Page 204 of Ruin My Life
“What came after,” I finish, my voice low, lethal, “is a man you will never again have the pleasure of controlling.”
Matthias stares at me. Unreadable. Ice and calculation behind those pale blue eyes that once made me cower.
Then, slowly, he exhales and sinks back into his leather chair, like a king weighing the cost of war one final time.
“Damon, you don’t want this war. And for what it’s worth… I don’t either,” he says. The edge bleeds from his voice, but the weight of his words lingers. “At one point, you were like a son to me. I’d hate to lose both you and Xander in the same breath.”
I stare back at him.
Part of me wonders—even now—if this is his last performance. Fatherly sentiment as a disguise for a trap. He taught me how to see that. Taught me mercy always came with a price.
“Then we’d better start negotiating,” I say, lowering myself into the black leather chair opposite his desk.
He opens his mouth—
But a sharpbuzzcuts him off. His phone vibrates across the polished wood, the screen lighting up like it’s begging for his attention.
Matthias’s eyes narrow. He snatches it up, thumb flicking the screen. At first, he barely reacts. But then—
A flicker of shock.
His brow furrows. His eyes widen, then narrow again. His jaw locks so tight I half expect his gold canine to crack.
Then he laughs.
A harsh, cracked sound. Bitter. Resigned. A predator forced to step inside his own trap.
“Was this your plan all along?” he snarls, his rough voice scraping like flint across my ribs.
I tilt my head, tone steady but a hint of real confusion bleeding through. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He slides the phone across the polished desk toward me. “Seems yourBlack Rosehas done all the negotiating for you.”
I catch it before it slips off the edge, the smooth glass cold against my palm.
The email on the screen is from an encrypted address.
But the words?
The more I read, the more certain I am about who wrote them. Every line drips with her brand of venom-laced charm—bold, merciless, and entirely unafraid of lighting the match if it means burning a man like Matthias to ash.
Matthias O’Doyle,
Part of me wishes our first interaction could have been face-to-face, but considering I killed your son, an email will have to do—for both our sakes.
First, let’s be clear: Damon bears no responsibility for Alexander’s death. He tried to stop me. But as I’m sure you know by now, any man stupid enough to stand between a strong woman and her fire—well, he gets burned.
Now that we’ve cleared that up, here’s the deal—one I strongly advise you not to refuse.
You will return to business as usual, abiding by the same rules Damon laid out for you and your Songbirds two years ago. No operations in Kings. No retaliation. No harm to your men. I’ll honour these same terms.
In return, I won’t send the attached file to the police. It’s a long one, but the TLDR is this: You, Matthias O’Doyle, have been covering up your schemes for years, but all it takes is one very good, very pissed-off hacker to find all the skeletons in your basement. If you’d like to spend the rest of your days free rather than rotting in a cell, I suggest you accept my gracious offer.
As a gesture of good faith, I’ve also wired you $500,000. Think of it as insurance that you’ll keep to your word—but remember, I can just as easily take it back with a single keystroke if you cross me or anyone else in Kings again.
I trust we understand each other.
Hope we never have to meet,
