Chapter 32: Ruin Me, Karma.

Chapter 32: Ruin Me, Karma.
Eric.

"You should scream now." I said gripping her neck tightly.

"My type of scream shouldn't be legal in an organisation."

She whispered as I held her neck, dragging her close to me, "You really think the world would give a tiniest bit of fuck if I ruin you here?"

She curved her lips, adjusting so I can choke her harder.
"No,.not at all, but they would give a fuck if they watch you bend me over." She grabbed my hand, sucking my finger.

It was heaven.
She was hell sexy! But she screams danger.

I shoved her away more abruptly than I meant to.

The contact had felt like a memory slipping under my skin...a shape of touch I’d known before and couldn’t place.

“Why do you feel familiar?” I asked, voice low.

“Why…?” Jade repeated, like she’d missed the first half of my sentence.

I pressed the heel of my hand to my temple and tried to name the sensation. There was an intimacy to her that was worn-in, like a well-read book.

Each time we crossed that line, each time I tasted the sharp edge of her breath... there was a sickening déjà vu.

“You okay?” she asked finally, concern cutting through the heat between us.

“Leave,” I said flatly.

Her expression shifted...confusion folding into hurt. “Huh?”

I broke. “Get dressed. Leave."

She flinched, then moved to the door. I watched her pull on her skirt, the motion calm and mechanical.

My throat tightened with a stupid, selfish regret. “This ends here,” I said, forcing the iron out of my voice. “From now on, keep everything formal.”

She stared at me for a long second, then nodded. “Sure.”

The door closed and the office finally felt like my place again... empty, measured, under my control.

I sagged into my chair and reached for my phone.

Five missed calls blinked on the screen.

Sasha.

My “newly obsessed girlfriend” who’d already sent me three memes and a string of heart emojis this morning.

I tapped video call and put the phone to my ear.

Sasha’s face bloomed onto the screen... messy bun, eyeliner too heavy for nine a.m., that tiny glint of something like expectation in her eyes. “Hey, you okay? You sounded weird last night.”

“Weird? I’m fine.” I hissed.

She waggled a finger. “You were short with me. Are you sure you don’t want to talk about anything?”

Her voice was syrupy, and I had to force a laugh. “Come on, Sash, we barely started this. Let’s not do labels yet. I don’t need the cling. I like the chase.”

She feigned offense. “Oh, so now I’m clingy. Smooth.” She hopped on one leg like an idiot and then went serious. “But for real... any trouble? You sounded like you were fighting with someone.”

“Just a PA,” I lied. “First day things. HR trauma. Nothing sex scandal-worthy...at least not yet.” I smiled even when the memory of her name on my tongue made it complicated.

Sasha narrowed her eyes. “You promise?” She folded her hands, a little detective.

“Promise,” I said. “Now tell me about your weekend. Did you and the girls hit that new rooftop?”

She talked at me until a door clicked behind me and the hallway hummed with someone else’s arrival.

Ryder.

Sasha’s whine faded into my pocket with a muffled, “Call me later.”

Ryder’s grin filled the doorway before his voice did. “What’s popping, bro? You sound heavy.”

“Alot,” I admitted, letting my shoulders drop.

"Who? Sasha sweetheart?” He shrugged, stepping in and flopping into the armchair.

“I’m beginning to think twice,” I confessed aloud, and Ryder actually laughed.

“Why tho..? she’s hot." He said it with that ridiculous bravado of his, and I had to smile despite the knot in my chest.

“Not that,” I said. “She’s… messy. Lousy. People like that are problems when you finally use them.”

Ryder shrugged. “Everyone’s a problem until they’re not. Chill.”

“I can’t chill,” I said.

I didn’t tell him the part that really kept me awake: in five months, I might be erased from this planet... Not metaphorically.

The board’s underground work ... the resentments among rival firms. There were people who wanted me gone because I’d become an answer to a question no one asked.

People who saw me as a threat because the prototype I’d given the world had a way of making men obsolete.

Ryder’s smile faded. “So nobody knows where Eros-7 is right now?”

“No one but me and a very small maintenance circle,” I said. “And a few paranoid rivals who think I’m hoarding something.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Have you told Sasha any of this?”

“No.” I let the word hang. She didn’t deserve to know.

My phone thrummed and a new message lit the screen. The notification made the room breathe slower at first, then collapse.

My steps slowed as I read.

My stomach tumbled.

DETECTIVE NIRX: Sir, we’ve found a body matching the description reported. Officer Joe Vance... lifeless on Route 9. Request your presence at interrogation.

The world narrowed. I fumbled the phone, handed it to Ryder. “Read it.”

He looked up, incredulous. “What the fuck.”

“It’s him.” My voice was flat and small.

My foot left a mark in the carpet as I pushed off, the room tilting. “They found my stepbrother.”

Ryder went pale. “Shit. Are you...”

I didn’t wait for the rest. A cold, primal direction took over. I was a man with a score to settle, with someone’s blood marking his city.

I couldn’t sit and parse the politics. I was off balance and I needed motion.

A call stepped in between my heartbeats... the detective’s name flashing again.

I answered it immediately.“Detective Nirx?” I asked, steadying the words so they didn’t reveal the panic.

“Mr. Vance. We need you at Central. The surviving officer has given a vague description. We believe this may be targeted.”

His voice was efficient, surgical.“Fine,” I said. “I’m on my way.”

I stood, the chair scraping wood. My eyes slid to the door and landed on Jade as she reentered the outer room... a pink blouse, her hair in a neat twist, innocent as a Sunday paper.

She stopped when our gazes locked.

I signaled her with a small motion. “We’re leaving,” I said.

She hesitated, the crease between her brows telling me she had a question. I swiveled the phone to show her the text: Deputy found, Route 9, Detective Nirx requesting presence.

Her face registered it.

“What’s wrong?” I asked bluntly.

She swallowed. “Are we actually going to the station?”

“Yes."

“Now?” Her voice wavered just a little, like she’d been holding too much and it was finally catching up.

“Yes. Now.” I moved before there was time for argument.

The door closed behind me like a verdict, and the stairwell swallowed my cadence as my shoes hit the steps.

I shouldn’t have looked back.

"Jade??" I called out, but her presence was no where to be found..... Where could she be???