Page 90 of Velvet Corruption

It wouldn’t be that way for long.

Ruby walked out by herself. My gaze darted between her and the man in the car. She was alone, and I didn’t want to reveal myself.

She was too focused on unlocking her car, one hand rubbing at her temple like the day had already wrung her out. If I knew her, she’d barely eaten. She’d been running herself into the ground trying to prove something. And this asshole? He was waiting for his moment.

Just like I had been.

She would’ve had my head for that one. I told myself that as I took the first few steps away from my car and toward his.

I told myself that this was the difference. This was the reason I couldn’t let go. I was protecting her. I was keeping her safe, even from Tristan.

But I still wasn’t fucking telling her, and maybe I should have felt worse about that than I did.

Leaves scattered ahead of me, rushing into the dark. I kept my pace slow, casual. One hand jammed in my pocket, other one clenched tight.

I stepped forward, closing the distance between me and the guy’s car. I wasn’t subtle about it. I didn’t have to be. The second he saw me coming, his head snapped up, body tensing.

He knew.

Even before I rapped my knuckles against his driver’s side window, he knew exactly who the fuck I was. Good. Let him be scared.

He rolled the window down an inch. Not enough. “Problem?”

I smiled. It wasn’t friendly.

“Yeah. Problem is, you’ve been sitting here staring at someone who doesn’t know you exist. That’s a problem,” I said. “Why are you sitting here and watching her?”

His mouth twitched, eyes narrowing on me. But he didn’t do shit. He sat there, hands on the wheel, eyes on me. Waiting to see what I’d do. Waiting to see if I’d back off.

I didn’t.

The wind picked up, icy gusts whipping through the lot and chilling me to the bone. I didn’t move. Didn’t flinch. And neither did he.

His mouth twitched. “Just waiting on someone.”

I tilted my head, considering. He obviously wasn’t. He wasn’t particularly discreet. The Rossis had been disbanded years ago and the Orsini-Callahan union was well cemented. I didn’t recognize this man and I didn’t think another faction would be trying to take over Boston.

So who was he?

Why was he watching Ruby?

What the fuck did he want with her?

“Yeah? Who?”

That gave him pause.

He glanced at Ruby again, like maybe he still had a shot at whatever he was planning, but I stepped closer, blocking his view entirely. I didn’t say anything else. I just looked at him.

Long enough that his fingers twitched on the wheel, long enough that the muscle in his jaw ticked, long enough that he realized I wasn’t moving.

The guy thought he was tough. That much was obvious.

He thought he had time, thought he had the upper hand. But I could tell the moment it shifted. The moment he knew I wasn’t some fucking intern from her campaign. The moment herealized I was Kieran fucking Callahan—I wasn’t Alek. That I wasn’t one of her precious law and order types.

She thought I was her problem. But she had no fucking idea who else was watching.

A beat. Then he shifted the car into reverse. “Didn’t know she had security.”