Page 2 of Left of the Slash
The last person to introduce themselves is Eden Graves. She is the CEO’s assistant, and I assume she's here to take notes for the boss of all bosses. Eden assisted the previous CEO, Diego Lucero, as well as Jon when he was the interim CEO for three months after Diego died in a tragic car accident, killing both himself and the previous CSE, Peter Sloan. Diego collided with a concrete barrier while driving on the highway. A tragic accident. Peter’s death vacated the position I just filled. Eden has been here to see all of the craziness of Obsidian play out, and I can sense the tension in her body language as she flashes a quick smile and returns to her seat to open a green notebook. Everyone follows her lead and sits down at the table, with Jon at the right hand of the empty seat, awaiting the CEO.
“So,” Jon starts as we all get comfortable. “Has anybody heard about why we’re here bright and early this morning?”
Nick shakes his head as Stephen rocks in his chair with a smug look on his face.
“I heard there was a breach,” Stephen answers, rocking hard as if the news excites him.
“What?” I say with a deep furrow in my brow and shocked confusion spreading through my body.
Eden clears her throat and stares daggers into Jon, who raises his hands like he’s being confronted by the police.
“Don't blame me for the word getting out,” Jon says. “Don't worry, Eden, I won't spoil the new CEO’s first crack at crisis management. I'm sure with all of her experience in the field, she’ll have no problem solving the case and preventing us from leaking clients all over the floor.”
“Wait a minute,” Nick cuts in. “You were the CEO for three months while we waited for Olivia to decide if she even wanted the job, but now you can't tell us about a security breach?”
“It’s the CEO’s responsibility,” Jon answers, but there’s a bitterness to his words that he's not even trying to hide.
What kind of mess am I walking into?
“Everybody appreciates how you ran the company in the interim, Jon,” Eden says, pushing her red hair over her shoulder, and I can tell from her body language that this is a conversation she is tired of having. “But Olivia has taken the mantle, and you're back to being chief information security officer, a job that you never really stopped doing even when you were interim CEO.”
Jon scoffs. “Yeah, I was good enough to do both my job and hers, but I'm not the founder’s daughter, so my twenty-five years here isn't enough to make me qualified to be CEO. Apparently, only blood can do that.”
“Jon, you're being childish,” Eden says, glaring across the table.
“Well, I'd rather be childish than a product of nepotism like our fearless leader,” Jon fires back. He's smiling through each word, but every vowel and consonant is laced with venom for both Eden and the new CEO, who isn't even here to defend themselves. “Tell me, my former assistant, given Olivia’s background infinance, is she even qualified to deal with a security breach of this magnitude?”
Eden squirms in her seat like it’s suddenly heating up. She doesn't have to respond for the answer to be as loud as a bullhorn.
“She's just getting started, Jon,” she says softly. “Just give her time.”
“Try twenty-five years,” Jon snaps back.
“Don't let her hear you talking like that,” Stephen says with raised brows. “You know how mean she is.”
Jon rolls his eyes. “Yeah, I'm not scared of the fucking ice queen.”
Eden’s jaw tightens while Stephen and Nick laugh and cover their mouths like immature high school boys after a kid gets roasted.
The room suddenly falls silent as everyone sits uncomfortably in the awkwardness, but my mind is a runaway train spewing thought bubbles and question marks. There is clearly a ton of resentment floating in the air in the executive wing of Obsidian Cyber. Every employee knows that Diego Lucero and Peter Sloan died together in a car accident recently, and we all thought that Jon would take over the company. He has been here the longest and has the most experience, but I'm not sure how many people knew that Diego’s daughter Olivia had the option to take over. She was a financial advisor before and never worked in cybersecurity prior to her father's death, so her choosing to run the company is certainly a surprise. I understand the confusion, but Jon is more than confused. He's pissed off and wants the world to know it, and I can't help but wonder if Olivia is aware of how much the men in this room resent her.
After another tense minute of silence, Jon lets out a long sigh while looking at his watch.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he snips. “Is it an emergency or not?”
“Yes, Jon, itisan emergency,” a new voice cuts in, followed by quick footsteps and the swishing of a black and gray skirt.
I spin around and watch as a gorgeous woman with dark brown curly hair and the cheekbones of a goddess struts in and takes a seat at the head of the table. Her plump lips are pursed as she glares at Jon for a moment before forcing herself to look at everyone seated at the conference room table. Her eyes find me last, and they linger long enough to fill my insides with rabid butterflies trapped inside of steel cages. I fear no man in this room, but I'm suddenly pressed into the back of my seat by the brown-eyed stare of Olivia Lucero, Obsidian Cyber’s new CEO.
“All right, everybody,” she says in a low, sultry voice, her eyes stuck on me. “Let’s begin.”
THREE - Quinn
My tongue involuntarily rubs against the back of my bottom lip as I watch Olivia Lucero scan her small audience. Her brown skin glows and stands out in the room full of alabaster, and everything about her demeanor screamsI am not to be fucked with. A small furrow rests comfortably between her brows, and I find myself on the edge of my seat as I await her next words. There is no way she’s any taller than five-five, yet she commands the room like a giant, with almond-shaped siren eyes that make the gravity increase, putting all of us under more pressure just by being in the room. I can tell she is a force after only hearing a few words. Everyone at the table sits up straighter, their demeanors changing with Olivia’s presence. None of that slick talk from earlier is flying out of their mouths now. It is as quiet as a cemetery at midnight as the group sits on pins and needles.
“In case you weren't already aware,” Olivia begins, speaking clearly and with loud assertiveness. “We’ve had a breach. Our third biggest client, Judge Foster Knight, has had his emails leaked. Unfortunately, the judge has been having an ongoing affair with his secretary, and the two of them were corresponding via email because he thought his server was secure. He had faith in Obsidian, and we failed him. The hacker was able to bypass our firewall, duplicate the judge’s emails, and send the damning evidence to his wife, Nancy. Now, it’s not the judge’s business that I'm concerned about. I couldn't give two shits about some old guy fucking his young secretary. Unfortunately, that’s as American as apple pie. However, Idocare about how our system was hacked by what seems to be a fucking virus.”
Every time Olivia curses, the word is like a tiny hand grenade going off in the middle of the table. She’s so small, yet she talks bigger than the tallest person in the room. It’s interesting to see a woman of her stature carry herself with such self assuredness while lacking the slightest bit of give-a-damn. I find myself smirking every time she talks. This tiny woman is clearly the alpha in the room. I absolutely loathe using the wordalpha, but I digress. If there is such a thing, Olivia Lucero embodies it entirely.
