Page 14 of In the Dark

My brother told everyone, “We ran the plates and face recognition. We don’t have anything yet, but I’ll keep you posted when—”

“There isn’t a need to keep me posted. I know who it is.”

My brother’s head snapped up, his gaze finding mine. “I want his name. He’s dying for that.”

“She. And she’ll soon be a part of the family. Jasmina Ruiz.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, and my brother swore.

“The girl you …” He held his tongue because there were other people in the room. “She burned down a billion-dollar building of ours?”

“I’ll handle it when I retrieve Maribel.”

“Leave it to a Ruiz,” Cary, an older Diamond, grumbled. “I want them wiped off the map.”

“We’re not killing her,” I said immediately. It was a gut response, one I shouldn’t have had. My brother’s eyes widened. Even still, I held his gaze.

Something about Jasmina had buried in my bones. Something irritating and provoking but also addictive and alluring. I didn’t want her dead, but I wanted her begging for mercy. I wouldn’t bend on that.

“Then what’s the other option?” my brother asked me.

“I said I would handle it,” I gritted out. “Mother, draw up my marriage paperwork. I’ll handle the Ruizes from now on, considering they’ll be my family soon enough.”

With that, I left the boardroom, and before I could do anything else, I hit her name on my phone screen and texted her.

Couldn’t wait to start the war

until the funeral was over?

She read it. I saw that she had.

But she didn’t respond.

Fine.

Looking forward to seeing you

soon, pyro princess.

2

Jasmina

“JASMINA RUIZ.”

I heard a sigh from him, and it sounded like when I’d left his bed all those months ago. He’d been asleep, but somehow his body knew to protest mine leaving his.

How dumb I’d been to sleep with the enemy. Now I’d have memories like this every time I heard his treacherous voice.

“Or should I call you my little arsonist?”

Shit.

He was really sticking to that theory, then. I’d covered all my tracks. There was nothing that could have given me away. In a complete act of unchecked rage after hearing my uncle had been murdered by Callahan’s brother, I may have drove to his new high-rise in the city and burned it to the ground.

Was it stupid? Yes. But, in my defense, I was pretty damn good at being stupid. I’d covered my face, I knew every security camera there was out there. I’d left my phone behind, used an unmarked vehicle, and got gasoline from one of our warehouses.

No one could have tied me to burning down that building.

Except the demonic god of a man standing behind me.