1. Roman
ROMAN
“ Y ou should have let me put a bullet in her head when we had the chance, Roman. Now, there’s no way I can get rid of her without it pointing right back to you.”
I need another drink.
“I’m serious, Ezra. You can’t kill her. Not here.”
There’s barely ten seconds between the moment when I raise my empty glass slightly off the table in the direction of the bartender before the server appears and pours another round into my glass.
The vicious bitch taking up space in the conversation between me and my little brother is sitting across the lounge, surrounded by a group of idiots that she’ll wrap around her finger and use until there’s nothing left.
She thinks they’ll make me jealous, and she couldn’t be more wrong.
We both know if I curled my finger in her direction, she’d practically trip over herself in her haste to get to me.
And she’d get down on her knees in front of the entire club if I wanted her to.
If she thought for a second I’d take her, she’d do anything I want.
I don’t.
“It’s a damn good thing you got away from that viper before she could sink her fangs into you. But this shit Ruby’s pulling now with the company is only going to end in bloodshed. Hers, if I have anything to say about it.”
“She’s a nuisance, nothing more.” I smirk at my brother before taking a sip of the amber liquor in my glass and letting it slide down my throat, savoring the slight burn as it moves through my body.
“That’s an understatement and you know it. Ruby’s family owns our largest competitor, and now she’s trying to cost us millions. Should have just taken care of her before.”
Cutting Ezra a sideways glance, I do my best to keep my temper. He’s not the only one who would rather resort to violence in order to solve a problem, but we can’t just eliminate everyone who pisses us off.
“I’m changing the subject.” Informing him of the change before it happens always seems to calm him down and make it easier to shift his focus. “Are you coming with me to Florida?”
“No.” Ezra shakes his head. “The company is your little pet project. I don’t have any desire to be surrounded by women looking to leave their rich husbands for someone richer.”
“None of them would be able to put up with your psychosis. Or the creepy way you watch everyone all the time.”
Ezra stares at me, his eyes holding their usual emptiness, before he laughs. “You’re right. They’d take one look in my search history and go running for the hills, back to the safety of a normal person.”
“Do you think they’d still call me a sociopath with all the changes to modern psychology?” His focus is on the table in front of us, not making eye contact.
“Who gives a fuck?” I ask him honestly.
“I’m just curious.”
“What are you doing here, by the way?” I wasn’t expecting company when I came to the club.
Mostly, I was wasting time before leaving the city for the long weekend. Avoiding my office and the never ending desire to work, to make more money, to do more.
As soon as I arrived, like he’d been waiting for me, Ezra appeared and joined me at the table.
“I’m worried about you.” His words come out hushed, like he’s trying to keep anyone from hearing him. “It’s not your normal pattern of behavior. You never deviate, and yet you are and I don’t understand why.”
Sighing, I take another drink and then run my thumb over the rim of my glass. I rarely find myself at a loss for words with my brother, but this is one of those times.
“Isn’t this cozy.” Ruby’s purr, meant to stir a man’s dick, sends a chill down my spine.
I put her out of my mind, ignoring her completely. Which is probably how she was able to escape her group of admirers and wind her way to our table without me noticing her approach.
“Ruby,” Ezra grunts her name. “You should leave before my brother can’t keep me in check.”
“Tsk. Ezra.” She smiles seductively at him, trying to sway the one man who would rather bathe in her blood that fall into bed with her. “I missed you boys.”
“Roman.” Ezra stares at me across the table, ignoring her completely now. “Are you sure? I know it’ll be messy, but I can figure out a way for her to disappear.”
I’m watching her out of the corner of my eye, and I almost laugh when she blanches at his threat.
“Not worth it.” I shrug in response. “But if she tries to sabotage our deal with her father’s company again, you can do whatever you want.”
“I did not.” But the corner of her lips turn up, showing her satisfaction at having my attention. “But maybe if you answered your phone, you wouldn’t have an issue.”
Tired of her bullshit doesn’t even begin to cover it. Pushing aside the rage simmering in my veins at the thought that she’s fucking with my money, I push my glass to the center of the table.
Slowly, I back out of my chair and stand to my full six-foot-seven height. Staring down my nose at the woman who tried to use sex to manipulate me into doing her bidding, I smile.
Not the smile I’d give a friend. The one a lion shows its prey before devouring them. And she’s just that. My prey. Ready to be taken and left rotting when I’m finished with her.
I lean down, pressing my mouth to her ear.
“Fuck with my business again, and I’ll buy your father’s company. Then I’ll sell off every single department. I’ll demolish his entire life’s work, and I’ll make damn sure that he knows it’s your fault that his legacy is destroyed.”
I can taste her fear, and it’s delicious. Her chest is flushed and her heart is racing. Even now, I bet I could bend her over and fuck her. Even while I’m threatening her family. Her father.
Pathetic.
“Ezra. Take out the trash. I’ll see you when I’m back.”
I turn and walk away to the sound of her gasping.
