Page 43 of Ruin
"Get back in the car."
"Something happened and you're about to handle it without telling me. That's not how this works anymore."
She's standing on a dock in the middle of the night, surrounded by armed men and illegal cargo and she's arguing with me abouttransparency.
A year ago she would have been trembling. Now she's steady as stone, and the collar glints at her throat like a dare.
"Warehouse Six is on fire. Russians. They killed one of my men and left a message."
"What message?"
I hesitate. She catches it. "What is the message, Cassius?"
"'Your queen makes you slow.'"
Something shifts behind her eyes. Not fear.
Something harder. Something that looks like the moment a predator realizes it's being hunted and decides to hunt back.
“Show me,” she says.
“Selene.”
“Show me the warehouse. Show me what they did. If they’re using me as a weapon against you, I need to understand what that looks like.”
I let the silence stretch—not because I’m uncertain. Because everyone is watching.
My men aren’t looking at her.
They’re looking at me.
I step closer, lowering my voice so only she hears it. “You don’t need to understand it,” I say evenly. “I do.”
Her jaw tightens—but she doesn’t argue.
After a beat, I make the decision.
“Peter,” I say, eyes still on Selene. “Warehouse Six. Lock it down before we arrive.”
Peter moves immediately.
Not because she asked.
Because I did.
Then I look back at her. “You stay beside me. You don’t step ahead. And you don’t speak unless I tell you to.”
A pause.
“Understood?”
This time, when she nods, it isn’t a victory.
It’s alignment.
The fire is mostly out by the time we arrive.
The building is a skeleton, steel beams twisted and blackened, the loading dock collapsed inward.
