Page 55 of Ruin
"The usual bit. They could expose the truth to Selene, watch your empire crumble from the inside while you're distracted by the fallout." He leans forward, voice dropping. "There's more. That DA contact of hers—Michelle Dravens—she's been pullingfiles on judge murders going back a decade. Someone tipped her that the Russian connections don't add up."
My grip tightens on the glass. "You think the Russians fed her the information?"
"It's possible. Or she's just good at her job and stumbled onto something she wasn't supposed to find." Vincent's expression hardens. "Either way, she's getting too close to the truth. I could handle her—make it look like an accident. Car crash, mugging gone wrong, sudden heart attack. Clean and untraceable."
"No." The word comes out sharp, final. "Killing Michelle would devastate Selene. She'd know it wasn't a coincidence."
"Better a devastated girlfriend than a dead empire."
"Don't." I set the glass down with deliberate control, fighting the urge to throw it against the wall. "Selene is not just a girlfriend. She's?—"
"What? Your weakness? Your blind spot?" Vincent stands, pacing to the window that overlooks the city we control. "Cassius, I've been with this family for thirty years. I watched your father build this empire from nothing, watched him make the hard choices that kept us alive and in power. You're about to throw it all away for a woman who'll try to kill you the moment she learns the truth."
"She already knows."
The words hang between us like a death sentence.
Vincent goes completely still, his reflection in the glass suddenly looking every one of his sixty-plus years. "How?"
"The files Michelle sent her. The timeline. She spent all night putting pieces together and then ran from my bed like I was poison." I move to stand beside him, looking out at the empire that suddenly feels fragile as glass. "She won't come to me directly. She's too smart for that. She'll plan, prepare, wait for the perfect moment to destroy me."
"Then we end this now. Before she can move against you."
"You want me to kill the woman I love?"
"I want you to survive." Vincent turns to face me, his eyes holding decades of loyalty and hard-earned wisdom. "Your father would have eliminated this threat the moment it appeared."
"My father never loved anyone."
"And that kept him alive for seventy-three years, in control until the day he chose to step down." Vincent's voice gentles slightly. "Love is a luxury men like us can't afford, Cassius. It makes us weak, gives our enemies weapons to use against us."
I think about her last night—the way she whispered my name like a prayer, how she fit perfectly in my arms, the absolute trust in her eyes when she said she loved me.
Then I think about her this morning, pulling away, creating distance, probably planning my death.
"She's not the same broken girl from nine years ago," I say finally. "She's become something else. Someone who could stand beside me or destroy me completely."
"Which do you think she'll choose?"
I don't answer because I don't know, and not knowing is killing me.
Vincent leaves me with my thoughts and my whiskey.
I try to focus on the surveillance monitors, checking various operations throughout the city.
The docks where tonight's shipment will arrive. The gallery where we launder money through overpriced art sales. The restaurant that serves as a front for high-stakes poker games.
All of it feels distant, unimportant.
My empire meansnothingif I lose her, but my empire is also the only thing keeping us both alive.
My computer chimes with an encrypted message.
Security footage from her apartment building, compiled by the team I have monitoring her.
I click open the files with hands that want to shake.
The timestamps line up with what Lionel told me.
