5. Roman
ROMAN
T he moment her name hits my screen, I know it’s going to end badly.
Ruby.
She’s always been sloppy. Too much red lipstick and too many games she thinks make her dangerous. But this? This is bold. Even for her.
Asher’s message flashes across the corner of my display.
Asher: Cross-system notification from the Sherwood servers. Ruby pulled one of your dummy HR profiles. Only skimmed the metadata, but... it was that profile.
I freeze.
Open the file.
There it is. Ivy.
Her name.
Pulled by Ruby from an internal database she had no reason to be in. She must’ve stumbled across it while reviewing shared integration logs between our companies—probably digging for leverage like she always does.
But this time she found something she shouldn’t have.
I tap the call log. The moment she ran the file, she messaged someone on her team.
I read the text twice.
“Someone’s been playing God. Everview’s hiding Tier Twos in fake departments now? Wonder what they’re protecting—unless it’s just a new kink. Lmk if I should leak it.”
My jaw tightens.
Not because of the message. Not even because of the risk.
Because she attached Ivy’s name.
Because she called her a kink.
Because she looked at something I was keeping for myself.
And joked about it.
That’s what seals it.
I close the tablet. The screen fades to black.
My finger hovers over Ezra’s contact, but I don’t press it.
Not yet.
Instead, I dial a different number.
Ruby answers on the first ring. “Roman.” Her voice is too smooth, too expectant. “That was quick.”
“I need to see you.”
A pause. Then her voice softens—eager, breathless. “Now?”
“Suite 617. Argonne Grand. Ten minutes.”
Another pause. “You want me to come to you ?”
“I want this done in private.”
She laughs softly, mistaking the tone. “God, I love when you’re like this.”
I end the call without replying.
Ten minutes later, she knocks like it’s foreplay.
I don’t answer. Just open the door.
Ruby struts in wearing a dress I’m sure she thought would distract me. She’s overdressed for what this is. But then again, Ruby always thought she was part of the empire , not just a name in a file.
She walks straight to the window, back to me, like she owns the room.
“You know, you could’ve just invited me out like a normal man. Dinner. Drinks. Negotiation.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
She turns. “No?”
I shake my head once. “This is closure.”
Her smile falters. “Closure?”
“You overstepped.”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh, please. Your little pet project? That girl? You think I’m intimidated by some nobody from the slums?”
“You should be,” I say quietly.
“Is that why you’re threatening me now?” Her hands are on her hips. “Because I poked around your charity case? Joked about your little kinky need to play with the poor girl?”
“You didn’t just poke around. You offered her name to people who would pay for leverage. You thought I wouldn’t find out.”
She stiffens.
“She’s nothing.”
“I know every backdoor you’ve ever crawled through,” I say. “And I own most of them.”
“I didn’t think?—”
“That,” I interrupt, “is your only honest sentence. And Ruby? She’s not nothing. That woman is…everything.”
She opens her mouth again.
“Don’t say anything you can’t take back, Ruby.” I erase the distance between us. “You’ve always acted the way you have to get my attention. Now that you have it, don’t ruin it.”
She’s staring out of the window into the distance, her body trembling either with fear or more likely desire.
When I’m less than a foot away, I let my hands ghost across her skin. Careful not to actually touch her, I feel her body relax.
“That’s right.” The utterance leaves my lips. “But your mistake was thinking that you’d survive coming after what’s mine.”
I snap her neck before she can finish her thought.
Quick. Clean. Efficient.
She drops to the carpet like a marionette with its strings cut.
I step over her body and slip my phone out of my pocket.
One ring. Ezra never does keep me waiting.
“What?” He sounds exasperated. “I’m busy.”
“Ezra,” I say. “I need you to stop what you’re doing.”
“Why?” He sighs. “I’m working.”
“You’re stalking your next victim, not working. You don’t need to work.”
“Pull the panties out of your mouth and tell me what you want, Roman. If you’re this uptight… Please tell me you’re calling because we’re finally killing someone.”
“I already did.”
Silence. Then, gleeful interest.
“Who?”
“Ruby.”
A beat. “You selfish bastard.”
“I didn’t have time to let you enjoy it. She tried to take something of mine.”
“No.” Ezra laughs. “You know I’d make it slow.”
Shaking my head even though he can’t see it, I can’t help the smile at what my twisted little brother would do to poor Ruby, given the chance.“That’s why I didn’t let you do it.”
A low whistle. “That didn’t take long.”
“She ran out of things to say.”
“Where?”
“Argonne. Room 617.”
“Want me to make it look like an accident?”
“No. Make it disappear.”
“Fine,” he says, then adds almost wistfully, “At least tell me you snapped her neck. I like the classics.”
I want to hang up, but I don’t. This is our bonding time. The only real thing that we both share. A need… to make those that wrong us hurt.
“I did.” I admit.
“Holy shit.” Ezra mutters into the other line. “I think I just saw my soulmate.”
I hang up.
I don’t stay in the room.
I don’t look back.
I’ve got more important things to do.
And Ezra will handle the mess I left behind.
A block down the street, I slide into the back of the car and close my door while Paul pulls into traffic. Only when I know he doesn’t need me do I unlock my phone and press on Asher’s name.
He answers on the first ring. “Sir.”
“The timeline’s moved up,” I say.
A pause. That’s all. Not shock. Not hesitation. Just that brief recalibration he always gives me before adjusting the plan without complaint.
“Understood,” he says. “The country estate is prepped. Surveillance is in place. Do you want her brought in directly or?—”
“No,” I interrupt. “No middlemen. I’ll take her myself.”
Another pause.
“Of course.” Like he knew that would be my answer.
