Page 130 of The Tower

Reed Tower. My old prison. My current refuge.

“Sasha?” There’s a light tap at the door. “You in there?”

I sit up, rubbing my eyes. “Come in,” I call, my voice rough from crying.

The door opens and Ruby stands there in her uniform—the practical black pants and white button-down shirt of Reed Tower’s hospitality staff, the part-time job she recently took so that she could stay on site with her grandmother once I’d escaped the building.

Her eyes widen when she sees me, concern washing over her face.

“Holy shit,” she breathes, hurrying inside and closing the door behind her. “What happened?”

I almost laugh at the question. What happened? My entire world imploded. The man I loved betrayed me in the most intimate way possible. I discovered everything I thought was real was just another form of surveillance.

“Liam,” is all I manage to say, my voice cracking on his name.

Ruby doesn’t hesitate, just hurries to the sofa and wraps her arms around me. I collapse against her, fresh tears spilling down my cheeks.

“What did that bastard do?” she asks, leaning back and fingering my now-short hair. “I swear, I’ll kill the fucker.”

I pull back, wiping my eyes. “How did you know I was here?”

“Mrs. Keller in housekeeping texted me the minute you arrived. She said you were in bad shape, but she didn’t mention your hair.” She squeezes my shoulder. “Sasha, seriously.Tell me what happened.”

“You think Leo’s a giant prick? Well, his big brother is giving him a run for his money.”

Ruby’s forehead creases as she frowns, then sits on the sofa next to me. “What are you talking about?”

I draw a breath, then scrub my hands over my face before taking a deep breath and facing her. “Grimm hacked into Elysium. He’s been monitoring everything I did there for years. Everything.” My voice breaks on the last word, the violation still too raw to process fully.

Ruby’s expression shifts from confusion to horror. “That’s not possible. You locked that down like Fort Knox.”

“It’s possible if you’re Liam fucking Grimm,” I say, a harsh laugh escaping me. “Computer genius, security expert. He’s been watching me all along.”

Her hand goes to her mouth, and she shakes her head slowly. “That’s—oh, god, Sasha. How did you find out?”

I grit my teeth then grind out the words. “Maya Lane told me.”

Ruby’s eyebrows shoot up. “The one you told me about? His ex from the Tribeca loft? Why would she⁠—”

“To hurt him, I guess. To hurt me.” I sink back onto the sofa. “Does it matter?”

“What did he say?”

I shake my head. “I didn’t stick around. What can he say?”

She just shakes her head and whispers, “Wow.” Then she frowns as she takes my hand. “Is there any way you could be wrong? Maybe you should ask him. I mean, I used to think he was the biggest a-hole of all, but all this time with you, the way he’s helped you, and …”

She trails off with a shrug.

“It’s true,” I tell her. “I should have seen it when I told him about Elysium. I thought he just got it, you know, because he works in cybersecurity. But it was because he’d been in that code for years.” I almost tell her the rest—that he’d hijacked Prince Killiam. But I’m not ready to go there yet.

Ruby takes my hand, her fingers warm against mine. “I’m sorry. I know how much you cared about him.”

“Loved,” I correct, the admission like glass in my throat. “I loved him. What a fucking joke.”

“It’s not a joke to feel something real,” she says quietly. “Even if it was based on a lie.” And, she adds, with a somewhat wary look, “I think he loves you, too.”

“The bastard doesn’t even know what love is.”