Page 17 of Velvet Chains (The Dark Prince of Boston #2)

Nothing really prepared you for your kid to lay emotional truth bombs on you like that.

We pulled up to the restaurant, and I spotted Alek through the window before we even got out of the car.

He sat across from Julian, leaning back with his arms crossed, chatting like this wasn’t the weirdest goddamn situation we’d ever put him in.

Julian was rigid as ever, all pointy cheekbones and pressed linen, a textbook gentleman with an acute lack of spontaneity.

He looked like he was facing down a firing squad, but that was probably just the lighting. Or his face.

Next to him was a woman whose name I didn’t know. She was pretty in that unassuming way that came from pretending not to be. Her hair fell in soft curls over her shoulders, chunky earrings peeking through.

“Excited, tesoro?” I asked Rosie as we got out of the car and I wrapped my scarf around my neck. It was just starting to snow—the kind of fat, heavy flakes that clung to the air like sugar but vanished as soon as they hit the ground.

She nodded, a little bundle of energy beside me. "So excited!"

We walked inside, greeted by the exposed brick and reclaimed wood characteristic of all Julian’s favorite, sterile, upscale restaurants. A hostess led us to the table, where Alek rose to give me a quick hug.

"You look tired," he said.

"Wow, thanks." I forced a smile. "It's a new thing I'm trying."

Julian rose halfway, then decided against it when he realized I wasn't going to lean in for a hug. "Ruby. Thank you for making it."

"Hi, Daddy!" Rosie said, waving warmly at Julian.

His face softened. "Oh, baby. I missed you." He scooted over, making space between himself and his shiny new girlfriend. "Come here. Sit next to me."

Rosie didn’t hesitate to betray me, climbing onto the seat and reaching for Julian’s arm. “You can sit next to me if you want, Mami,” she said. “There’s space.”

I looked at Julian and the new girlfriend, both of them looking like there was not, in fact, space. I sat down next to Alek instead. “I’m okay over here, sweetie.”

“Hi, Alek!” Rosie said. “Did you get a haircut?”

“I did. You’re very observant,” Alek said. “Maybe you should take over Ruby’s job.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I can’t. I’m not a lawyer.”

“Oh, you’d make a good one, though,” Alek said.

She beamed at that—anything to be like mom.

Julian cleared his throat. “Rosie, I’d like you to meet my friend Valerie.”

“Hi,” Rosie said shyly.

Valerie smiled. “Wow. I love your shoes,” she said. “You must be seven.”

Rosie’s eyes widened. “I am! How did you know?”

“Lucky guess,” Valerie said. “Is chocolate milk cool enough for a seven-year-old, or would you rather have a martini?”

Rosie giggled. “Chocolate milk.”

“I knew it,” Valerie replied, signaling for the waitress.

I wanted to feel a pang of something—some old twinge of jealousy—but it never came. Valerie wasn’t a threat. She was the kind of woman Julian needed. Nice and calm and self-possessed. And maybe she’d call him on his bullshit without making him feel like a failure.

He'd always wanted a woman who wouldn’t dig too deep or push too hard.

A woman nothing like me.

Rosie giggled like the girl’s shoes were a perfect punchline. “Mami was a lawyer when she was my age.”

I reached for the menu. “I was definitely not a lawyer when I was seven, amor.”

The menu was laminated and hip. Too few items, too many page breaks. Valerie helped Rosie order her pancakes, then realized the waiter was waiting on her as well. She froze with that cute deer-in-the-headlights look I couldn’t quite pull off.

“Lemon-Ricotta French Toast,” Julian said, without even looking up. “And a side of the rosemary bacon.”

I made a mental note to shame him for ordering for her, my mind unwillingly flitting to Kieran. Kieran was controlling, yeah, but he wouldn’t ever take it upon himself to order for me.

No…he would tell me to get whatever I wanted, then finger me under the table.

Everyone else ordered, and Alek shot me a look when I asked for another coffee.

“Are you trying to stay up for the next seventy two hours straight, or is it just a hobby now?” he asked.

“I had a night.”

Alek’s eyes narrowed just slightly like he knew exactly what kind of night I had, and I felt my cheeks flush despite myself. Kieran came to mind again—Kieran kissing me, Kieran undressing me, Kieran on his knees as he pressed me against the wall and licked my pussy.

Julian cast an eye at me. “Everything okay?”

“It’s going to be fine. Just hectic lately,” I said. Right. Hectic. “How’s work for you?

“About the same,” he replied. “Took a new multinational on as a client. They’re trying to merge with a smaller, regional bank.”

“Yikes,” I said. “How’s that going?”

Julian adjusted his silverware like it mattered.

"About as well as you'd expect. Everyone's pretending it's a fair market transaction when really, it's an antitrust nightmare waiting to happen.

The DOJ's already circling, but the board thinks throwing enough lobbyists at the problem will make it disappear. "

Alek made a low sound. "And will it?"

Julian didn't even blink. "Maybe. If we can keep it under the Hart-Scott-Rodino thresholds until Q3. It's all about the filings."

I blinked. "Fascinating. Rosie, did you catch that? Daddy is fighting for love and justice in the exciting world of antitrust compliance."

Rosie, for her part, had tuned out somewhere around 'antitrust' and was busy pouring a truly revolting amount of syrup onto her pancakes. Valerie was helping her.

Damn, Valerie seemed nice.

How could I tell her to stay away from Julian, for her sake and not mine?

Julian didn’t notice—or care. He was back to rearranging his silverware, like if everything was in perfect order, life would be too.

