Page 138 of Ruin My Life
The driver glances at me in the mirror. His thick beard hides his mouth, but his dark and tired eyes meet mine.
They’re familiar.
Dark brown. Deep-set.
Like a certain someone I just left behind in bed.
Someone I justrobbedin the dead of night.
Someone I may never see again—not unless it’s to kill me.
“Where to, miss?”
I pause for a second too long.
I can’t go back to my apartment—it’ll be the first place Damon checks, and the cameras he installed still feed straight into King’s Eye.
Instead, I give him the address of a coffee shop, one that I know has decent Wi-Fi. He nods once and pulls away from the curb.
I turn my head toward the window as the cab rolls forward, and my gaze is drawn up—straight to the penthouse windows across the street.
The one where I left Damon sleeping. Trusting.
Mine.
My chest constricts around the memory of that word on his tongue, like a cage that doesn’t want to let it go.
But I can’t afford to feel that right now. I can’t afford to second-guess the plan I’ve spent six months building.
Damon knew who Alexander was. He chose to keep that from me. Maybe to protect me. Maybe to protecthimself.
Does it even matter which?
I clench my jaw and look away from the window.
This is what I came here to do.
This is what I wasalwayssupposed to do.
I’ll wait out the sunrise. Feed Alexander’s photo into R.O.S.E. on loop until it hits. And then I’ll find him before Damon finds me.
Because this story doesn’t end with love.
It ends in blood.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Damon
I’M NOT SURE WHAT WOKE ME UP AT EIGHTthis morning. Maybe it’s the sunlight leaking through the blackout curtains I haphazardly closed before bed. Maybe it’s my restless mind reminding me I have a lot of fucking work to do.
Or maybe it’s the cold.
Not the kind that settles in your bones on a cold New York winter night, but the kind that creeps in from an empty space—the one where her body used to be.
The second I rolled over and reached for her, all I found was a tangle of cooling sheets and the faintest imprint of her on the mattress.
And the panic hit like a fucking freight train.
