve been commissioned to create a type of facial recognition software that’ll integrate with most operating systems, except it won’t just be used to unlock phones. Our job is to make it so secure that it’ll replace biometric scanners altogether. It’ll be used for banking, identification at airports, you name it. Our list of demands is high. One of the client’s top priorities was ensuring our facial recognition can assess distress, in case someone is forced to unlock something under pressure. If it can be hacked in any way, then that might be the end of Aequitas. This project is high-risk, and I think you might be the missing piece, Aria.”

I tense, suddenly nervous. “Me?”

Gray smiles at me. “You have a unique way of coding, Aria. You make everything better, but you also see ways to tie all our codes together, something we’ve been unable to do. We’re all good at our specific specializations, but we need someone that can actually put all the pieces together. Since this project is highly confidential, we can’t work with a big team. We have countless developers working on smaller elements, but only this small team touches the core of the project. Your prime focus is going to be on building the interface that ties everything together flawlessly. I’ll have you coordinate with everyone and I want you to personally go through every bit of code every single person in this room writes, including myself. All the while, Elliot is going to assess your work for weaknesses.”

I nod, my heart racing. This is it. This is what I’ve always wanted. I’m about to start working on software that’ll change the world.

I look at Gray, and he smiles at me. Why does he trust me so much? Is this all just a favor for Noah? I doubt myself in many ways, but my skills as an engineer aren’t something I doubt. I’m confident that I can do this, but how come Gray is? He’s crazy to be risking my involvement. For all he knows, the code I finished for him the other day was just a fluke.

I need to make sure I don’t let him down. The type of opportunity he’s given me only comes along once in a lifetime.

Gray pulls up different sets of data, showing me the project timeline and some of the work that’s already been done. I’m both giddy with excitement and terrified. This is the biggest challenge I’ve ever come across and the stakes have never been higher.

“Make sure you all help Aria settle in as soon as possible,” he says. “We’re on a deadline, after all.”

He swipes across the screen, and it turns itself off. He turns to walk away, and Laura smiles as she follows him. He glances at her and shakes his head, a grin on his face. Their silent exchange somehow makes me uncomfortable.

My eyes follow them until they both disappear into Gray’s office, the door closing behind them. The way they looked at each other… there was intimacy there. A woman like Laura, yeah. That’s probably the type Gray goes after. Tall, blonde, thin, and intelligent beyond compare. She’s just like Britney.

I drag my eyes away from Grayson’s closed office door when Elliot walks up to me. He grins at me, a knowing look in his eyes. “I fucking knew it,” he says, hopping onto my desk. He glances around us, and then he smiles. “Nyx, in the flesh. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to meet you.”

I freeze, fear running down my spine. My identity has always been a secret that I’ve guarded with an iron fist. I should’ve known I’m no match for Elliot Evans, though. Not in terms of security testing.

“Chill,” he tells me. “I’d never tell anyone about you.”

I cross my arms and lean back in my seat, trying my best to exude confidence when I don’t even remotely feel it. “Skaterboy,” I say, and his eyes widen at the mention of his username.

I smile. He’s good, but I’m not half bad either. I’ve never breached the privacy of the platform’s members, but Elliot made it far too easy to guess who he is through our correspondence. We’ve worked on half a dozen cases together, and while I’m nowhere near as close to him as I am to Ash, we have spoken to each other a few times.

“What are you even doing here?” I ask him. He’s so good at what he does he doesn’t need to be working for anyone else. No one on this team needs to, yet they’re all here.

Elliot smiles and looks away. “It’s because I owe Grayson. Some time ago, some asshole made my boyfriend cry. Lucian’s brother wanted to make him disappear, but Lucian is too kind-hearted. He asked his brother to let it go, and that dumb shit actually did. I wasn’t about to let that happen. You don’t make the love of my life cry and get away with it… but I don’t have the right connections. I might be good behind my computer, but real-life stuff like that? I don’t know how to do that. Grayson does. I asked him for a favor, and he called it when he created this team.”

I stare at Elliot in shock. “Gray made someone disappear?”

Elliot nods. “Grayson isn’t as simple as you think he is. He’s rougher than most of us are, more heartless. That man… I don’t know what he’s seen, but it can’t have been pretty. His past seems complex and best left hidden.”

I nod, partially in disbelief. Grayson is one of the best men I know. Could he really do something like that?

Elliot walks away, and I try my hardest to focus on my work, but I keep catching myself glancing at Gray’s door. There’s so much about him I just don’t know… and I want to find out. I want to get to know the parts of Gray he keeps hidden. I shouldn’t wonder about Grayson. I shouldn’t, but I do.