Page 128 of Velvet Corruption

I held it just out of reach. "You need sleep. Not a hangover."

Her jaw clenched. "Don’t start acting like you give a damn about my well-being now."

I huffed a quiet laugh. "You don’t get it, do you?"

She glared. "Get what?"

I leaned in, close enough to see the flicker of something in her eyes that had nothing to do with anger.

"Sweetheart," I said. "I never stop giving a damn about you. I have never stopped giving a damn about you." Her breath caught.

For a second, I thought she might slap me.

For a second, I thought she might kiss me.

She did neither. Instead, she wrenched the glass from my hand and dropped it in the sink.

"Goodnight, Kieran," she said as she turned away.

I smiled to myself. Yeah. This was far from over.

I watched her retreat, the sharp set of her shoulders, the way her spine stayed stiff like she was holding herself together with sheer force of will.

She thought walking away meant she still had control.

She didn’t.

I let her go. For now. When she ran into the staircase, she turned back.

“They’re…working on Russell,” she said, her voice a whisper. She was paler than I’d ever seen her. “I can’t go to my room.”

“I can ask them to move him off the stairs before they dismember his body,” I said.

“I…what? No. I need some air,” Ruby said, softly, and then she opened the sliding doors to go out to her backyard.

“Stay out there for a bit, okay?” I called after her. “Some air might do you good.”

I turned back toward the staircase, where Mac and Lorenzo were already working There was something disturbingly normal about the sound of bones cracking under pressure, of limbs being separated like they were just another job to complete before sunrise.

I wasn’t squeamish. I never had been.

But this was different.

This was her house. Her life.

"She’s handling this well," Mac muttered. "Or, y'know, not at all."

Lorenzo didn’t look up from what he was doing. "She’s in shock."

I exhaled, rubbing a hand over my jaw.No shit.

Mac chuckled. “You sure you’re not gonna have to put her in a hole next?”

I shot him a look so cold he actually had the good sense to shut the fuck up. “Yeah. I’m going to kill the DA. Sounds incredibly clever.”

“I was making a joke.”

“We’re all laughing,” I said quietly.