The astonishment that had flickered across Darren's face was quickly schooled back into an expression of warm, controlled welcome.
Ileana.
Of all the women on that list—the power players, the empire-builders, the seasoned socialites—Ileana was the first to cross the threshold.
Color Darren surprised. He really hadn't expected this.
The IT girl who usually blended into the background of his office, her presence as quiet as the hum of the servers in Operations Room.
However, today, there was something different about the Romanian hacker.
She didn't seem like the nervous, trembling girl from the rooftop. The anxiety was still there, thrumming just beneath the surface like a live wire, but it was being channeled, weaponized into something new.
Strangely, Ileana was smiling, a bright, deliberate beam that reached her eyes, making them sparkle with a determination he'd never seen in her before.
