Page 44 of Velvet Chains

Tristan studied me.

“Has it?”

“Yeah,” I said. “So maybe my method was unconventional, but it’s working.”

“Your method to…save her from the FBI.”

“My method to make her owe the Callahans something,” I said. “Like, yes, okay, I panicked. I shouldn’t have confessed. But don’t you see? If she comes after us, she’s going down too. I think she knows that. I don’t know why the feds even showed up. I thought they wouldn’t care about anyone like Russell; he was nobody. We dismembered him. They must have found a piece. They actually took me to the station. I didn’t say shit. But think about it: she’ll never come after us. As long as she owes us something, and as long as the FBI keeps trailing me, why would she want to fulfill her campaign promises to go after the Callahan family?”

Tristan looked me up and down. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that we got what we wanted. Her talk about corruption is just…you know. Talk. A way to get elected.”

Tristan’s silence held more weight than his words ever could. Years of unspoken history stretched between us. A million decisions, a million risks, a family defined by them.

I chewed the inside of my lip.

“You think you’ve bought us time,” he finally said, his voice low. “You think tying her to us will make everything go away.” He shook his head, almost like he was talking to a stubborn kid. “And you think that was worth risking it all? Your neck for hers?”

“I know how it looks.” I clenched my fist, then flattened my palm against the cold countertop. “But she’s not a threat to us—”

“She’s not a threat right now,” he interrupted. “Because you think you’ve got her in your pocket.”

“I do have her in my pocket.”

“And if anything changes? If she decides to take us down for kicks? If she gets it in her head to play fucking hero?” Anger flashed in his eyes. Too quick to catch, but it was there.

“If she turns on us, I’ll handle it.”

“You’ll handle it,” he repeated. “Like you handled this?”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.

“This is a gamble, Kieran. You might have leveraged her for now, but the minute this goes south, we’re fucked.”

He scrubbed a hand over his face, pacing, stopping short. Then he turned to me, and his jaw was set.

“You said it yourself—she’s not stupid. She’s going to use you. She’s going to use this. And when she has everything she needs, when she’s ready to throw us all to the dogs, what’s your plan then?”

“I have it under control.”

He laughed, a hard, breathless sound. “We have our fingers in every pie in this city, and you think you’re the only one who knows what’s under the crust?” His voice stayed calm, but the anger curdled underneath, the disappointment hanging in theair like smoke. “You can’t turn your own blind trust into strategy. Under control? Christ, lad. Not even close.”

I bit down on the inside of my mouth. Heat rose in my cheeks.

He exhaled, the sound sharp and unyielding. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me sooner.”

“I didn’t want to make it worse than it was.”

“And how do you think this looks now?”

I closed my eyes. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“If the FBI is after you and they just let you go, they want something bigger. Someone bigger,” Tristan said.

I shook my head. “I won’t let them get to you.”

“I’m touched,” he said. “You think that matters if Ruby goes rogue? If she decides you’ve outlived your usefulness?”