Page 68 of Velvet Chains

He turned to Liam. “I want the entire port operation scrubbed. Every file. Every manifest. Every name. If Customs has anything else tagged, reroute it to Jersey or shut it down entirely.”

Liam nodded, already moving to pull out his phone. “I’m on it.”

“And you.” Tristan’s gaze shifted to me. “You’re on damage control.”

“With Ruby?”

“With everyone.” His tone sharpened. “You’re the reason we’re in this mess, so you’re going to be the one to start pulling us out.”

“What if she’s not the leak?”

Tristan’s expression twisted. “Then we have an even bigger problem than I thought. And we’re all in deep fucking shit, so you betterprayit’s your girlfriend. If she’s not the leak, you better find a way to make her part of the solution.”

He took a step toward me.

“Otherwise, she’s part of the problem.”

Another step.

“And we deal with problems the Callahan legacy way.”

I opened my mouth—to argue, to plead, I didn’t even know—but he moved faster than I expected. Tristan grabbed me by the collar and slammed me back against the wall, hard enough to rattle the cheap frames behind me.

“Jesus, Kieran,” Liam said, taking a step in to get involved—but Tristan shot him a glare that made both of us stop breathing.

“You think this is just about you?” he hissed. “You think I want to be like him?”

His breath was hot against my cheek, eyes wild.

“I’ve got a wife. I’ve got a little girl who still thinks I hung the fucking moon, two little boys who have no idea the kind of life we lived and never fucking will. I built something outside of this, Kieran. I bled for it. And I’ll burn your whole fucking world to the ground before I let you or anyone else take that from me.”

I could feel the fury rolling off him, but there was something else there too—fear. Love. The kind that turns men into monsters.

He let go of my collar with a shove.

“Fix it,” he said. “Or I will.”

I stood there, chest heaving, fists clenched. Tristan turned and stalked out of the room, his shoes echoing like a warning across the club floor before he walked out into the morning light and slammed the door shut behind him.

Liam waited a beat, then turned to me. “You all right?”

“Peachy.”

He smirked faintly. “You still love her?”

I didn’t answer…because it didn’t need saying. Of course I still loved her; I always had.

And Tristan wasn’t the only one with a little girl to protect. Not anymore.

Chapter Nineteen: Ruby

Ihated tinsel.

It didn’t feel like Christmas. Someone in admin had decided we needed "holiday cheer" and now every available surface looked like Santa had thrown up. There was a string of cheap white lights draped across the bullpen’s main desk, and the interns were wearing ugly sweaters with reindeer noses that lit up.

I didn’t feel cheerful at all. I had never hated Christmas, exactly, but ever since I had moved away from my family, it had felt less important. Then I’d had Rosie, and Christmas had begun mattering again. Now it felt…strange. Hollow, almost.

There was another message from Lucy Darnell waiting in my inbox. I hovered over the email so I could see the preview of her message, but didn’t read all of it.