4- After Hours

The digital clock on the wall read 8:14 p.m.

Most of the offices on the upper floor were dark. Beyond the glass walls, the city glittered beneath the night sky, but Elena had barely noticed the view for the past three hours.

She was too busy trying to understand why one billionaire needed so many financial reports.

She rubbed her tired eyes and looked at the spreadsheet on her screen.

“One more page,” she whispered. “Just one more page, and then I’m going to throw this computer out of the window.”

“An expensive way to resign.”

Elena froze.

She knew that voice.

Slowly, she turned her head.

Kaysen Vance stood behind her chair, his black suit jacket draped over one arm. His white shirt was open at the collar, and his sleeves were rolled up to his forearms. The usual distance in his expression had not disappeared, but there was something different about him without the jacket and tie.

He looked less like a businessman attending a meeting and more like a man who had spent the entire day making decisions everyone else was afraid to question.

And now, apparently, he had decided to make her evening worse.

Elena turned back to her computer.

“If you’re here to give me more work, I’d appreciate it if you waited until I finished planning my resignation.”

“You’re not resigning.”

She looked over her shoulder.

“Is that another decision you’ve made for me?”

Kaysen placed a thick folder on her desk.

“No. It’s an observation. You need the money, and I need someone who can finish this report correctly.”

She stared at the folder.

Then at him.

“Have you ever considered asking people nicely?”

“I have.”

“And?”

“They usually waste time answering.”

Elena let out a short, disbelieving laugh.

“You’re unbelievable.”

“So I’ve heard.”

He moved to the other side of her desk and opened the folder. His eyes scanned the first page before he pushed it toward her.

“The board meeting in Frankfurt has been moved to tomorrow morning. These figures need to be checked before midnight.”

She looked at the clock.

“It’s already past eight.”

“I can read a clock, Miss Hayes.”

“Wonderful. Then you can also read the part of the contract that mentions working hours.”

His gaze lifted.

For a moment, the office seemed to grow quieter.

“I can also read the clause that requires you to assist with urgent business matters when necessary.”

Elena leaned back in her chair.

“And I can read the part that says I’m an employee, not a machine.”

“Then we both understand the contract.”

He said it so calmly that she had to fight the urge to throw the folder at him.

Instead, she opened it.

The numbers were complicated, the notes incomplete, and the deadline unreasonable. She could have refused. She could have reminded him that the agreement did not give him the right to treat her like someone who had no life outside his office.

But her family was safe because of that contract.

And she wasn’t going to let him accuse her of being incapable of doing the job.

“Fine,” she said. “But if I finish this before midnight, you owe me dinner.”

Kaysen raised an eyebrow.

“Is that a condition of your employment?”

“No. It’s a condition of my continued good mood.”

“Then I suggest you don’t depend on it.”

He turned toward his office.

Elena watched him go, then muttered, “I wouldn’t eat with you if you were the last man on earth.”

“Then you’ll be pleased to know I wasn’t planning to invite you.”

She looked up sharply.

He hadn’t even turned around.

Her mouth fell open.

Did he have ears everywhere?

“Good,” she called after him. “Because I have standards.”

Kaysen disappeared behind the glass door.

A few seconds later, his voice came through the office speaker.

“Miss Hayes, if you have enough energy to argue, you have enough energy to work.”

Elena stared at the ceiling.

“I hate this man.”

The speaker remained silent.

Then, after a brief pause, his voice returned.

“I heard that, too.”

She grabbed a pen and threw it onto her desk.

This was going to be the longest six months of her life.

By ten o’clock, Elena had finished checking the first set of figures.

She stood, gathered the documents, and headed toward Kaysen’s office.

The door was open.

She knocked anyway.

“Come in.”

Kaysen was standing beside the window, speaking on the phone. His expression was hard, his voice quiet.

“No. I don’t care what they were promised. The contract is clear, and I expect it to be honored.”

He listened for a moment.

“Then tell them I’ll handle it personally.”

He ended the call and turned toward her.

For a brief second, Elena forgot what she had come to say.

There was something unsettling about watching him work. He didn’t shout, threaten, or waste time trying to impress anyone. He spoke as though every word had already been weighed, and the person on the other end had better understand its meaning.

She placed the documents on his desk.

“The first section is complete. Two figures were incorrect, and one payment had been recorded twice.”

Kaysen looked down at the papers.

“You found the duplicate?”

“Yes.”

“Most people missed it.”

“Perhaps most people were hoping to finish before midnight.”

His eyes lifted to hers.

“Are you always this determined to make a point?”

“Only when people keep giving me reasons.”

He picked up the papers and reviewed them.

Elena waited.

After a moment, he set them down.

“Good work.”

She blinked.

The words had been so unexpected that she almost asked him to repeat them.

Instead, she folded her arms.

“Was that painful?”

