"You ran me off the road," I say flatly. "That takes a lot of planning, Ryder. You had to follow me. You had to wait for the right spot."
"It was Vivi!" he blurts out, his eyes wide and frantic. "It was her idea."
I freeze. Behind me, I feel Gabriel go perfectly still.
"What did you say?" Gabriel asks. His voice is low, but it carries more weight than if he screamed the words.
Ryder looks at Gabriel, desperate to shift the blame. "We were at the penthouse. We were... partying. I was messed up, okay? I’d been up for two days." He wipes his nose, sniffing hard. "Vivi said Blair was going to talk. She said she was going to tell you about the money I took from her accounts. She said if you found out I was stealing... you'd cut me off."
He looks at me, his expression pleading.
"She told me you were a liability. That you were going to ruin my reputation and my shot at becoming CEO. She said... she said real men handle their problems."
My stomach turns.
"You tried to kill me," I say, staring at him in disbelief, "to keep me quiet about forty grand? You tried to end my life because your girlfriend told you to?"
"I didn't want to!" Ryder sobs. "But she gave me the keys to her car. She gave me the coke to get my nerve up. She said if I didit, the problem would just... go away. And then I could focus on the future without looking over my shoulder."
I let out a hollow laugh. It’s so pathetic. It’s so perfectly Ryder. He didn't even have the spine to be a villain on his own; he had to be talked into it by a woman who treated him like a puppet.
"She played you, Ryder," I say, shaking my head. "She didn't care about your reputation. She just wanted me gone because she didn’t like your attention on me."
"I know that now!"
"Vivienne Ashford," Gabriel says, testing the name on his tongue like he’s tasting a fine wine he intends to smash against the wall.
I glance back at him. His face is a mask of stone, but his eyes... his eyes are burning with a cold, blue fire. He looks at Ryder, then nods once, as if filing away a piece of information for later processing.
I know that look.
Vivienne is going to wish she’d never had my name in her mouth.
"You need to leave," Gabriel says, his attention snapping back to the sobbing man-child in front of us.
"But where am I supposed to go?"
"I don't care," Gabriel says.
I step closer to Ryder, lowering my voice so only he can hear what I’m about to say.
"You're going to leave here with nothing. Disgraced. Penniless. You’re going to have to live out the rest of your sorry existence with the struggle everyone else feels. You’re going to have to get a job. You’re going to have to pay rent. You’re going to have to wonder if your card will decline at the grocery store."
His eyes widen as the reality sets in.
"And if you somehow manage to drag yourself out of that hole by learning how to be humble, learning how to work hard, and learning how to be a good person? That’ll be your choice. But somehow, knowing you... I doubt you'll even try."
"Now get the fuck out of here," Gabriel says from behind me. "Don’t make me tell you a third time.”
Ryder doesn't hesitate. He looks at me one last time—a look of pure, unadulterated misery—and then he bolts. He scrambles toward the exit, slipping on the polished floor in his haste to get away from the wreckage of his life.
I watch him go, and I feel... light.
It’s over.
"You okay?" Gabriel asks, his hand finally settling on my waist, pulling me back against his chest.
"I'm fine," I say, leaning into him. "I just want to go home."