Rosie asked for more syrup, Valerie flagged the waitress, and Julian started talking about how brunch menus were getting out of control. I wasn’t listening. Not really.

My phone buzzed in my lap, and I looked down half-hoping it would be Kieran.

Nope.

Alek.

You’re acting weird. What happened?

I glanced up. He was still looking at Julian, as casual as ever, like he hadn’t just called me out in real time.

I typed back under the table.

Me:

Not here.

Another buzz, almost immediately.

Alek:

Ruby. Tell me. Right now.

I hesitated. My fingers hovered. I could lie; I could say I was just tired, that it was nothing. But Alek wasn’t Julian; he actually noticed when something was off with me, and I knew he wouldn’t leave it be until I came clean..

My stomach twisted. I typed anyway.

Me:

He came over.

A beat. Alek took a sip of his coffee, asked Valerie where she was from. Then he went back to typing on his phone.

Alek:

What the fuck does “came over” mean.

I swallowed hard. “That’s enough syrup, mi amor.”

“Mami!”

“It’s too sweet,” Julian said. “Your mom is right. You’re not going to be able to eat that.”

Rosie tugged at my sleeve. “Mami, look. Valerie made a pancake snowman.”

I forced a smile and shoved the phone facedown under my thigh.

Later.

I’d deal with Alek later.

Right now, I just had to get through brunch.

***

An hour later, when Rosie had consumed approximately half her body weight in whipped cream and Valerie had complimented every sparkly item she was wearing, we finally said polite goodbyes.

Julian kissed Rosie’s head, told her he’d see her soon, and Valerie ruffled her hair before following him to their car.

Alek and I stood in the small parking lot while Rosie climbed into the backseat of my car, buckling herself in and immediately pulling out her tablet.

I guessed the antitrust conversation had been just as exciting for her as it was for me–and now she needed to numb it with sweet, glowing electronics. .

"Mamiiiii," she called, her voice muffled through the glass. "Can I play games?"

"Yes, amor, go ahead," I said automatically.

When I turned back, Alek was standing right there. He had a smile plastered on his face as he looked at Rosie, but it dropped when I shut the door and she got distracted by the tablet.

And his voice? That was worse.

Sharp enough to sting. "You’re going to tell me what happened,” he snapped. “Right now."

I swallowed. "Alek. Not here."

He looked at the car, then back at me. "She's wearing headphones. You think she can’t tell something’s up? I’m not asking you again."

I hesitated too long.

His jaw tightened. "Ruby."

I blew out a breath, hugging my coat tighter around myself. "He came over last night."

"Obviously," Alek said, clipped. "And?"

I hesitated. My tongue felt thick in my mouth.

"It wasn’t…planned." My voice sounded pathetic even to me. "He just showed up. And I—"

Alek stared, reading between every word. His lips pressed into a grim line.

“I let him. We were chatting in the foyer.”

“And then what, you invite him to dinner?”

“No. He ate something. I didn’t.”

“In the foyer?" he asked quietly, voice flat.

My throat closed. He already knew.

Alek dragged a hand through his hair, the movement rough. "Jesus fucking Christ, Ruby. He can’t be that good.”

“He is,” I said. “You don’t understand.”

“You earn enough money to buy yourself decent personal entertainment.”

I flinched—because he’d brought it up before, and I’d said no, said I didn’t need sex that badly. What I’d meant, apparently, was that I didn’t want sex with anyone but Kieran.

"It’s…more than that, Alek. And it wasn’t like that," I whispered.

“I’m sure it wasn’t,” he said, his voice tight. “But you think that matters? You think the feds care how tender it was? How fast you threw him out? They care that he was in your house. That he touched you. That you let him in.”

I went cold. Ice-down-my-back cold.

Alek’s eyes flicked toward the car again, toward Rosie’s little face glowing in the tablet’s reflection.

“They’re already building a case,” he said, stepping closer. “They’ve got you on the hook for proximity. Now they get to add motive. Intimacy. Intent. They don’t need to prove conspiracy if they can prove entanglement.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. My chest was too tight to breathe.

“You think he’s trying to protect you?” Alek’s voice dropped, low and cutting. “What if he’s setting you up? What if this is exactly the story he wants them to run with—that you’re just another corrupt DA in bed with the Callahans?”

I shook my head, but not fast enough. Not with enough conviction.

“He told the feds he killed Mickey Russell,” Alek said. “And you think he did that for you. But if they can’t get him, they’re going to come for the one who covered for him. You. ”

I didn’t realize I was shaking until my hand slipped from the car door.

“This isn’t about whether you like him, or whether you meant to sleep with him,” he continued, quieter now. “It’s about the fact that he just made you the easiest pawn on the board.”

Alek stepped back—like he’d said too much, or maybe not enough.

“I’m coming over tonight,” he said, eyes still on mine. “And you’re going to tell me everything.”

Then he walked away.

Just like that.

I closed my eyes and breathed, hoping that Rosie hadn’t realized something was wrong. Alek was absolutely right…and I’d been even more of an idiot than I’d realized. Kieran might be planning something—planning on using me.

And I had to stop him.

Before I could lose my nerve, I shoved my hand into my pocket and grabbed my phone. Kieran’s number was blocked…but I unblocked it, because I needed to say something to him.

Don’t come back to my house , I typed out, swallowing the lump in my throat. Don’t you dare come near my daughter.

Then I pressed send…and told myself I hadn’t just invited hell through my front door.