His gaze rose slowly.

“What?”

“Complimenting me.”

A faint tension appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“Don’t make me regret it.”

“There he is,” she murmured. “I was beginning to worry you’d become pleasant.”

Kaysen stepped around the desk.

Elena instinctively straightened.

He stopped in front of her, holding one of the documents.

“Explain this discrepancy.”

She looked down at the page.

“The original payment was entered under the wrong account. Whoever processed it corrected the account number but forgot to remove the first entry.”

“Why wasn’t it caught earlier?”

“Because the totals were adjusted to make the report appear balanced.”

His expression changed.

Only slightly, but enough for her to notice.

“You’re certain?”

“I checked the supporting records twice.”

He held her gaze for a moment, then placed the document on the desk.

“Send me the original records. Don’t mention this to anyone else.”

Elena frowned.

“Why?”

“Because I want to know whether this was incompetence or something deliberate.”

For the first time that evening, his tone carried something beyond irritation.

It was cold, controlled anger.

And Elena understood that the missing money mattered far more than the late-night report.

“Someone may have changed the numbers on purpose,” she said.

“Someone may have tried.”

He walked toward his desk and picked up his phone.

“Finish the remaining pages. I’ll handle this.”

Elena didn’t move.

“You’re not going to explain what’s happening?”

“No.”

“Because you don’t trust me?”

“Because you have a job to finish, and I have a problem to investigate.”

She held his gaze.

“Those two things might be connected.”

Kaysen went still.

For a moment, she thought he would dismiss her.

Instead, he looked at the documents in her hand.

“Then finish the report, Miss Hayes. And pay attention to every detail.”

She nodded once.

As she turned to leave, his voice stopped her.

“And Elena?”

She looked back.

It was the first time that evening he had used her first name.

The sound of it in his low voice was strangely disarming.

“Yes?”

“Don’t discuss what you found with anyone. Not even my brother.”

Her brows drew together.

“Why especially your brother?”

“Because I said so.”

She stared at him.

“You really need to work on your explanations.”

“And you need to learn when not to ask questions.”

“Perhaps we can both work on our weaknesses.”

She left before he could answer.

Behind her, Kaysen watched the door close.

He had expected her to complain about the workload. He had expected sarcasm, resistance, and perhaps an attempt to negotiate better conditions.

He hadn’t expected her to notice the discrepancy so quickly.

Nor had he expected to care whether she understood what she had found.

That was inconvenient.

Very inconvenient.

At eleven forty-five, Elena finally closed her laptop.

The remaining figures had been checked, the report corrected, and the suspicious transaction documented.

She gathered everything and entered Kaysen’s office without waiting for an invitation.

He looked up from his phone.

“Didn’t we discuss knocking?”

“I knocked in spirit.”

“Try doing it in reality next time.”

She placed the completed report on his desk.

“Everything is finished. And before you ask, yes, I checked it twice.”

Kaysen glanced at the clock.

“You finished fifteen minutes before the deadline.”

“Try to contain your excitement.”

He opened the report and scanned the final page.

Then he closed the folder.

“The driver will take you home.”

Elena picked up her bag.

“Thank you.”

She reached the door.

“Miss Hayes.”

She turned.

“Your dinner.”

She stared at him.

“My what?”

“You said I owed you dinner if you finished before midnight.”

“You remembered?”

His expression remained unreadable.

“I remember agreements.”

For some reason, that answer made her more nervous than a smile would have.

“Are you inviting me to dinner, Mr. Vance?”

“I’m fulfilling a condition.”

“Of course you are.”

She rested one hand on the door handle.

“When?”

“Tomorrow evening.”

Elena studied him, trying to decide whether he was serious.

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I’ll eat alone.”

No pressure. No insistence. No attempt to turn the invitation into another order.

That should have made the decision easier.

Instead, she found herself looking at him longer than necessary.

“Fine,” she said at last. “But I’m choosing the restaurant.”

Kaysen’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“You’re negotiating again.”

“I’m beginning to think it’s my most valuable skill.”

For a moment, neither moved.

Then he gave a single, measured nod.

“Choose somewhere reasonable.”

Elena smiled.

“I’ll try not to bankrupt you.”

She left before he could respond, hiding the smile that followed her into the elevator.

Inside his office, Kaysen remained seated.

Tomorrow’s dinner had been a practical arrangement.

Nothing more.

He repeated that explanation to himself as he opened the report again.

But his attention kept returning to the same line.

The one Elena had found.

The one that suggested someone inside his company had deliberately altered the accounts.

And the one name attached to the original transaction was a name he had not expected to see.

Hayes.

Kaysen’s expression hardened.

He reached for his phone and called his lawyer.

“Sebastian. I need you to check something for me.”

He looked at the name once more.

“And I need you to do it without letting anyone know I asked.”