Page 68 of Velvet Corruption

She nodded. “Alright,” she said. “I’ll just be upstairs.”

Alek watched me from across the table, silent, unmoving. His face was unreadable, but I could feel it—the weight of his frustration pressing down on the room.

Natalia, on the other hand, was dying for gossip.

She’d barely made it halfway up the stairs before stopping, obviously deciding that whatever was about to happen was far too juicy to miss. Now, she leaned against the doorway, arms crossed, eyebrows raised.

“Well?” she prompted. “Someone gonna explain why I’m up at the crack of dawn to the most delicious tension I’ve ever seen?”

I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “Nat, I love you, but I do not have the energy to deal with your shit right now.”

Alek, however, wasn’t in the mood for distractions. His fingers drummed once on the table before he spoke, voice measured. “Wherewere you, Ruby?”

I could hear the restraint in his voice. It wasn’t quite anger—not yet. But the concern had curdled into something sharper. “I’m a grown-up. I don’t need to account for my whereabouts to you.”

“You do, though.” Alek’s voice was firm but not unkind. “You’re running for DA in a city that’s more dangerous than it’s been in years. You refuse to play ball with the Callahans. You’ve put away what…at least a hundreddomestic abusers who might be free any day now? That makes you a target.”

“I sent you a bunch of texts,” I shot back. “All of them asking for help, to be clear.”

“You were cryptic as hell.” He scoffed. “And if you wanted me to take you seriously, maybe you shouldn’t have written, and I quote—‘it’s just a halogen lightbulb lol don’t worry about it.’”

I groaned. “Did you have to quote me?”

“Yes.” His voice sharpened. “Because I was worried sick about you. Were you getting wasted? At the hospital? With a hookup? I don’t care. I just need to know. I need to know where you are, Ruby, so I can protect you. So I can advise you. So let me in.”

I exhaled, shaking my head. “You’re acting like I faked my own death.”

Alek’s jaw twitched. “You disappeared for ten hours.”

“…I was bleeding.”

His expression darkened. “Exactly. And how do you think I felt when I came to your house only to find blood on the drivewayandon the door handle?”

I dragged a hand through my hair. “Okay, yeah, it sounds bad when you say it like that.”

"Because itisbad, Ruby." He sat back, pinching the bridge of his nose.

For a second, neither of us spoke. The weight of it settled. It wasn't just the lecture. It was the fact that he’d spent those hours not knowing. Alek, who planned everything, who anticipated every problem before it happened.

I sighed, shoulders dropping. “Alright. You’re right. I should’ve called you sooner.”

Alek exhaled, slow and measured. “Thank you.”

“…but for the record, the lightbulb thing was funny.”

His eyes narrowed. “You’re lucky you’re injured.”

I smirked. “I know.”

“So,” he said. “Are you going to tell me?”

I stared at the table, chewing the inside of my cheek. My instinct was to dodge, deflect, distract—but I was too tired for that. Too wrung out. And if I didn’t say it now, I never would.

I met his gaze.

“I was with Kieran.”

Alek stilled.

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