“Then we have to get out of here,” I said, grabbing my sweater from the chair. “If Julian is helping them, the whole house is compromised.”

“Julian only has access to the outer shell,” Adrian said.

He walked over to the closet, opened the heavy oak door, and pressed a hidden panel on the side wall.

A soft click echoed through the room.

The back of the closet slid open, revealing a small, lit corridor lined with steel.

“I needed them to think they succeeded,” Adrian said.

“I needed Julian to use that override code tonight.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because once he used it, the automatic locks on the server room engaged,” Adrian said.

“The financial files you were working on are now locked behind a physical firewall.”

“The syndicate can’t pull the remaining assets out of Romano Holdings.”

I looked at the dark corridor inside the closet, then back at Adrian.

“You used yourself as bait,” I said. “And you used me.”

“I used myself,” Adrian corrected. “You were the only variable I couldn’t control.”

He reached out and took my hand.