Page 109 of Velvet Corruption

I told Tristan I would stop her.

And now she’d fucking won.

Which meant I wasn’t just here to watch her.

I was here to make sure she lived long enough to see what that win would cost.

I felt fucking stupid. Stupid for being here, stupid for caring. For letting her worm her way into my thoughts when I knew better. She was supposed to be a complication I’d handle, a distraction at most.

Something to eliminate if she got in my way, to ignore if she didn’t.

And shewasn’t supposed to win.

The city should have been laughing at her, not celebrating her. She was supposed to crash and burn. She was supposed to be pissed and vulnerable, easier to distance myself from. Instead, she’d won the DA’s race, and now she was more untouchable than ever.

I gritted my teeth, the memory of her triumphant face plastered across every TV in the city.

Ruby Marquez. District Attorney.

The first thing I thought about in the morning and when I went to bed at night.

The street was so goddamn quiet. No traffic, no people. Just me, sitting in my car like an idiot, watching her dark windows, waiting.

My head dropped against the seat. She was taking up space where other thoughts should have been, where my plans and family and duty usually lived. She wasn’t supposed to matter. And now, every move I made had her shadow on it. Every time I tried to push her away, she was back.

Some fucking complication.

A smart woman in a world she wasn’t built for, against the odds but fighting anyway. Someone who fucking won no matter the cost.

Sounded familiar.

The air in the car was stifling, clinging to my skin and making me restless. I shifted, rolling down the window. The cool bite of Boston in autumn flooded in, doing nothing to clear the fog in my head.

She was a headache I couldn’t shake, a problem I couldn’t solve. And all because I’d been so sure I could control it. Control her. Control myself.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, letting my head tip back against the seat. Maybe I could close my eyes. Just for a second.

Just long enough to—

A scream.

My entire body snapped upright.

Ruby.

The sound shot through me like a live wire, slicing through the sluggish haze in my head. My grip on the steering wheel went white-knuckled as I scanned the house. It was quiet again. Too quiet. But something was wrong.

And then I saw it. A broken window on the ground floor, the jagged edges of glass catching the faint glow of a streetlamp. My pulse kicked up, my instincts firing all at once.

Just like the day she’d cut her hand open…just like when she’d fallen into the harbor. I couldn’t hesitate when she was in danger.

I was already in motion, instincts dragging me through the haze and into focus. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Another flash of panic cut through me—too fast, too sharp. My blood roared in my ears. My gaze darted from the window to the house to the street. Quiet.

Too fucking quiet.

My hand shot to the door handle, adrenaline slicing through me like ice water. I didn’t think. I didn’t plan. I didn’t even remember I had a gun on me.