Page 19 of Velvet Corruption

A little less likeme.

Perhaps that was why Alek and I had lasted so long as friends. We were essential to each other, but not in a way that complicated things.

“I miss those days,” Alek said, breaking the silence. “When the biggest worry we had was acing finals.”

I turned to him, studying his face. He looked tired, but then again, so did I. Running a campaign was like running a marathon every single day, without a break. “Yeah.”

He looked out at the cityscape. “Julian means well, you know.”

I didn’t want to talk about Julian, but I knew Alek was right. Julian meant well the way a father meant well when he tried to steer his child away from a doomed path — with love, but also with an infuriating sense of knowing better.

“He’s just worried,” Alek continued. “About you, about Rosie. He’s seen how this life can take over.”

I shook my head. “I need to do this, Alek. I need to win. Why else am I here? At this point, what else have I worked for?”

“Even if you don’t win, you’re a hell of a lawyer, Ruby,” he said. “You would be fine. Rosie would be fine.”

“Honestly, I don’t know if I would recover. It feels like my entire life has been building up to this,” I said. “And if people start looking into my life, they might…I mean, I don’t think they’re going to figure out who Rosie’s dad really is, but that would ruin me. It would ruin all of this.”

Alek got a little closer, looking around. He was right to do it—I didn’t know who could be listening in, and if we were overheard, it could ruin everything. But once Alek had decided the coast was clear, he finally spoke.

“You’ve only ever told me, right?” he asked. “That still true?”

I hesitated. It was a loaded question, especially given the tension of the night. Alek was the only one I’d confided in about Kieran, and even then, it had taken years for me to tell him. The truth was a dangerous thing to hold, and sharing it with him had been a calculated risk.

“You’re the only one I’ve ever told,” I said, though my mind flashed to Kieran himself. “He doesn’t know.”

“Okay,” he said. “So Kieran doesn’t know. He has never known. And he’s not in your life. You won’t tell anyone. I won’t tell anyone. You’re in the clear.”

I grabbed the flute of champagne off him, draining it before he could protest. “Yeah, Alek, maybe,” I said. “But for how long?”

Chapter Four: Kieran

Tristan had summoned me.

It was so weird to think that, years ago, before he got married to Adriana, before the Callahans finally took over Boston, before everything that had happened, it would have been my father. And we would have met at the pub, not his home office. Tristan preferred to run things from home; closer to his wife, the twins, the baby. We were doing dinner later anyway, so this was the perfect excuse.

I stepped into Tristan’s study just as Boston’s waning light fought through the harbor mist, casting a pale glow over his fortress of paperwork and leather-bound books. He didn’t look up, but I felt his awareness of me as tangible as the tension coiling in my gut.

“Sit,” he said, not a request but a command.

Tristan leaned back in his chair, an admiral at the helm of a steel and mahogany ship, his suit crisp, his fingers steepled together. The sun did nothing to soften the hard lines of his face; if anything, it etched them deeper. He’d let his beard grow, and his hair was turning white at his temples.

I took the offered seat across from him, straightening my tie out of habit. My mind raced, considering angles and exits. It was stupid; my brother wasn’t dangerous, and his office was so tastefully decorated and airy that it looked like it belonged in a fancy AirBnB. But old habits die hard.

“Where’s Liam?” I asked.

He smiled. “Playing tag outside with the twins,” he said. “You can go join them in a minute.”

I waved him off. “No, no. I’d rather have a stupid business meeting with my dumb brother than hang out with my two favorite people.”

He smirked.

“Yeah, I’d rather be playing tag with them too. Unfortunately, we have a problem, and I want to get ahead of it before it gets worse.”

I groaned. “Hopefully an easy problem to solve?”

Tristan tapped his fingers on a ledger in front of him, his computer closed under it. “I don’t know yet,” he replied. “Let me just get into it?”