Page 210 of Ruin My Life
He lifts her like she weighs nothing. Tosses her over his shoulder and disappears deeper into the alley, likely to dump her body in the dumpster.
When he reappears, the hood is back up. He tugs down the sleeve of his hoodie over his bloodied wrist before he vanishes down the street, swallowed by the early evening shadows of Kings.
No face.
No name.
But Iknowit’s him.
“Damn it.” I slam my fist against the edge of the counter. “Whoever this guy is, he knows exactly where all the cameras are.”
“So, we know he’s either local,” Lee says slowly, “or he’s done his research.”
He doesn’t need to finish the thought. We’re both thinking it.
This wasn’t a random kill—he didn’t pick her name randomly from the long list of people Damon’s helped.
This was a hunt. A tactical one.
A beat later, Lee’s laptop pings—the crawl through the King’s Eye server is complete. He scrolls rapidly, his eyes scanning the output, fingers twitching nervously across the trackpad.
Then he freezes.
His shoulders stiffen. His brows draw in sharply.
“No. No, that’s… that’s not possible,” he murmurs.
“What?” I ask, leaning in, my pulse quickening.
Connor pushes off the wall and drifts over to join us, resting his hands on the counter beside Lee.
He’s quiet. Watching.Looming.
Lee shakes his head. “It found the IP address used to access the server.”
“Okay… so what’s wrong with it?”
He glances at me, his face pale.
“It came from inside The Speakeasy.”
I blink. “Someone hacked the server frominsidethe building?”
“Yeah.” Lee nods. “From the back office. Damon’s computer.”
My stomach twists violently.
No.
No, that doesn’t make any sense.
“Damon wouldn’t hack his own network. He helped build it. He already had access to all the information.”
“Exactly,” Lee says. “Which is why I thought it had to be a mistake. But this crawler doesn’t make mistakes.”
Connor leans over the screen, narrowing his eyes at the code. If he understands any of it, he doesn’t let on.
“Who else had access to that room?” I ask.
