The CEO Above My Desk (Mckenzie Shinabery) novel Chapter 44

Chapter 44

Instead, I do the only thing I know how to do.

I swallow it.

I swallow the fear. I swallow the shaking. I swallow the scream clawing at my ribs.

And I go back to bed like this is normal.

Like this is just another item on a list.

I crawl under the sheets and clutch the phone tight in my hand, staring at the dark ceiling.

My fingers are cold.

My chest is hot.

I blink and blink, and the tears don’t fall. They just sit there, trapped behind my eyes like they don’t have permission to

exist.

That’s when the phone vibrates.

Once.

A single notification.

My whole body goes rigid.

I look down.

Rowan: System is active. Try to rest.

I stare at the message.

Not because I don’t understand the words.

Because I do.

Because that’s the problem.

He knows.

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He knows I’m awake. He knows I’m not resting. He knows the system just triggered. He knows there was activity outside

the house.

And he texted me like it was weather.

Like it was a calendar update.

Like Try to rest is a reasonable thing to ask when a stranger is lingering outside your new address and you can’t even stop

picturing your brother’s face.

I type before I can think better of it.

Did you see the alert?

The response comes too fast.

Rowan: Yes.

My throat tightens.

I type again.

Was that-

I stop. Delete it. Re-type.

Was someone outside?

Rowan: They didn’t breach the perimeter. They left.

My grip on the phone tightens until my knuckles ache.

How do you know they left?

Three dots appear.

Then disappear.

Then:

Rowan: Because I’m watching.

A shiver crawls down my spine so slowly it feels deliberate.

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Chapter 44

I stare at those three words until the screen dims and I have to tap it again to keep them visible.

Because I’m watching.

Not the system is watching.

Not security is watching.

Not we’re monitoring the perimeter.

I’m watching.

It should make me feel safer.

Instead it makes me feel… exposed.

Like I’m not sleeping in Camille’s guest room.

Like I’m sleeping under glass.

I force myself to type carefully. Neutrally. Like a professional.

Thank you.

A pause.

Then:

Rowan: You’ll be up early. Don’t spiral tonight. You don’t have time for it.

Heat flashes behind my eyes.

Don’t spiral?

Like my brother isn’t dead.

Like my mother isn’t half a memory on bad days and a hurricane on the others.

Like a detective isn’t watching me with the kind of eyes that don’t care if I’m innocent.

Like I didn’t just see a man in a hood standing outside my friend’s apartment at one in the morning.

I don’t type any of that.

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Chapter 44

Because if I do, it becomes real in a way I can’t manage.

So I type the only thing I can.

Understood.

A second later:

Rowan: Good.

I stare at that, too.

Like he’s training me.

Like my fear is a behavior he expects me to control.

Maybe he’s right. Maybe fear is just another inefficiency.

Maybe that’s why I hate that it’s under my skin.

I turn the phone face down on the nightstand and lie back, staring into the dark.

I should sleep.

I should.

But my brain keeps replaying that image from the camera.

Hood. Hands. Stillness.

And somewhere between one breath and the next, something else settles in my chest-something sharp and unsettling and

unwanted.

Rowan Ashcroft doesn’t do anything without a reason.

He doesn’t give gifts without a return.

He doesn’t install a security system without a plan.

And he doesn’t watch a woman sleep because he’s kind.

He watches because he wants control.

Or because he thinks someone else is trying to take it.

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Chapter 44

My phone buzzes again, soft against the wood.

I hesitate.

Then flip it over.

Rowan: Front camera caught his face for half a second. I’ll handle it.

My stomach twists.

I type without thinking.

Handle it how?

The reply is instant.

Rowan: Go to sleep, Violet.

Not a request.

An order.

And I hate the way my body responds-like it knows what obedience sounds like.

Like it wants to comply just to stop feeling this raw.

I stare at the screen until it blurs.

Then I set the phone down, pull the blanket up to my chin, and close my eyes.

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The CEO Above My Desk