Page 5 of Velvet Chains

“Okay,” Alek said slowly, the lawyer in him waking up. “You want access? Fine. But right now, we’re going to table the family court drama and deal with the real problem.”

He looked at Ruby. “There’s a dead man. A paroled felon, disposed of off-the-books. We know he was chasing after you. Someone might have heard the kerfuffle. This is bad, especially if the FBI gets involved. You just got voted in as DA last night, so we’re officially in damage control mode.”

Then he looked at me. “And you, Batman, just confessed to murder in front of an officer of the court. In front of two officers of the court.”

“You’re not on the clock,” I said.

“I am now,” he replied. “So everyone sit the hell down.”

“Are you going to fix this?” I asked.

“Yes,” Alek said after a moment.

“Good,” I replied. “Because if you don’t, I will.”

I didn’t have to tell them that I would kill anyone who got between me and Ruby and my daughter…including him.

But from the look on their faces, I could tell they already knew.

Chapter Two: Ruby

Ihad plotted a lot with Alek over the years.

It had always been for someone else…and now I could only hope he would save my skin too, because if he couldn’t, my entire life would be destroyed.

Nevermind my career. Fuck my career. I just wanted to keep my daughter. If this leaked and Julian went for custody…

Kieran had obeyed Alek’s command, and he was sitting a couple of feet away from me on the bed, his body coiled like he was still waiting for a fight. My heart was beating so hard in my chest it was like I could feel it in my throat, in my ears. Alek grabbed the chair from right in front of my vanity and flipped it to straddle it in front of us.

“A few quick things,” he said as he took his phone out of his pocket. “I’m her lawyer. Not yours.”

“I think I can fix that with ten grand and a bottle of 1974 Midleton Silent Distillery.”

“I’m more of a tequila guy,” Alek replied with a plastered on smile. “You’ll want representation, but it won’t be me. I like my job and I don’t want the FBI bugging my toothbrush. But I’m also not going to let Ruby take the fall for something you did.”

He locked eyes with Kieran, then added, “So until you call your family lawyer—or find someone else morally bankrupt enough to represent you—you’ll sit down and keep your mouth shut. In my presence, anyway.”

“I—what?” Kieran asked. He sounded genuinely surprised, like the idea of someone telling him to shut up had never even occurred to him.

“If you want to protect Ruby, you’ll shut up. Deal?”

Kieran gave me a sideways look, his voice quiet when he spoke. “I would do anything to protect you. Both you and Rosie.”

“And yet you’re still talking,” Alek said.

“He’s really good at his job,” I told Kieran, who had inched closer to me, so close that I thought he might grab my hand. “Let him do it.”

Kieran rolled his eyes. “Everything is already cleaned up. The body is disposed of, there’s no blood to speak of, no one saw anything because it was the middle of the night. You might be good at your job, Alek, but so am I. I cleaned up after myself.”

Alek didn’t flinch. “But you didn’t clean up Ruby,” he said. “You need to go to the ER.”

That got Kieran to still. His gaze flicked to me again, to the bruises on my neck, to the blood under my fingernails, to the tremble I hadn’t been able to fight or stave off.

“You need to go the ER,” Alek repeated. “You’re the elected District Attorney. You’re incredibly popular in this city right now and everyone will want to stop you to chat. You wince when a scarf touches the bruise on your neck and it becomes a huge problem. No one’s going to leave you alone when they realize you got beaten up. They’re going to blame him, if anyone has spotted you two together.”

He glared meaningfully at Kieran and I felt myself sink further into the mattress.

“No one has spotted us together,” Kieran said. “I’ve been careful. I ran in here because she was screaming, Alek.”