“She won’t come quietly.” I give him what I know he wants.
“They never do.” Asher’s chuckle earns him a rare flicker of amusement from me. It vanishes as quickly as it arrives. “I’ve already made arrangements for your assistance to get her out of the apartment. It’ll be on ice before you go.”
“Once she’s in the house, lock it down completely. No one in or out. No devices that aren’t air-gapped. No exits. She doesn’t even leave the room without my say-so.”
“And after that?”
“She’ll understand,” I say.
“She’s not like the others,” Asher says carefully. “You’ve never tracked someone this long before. Never watched. Never… waited.”
“She’s not like the others,” I echo, voice low. “And that’s why I won’t stay on the sidelines any longer.”
What goes unsaid is that she’s the last woman I’ll track.
The last I’ll ever obsess over.
The only woman I’ll ever claim as mine.
It feels like I’ve been watching her, waiting for her, forever.
From the car across the street.
From the shadowed alley behind the coffee shop.
From a rooftop once, two nights ago, just to see her from above. Just to watch how she moved when she thought no one was paying attention.
She’s always alone.
Even in crowds.
Even when someone holds the door open for her or bumps her shoulder in passing, she doesn’t flinch. She folds inward. Tucks herself smaller, tighter. Like the world trained her to take up less space and survive by not being noticed.
But I notice.
I see everything she tries to hide.
And tonight?
Tonight’s the last time I let her walk these streets by herself.
The last time that she will be truly alone for the rest of her life.
She rounds the corner now, coffee cup in one hand, bag of groceries in the other. Hood up, shoulders tense. Her pace is even, steady, but I see the edge. That instinct humming just under her skin.
Something’s shifted in her since the mugging.
The one my P.I. reported to me after the fact.
Good girl.
She should know the world is dangerous.
That way, when I take her, she won’t mistake it for anything but the truth.
The claiming it will be.
She pauses near her building. Looks over her shoulder like she feels it, like she feels me, just out of reach. Her eyes scan the shadows, but they don’t land on anything.
I stay still.
She doesn’t see me.
But I see her.
She disappears inside a moment later.
The rest, I run through my imagination. My girl is smart. I picture her slamming the door, lock turning, blinds staying open just enough for me to glimpse the light on her cheek as she sets her things down and exhales like the day finally caught up to her.
My phone buzzes once.
Asher: All preparations in place. Your window for acquiring your target is secured.
I close the message.
My hand curls around the steering wheel, and I don’t take my eyes off that third-floor window while I start to count the minutes until I can make my move.
The quiet vibration announcing an incoming call distracts me momentarily from watching Ivy. Only family and Asher ring through my Do Not Disturb settings.
Looking down, I see my little brother’s name flash.
“Ezra.” I greet him gruffly. “I hope you’re calling for a reason.”
“Just the one you asked me to dispose of.” He huffs. “I think we should invest in a funeral home. Somewhere we can use to dispose of bodies that don’t ever need to be found.
Damn. That’s a good idea.
“Make it happen. Under one of the umbrellas. I’m sure we can diversify.”
“I’ll have Candy do it.” Ezra laughs sarcastically. “She’ll love the power trip she’ll get by contributing to the family obsessions.”
He’s not wrong.
“She still hasn’t shown any signs or interest in…” I trail off, knowing that Ezra is tracking our sister’s habits just like I am, just in case we need to step in and help if things get out of hand. Or she accidentally murders someone and doesn’t know what to do about it.
“Nope.” He crunches on something in the background. “She’s still as perfect as fallen snow. Our sweet little murder virgin.”
We both snort at that.
“You met your soulmate earlier.” I remind him. “Care to share?”
“No.” He bites off. “Unless you’re going to share your… what are you calling her now? Your obsession? Your girl?”
“Mine.” I correct him. “I call her mine. That’s all you need to know.”
“Same, then.” Ezra informs me. “Once I figure out what her name is, you can think of her as mine only. I don’t even want her name on another man’s lips. Let alone his body.”
I can’t even argue with him, because I knew Ivy was mine from the moment I heard her voice. Before I ever saw what she looked like. A name doesn’t mean a single thing to men like us.
A name is nothing. Not when faced with forever.
“Time to go, little brother.” I hang up on him without another word, ready to claim my girl and get her home where she belongs.
No one pays attention to me as I climb out of the driver’s seat of my nondescript black car. They don’t turn an eye in my direction as I approach the apartment building.
There’s not even a hint of danger or a thing out of place as I climb the rusty and decrepit stairs to the third floor.
And it’s not until I’m standing in front of Ivy’s apartment that my heart starts to race.
Not in fear, or anxiety, but anticipation.
It’s time.
The key in my hand slides perfectly into the lock, and I silently turn the deadbolt before unlocking the smaller lock for the doorknob. As I ease her door open, I plan for and smile as the door pauses when the chain catches.
“Good girl.” I whisper, then take my time sliding it open.
In moments, I’m standing in her apartment, breathing in the scent that’s haunted me since I saw her in that coffee shop.
She’s asleep on a futon that I know doubles as her couch. Her dark brown hair is wrapped in a knot on top of her head, and her slender neck is exposed.
Perfect.
If there really are gods, they designed my perfect woman in Ivy. She even has a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose.
Almost too light to notice.
It’s not until I pull the syringe from my pocket that the air around us shifts.
Her eyes open as I drive the needle into her neck and press down on the plunger. The medication takes effect before she even has time to process that she’s not alone.
“You’ll be safe soon,” I whisper as her eyes roll into the back of her head and unconsciousness takes her completely. “Even if I have to break you to keep you.”