Page 56 of Velvet Chains
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’twantsex 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.”
