Page 11 of Velvet Chains

“You’re still a pain in the ass,” Tristan said. “Keep me posted on any new developments.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I picked up the toast, more than ready to get out of there. I needed to check on Ruby and Alek. I needed to see Rosie, even if it was from a distance.

Tristan laughed, shaking his head. “I want you back here in two weeks. Stay alive until then?”

“That supposed to be a compliment?”

“Take it however you want.” He stood, gripping my shoulder as he passed by.

I stayed seated, pretending to be hungrier than I was. I didn’t want to run into him in the elevator. Didn’t want his sharp eyes noticing any hint of desperation or doubt. When he was gone, I let out a heavy breath and stared at the table.

The scraps of food looked like the aftermath of a battlefield, bits and pieces scattered, red stains bright against white. I pushed my plate away.

The bacon was cold now, congealing into a slick sheen. I pushed the plate away and stood, the lingering chill biting through my clothes. I zipped my jacket and headed toward the stairs, takingthem two at a time. The metallic clang of my footsteps echoed, bouncing off the walls in an erratic heartbeat.

Outside, Boston loomed grey and heavy, winter pressing down like a hand threatening to smother it.

This was good. I had kept the most important piece of information from him. I would still be able to do my job. If I was lucky—and despite everything, I had always been lucky—I would be able to keep Tristan out of Ruby’s life and Ruby out of Tristan’s.

But the way he talked, like it was already a foregone conclusion, gnawed at me.

I slipped into my car and turned the key. The engine coughed once, then caught—a low, steady growl in the cold. But it didn’t quiet anything inside me. Not the pounding in my chest. Not the gnawing weight in my gut.

Alek had told me to disappear, cut my losses, lay low until this all blew over.

But Ruby wasn’t a loss I could cut.

And what they didn’t know was that this wasn’t going to blow over.

If I left, Tristan wouldn’t. He’d move in with that cold precision of his—quick, quiet, surgical. Ruby would never see it coming, and by the time she did, it’d be too late.

She didn’t even know how much danger she was in. She didn’t know what Tristan would do the moment he found out the truth.

About the murder.

About my daughter.

And none of that even mattered compared to the fact that Ruby wasmine.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter, knuckles going white. I told myself I was just driving to clear my head. That I needed air. Distance.

But when I blinked, I was already pulling up to her street.

I didn’t remember turning. But I remembered why.

Because I needed to see her. Because some fucked-up part of me thought if I could just get close enough, I’d stop unraveling. That if I touched her, I’d remember who I was before all this.

Or…maybe I was just horny. Maybe it was like it had always been—me,needing her, dying for her, aching for her. Watching her because I got off on it, because she belonged to me and if anyone else touched her, they weren’t long for this world.

That was why I came back.

Not to protect her.

To keep her.

And there was no way in hell I was ever letting her go again.

Chapter Four: Ruby