“Let’s go, Ruby.” Ezra’s laugh-filled voice fills the sudden silence all around us. “You really should have known better than to try and fuck with our family. I’d feel sorry for you if I had any feelings at all.”
By the time I step outside, my car is already waiting for me.
“Sir.” My driver opens the door, and I slide into the backseat where my assistant, Asher, is busy drawing something on his tablet or typing or doing something to keep my business running.
“Thanks, Paul. We’re headed home then to the jet.”
I close the door and wait for him to take his place.
“Don’t forget, sir.” Asher looks up from his tablet. “You arranged to fly on the company jet, since you let Candace borrow the family jet for her graduation trip.”
Nodding, I pull out my phone to make sure that my little sister remembers not to be a dick to my staff.
Roman: Candy, take care of my flight crew. They’re the best and I don’t want to hear that you mistreated them.
The response is quick to hit my inbox in the form of a picture of my ever-charming sister with my flight attendants, all smiles and laughter. And in true little sister form, she’s flipping me the bird in the photo.
Roman: Good. Keep it that way.
“Thanks for the reminder, Asher. Paul, we’re going to the team hanger, not my personal one.”
“Got it.”
He pulls out into the busy street, efficiently navigating through the chaos like it’s his own personal track.
I lean back against the leather seat and shut my eyes.
The hum of traffic, the soft thump of tires over uneven pavement—none of it does a damn thing to settle the burn crawling beneath my skin.
It’s been there for weeks now. It doesn’t itch.
It doesn’t sting. It just simmers, like something inside me is waking up after being dormant for too long.
It’s annoying as fuck is what it is.
I don’t like shifts in my equilibrium.
“Sir,” Asher says, not bothering to look up from his tablet. “There’s a flagged employee report you should see. Internal escalation. Nothing urgent, but it’s… interesting.”
My eyes stay closed. “Handled?”
He hesitates. “I held it for you.”
Now he has my attention.
Asher doesn’t hold complaints or files for me anymore. He hasn’t for years. With a company the size of mine, the sheer number of employee complaints would be a full-time job. Which is why I have a whole department that handles this sort of thing.
It usually only reaches Asher when it involves senior management. Something that could be a pain in the ass for the company.
But for him to hold something for me?
It hasn’t happened in over a year.
And even then, it was just one of our executives sleeping with his assistant.
I crack one eye open and hold out my hand. He passes me the tablet, already loaded with the report.
It’s a complaint against a senior manager in one of my tech subsidiaries. The content itself is familiar—misconduct, misrouting, failing upward.
Corporate rot.
But it’s the tone that hooks me, not what the report contains.
Efficient. Sharp. Pissed.
No corporate niceties. No ass-kissing.
Ivy.
Just a first name. No photo. No extended record attached that would show me who I’m dealing with. Only call logs, tickets, a few flagged performance metrics that stand out like bloody fingerprints on white tile.
I scroll through a few attached files. A voice note—private. Not meant for anyone. She must’ve logged it into the system accidentally.
I play it after making sure that my earbuds are securely in place.
Her voice is quiet. Controlled. Edged in a kind of weariness that doesn’t come from working too much, but from a lifetime of knowing the world was never built for her. That nothing she does will push her over the line from the darkness of her life into the light around her.
“If I disappeared, no one would even notice. Except maybe to ask who’s covering my shift.”
The note ends abruptly.
My thumb hovers above the screen.
Who are you, Ivy?
She’s got no socials listed on her profile.
Untraceable.
Unremarkable in every sense of the word, at least on the surface.
Untouched by the darkness in my world. .
Fascinating.
“She’s not part of any high-tier group?” I ask, still reading the records of her calls and reports. Systems she shouldn’t be able to troubleshoot at her level.
“No, sir,” Asher replies. “Tier Two support. Night shift. Lives alone. No dependents. No assets.”
Perfect.
“Schedule a review of her case history,” I say. “I want all department crossover, all call recordings, and direct access to her internal notes folder.”
Another pause.
“Everything.”
Another unspoken question about my intentions and why I’d bring myself to dig for more information.
“I don’t know why.” I admit to the only man besides Ezra who knows where I bury the skeletons in my closet. “But I think she’s… pivotal.”
Then Asher nods. “Of course.”
I pass the tablet back and look out the window again. The lights of the city blur, meaningless. All of it is nothing. Noise. Flash. Distraction meant to keep us mindless and confused as the days tick by.
“Asher.” I tap my fingers against my thigh, needing to steady my suddenly racing heart. “I want to know every single detail of her life by the time we land.”
“Yes, sir.” He’s focused on the screen, no doubt having already started acquiring the information before I even asked.
Proficient and efficient.
While I watch the city pass around us, I can’t help the breath that catches in my chest.
I’m leaving.
Right when I found… Her.
This woman who doesn’t flinch away from questioning her own existence.
She might be the first thing that actually makes sense in a long fucking time.
I don’t know her.
Not yet.
But I will.
If it’s the last thing I do.