The CEO Above My Desk (Mckenzie Shinabery) novel Chapter 90

The car ride away from the funeral home feels heavier than the one there. (0)

No one is joking now.

Theo stares out the windshield. Camille keeps glancing back at me like she’s gauging whether I’m about to break. Devin is

quiet in the front seat beside the driver, fingers laced together, thinking.

Rowan sits next to me in the back.

Close.

Not touching.

But close enough that I feel him.

“I want to go home,” I say quietly.

Not his house.

“Camille’s,” I clarify.

Devin turns slightly. “Already?”

Theo snorts lightly. “Probably needs a break from Rowan’s brute energy.”

Camille elbows him. “Theo.”

Rowan doesn’t laugh.

“No,” he says.

Just that.

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“You’re not going back there,” Rowan says evenly. “Not while Calder is still breathing freely.”

“Internal Affairs is handling it,” I argue.

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Chapter 90

“He’s not behind bars,” Rowan replies.

“They’re investigating

“He is not in custody.”

His voice doesn’t rise.

But it sharpens.

“I can’t live locked in your house,” I snap. “I’m not a hostage.”

“You’re a target,” he fires back.

“According to who?”

“According to the man who put his hands on you.”

Theo shifts uncomfortably in the front seat. Camille watches us with wide eyes.

“Internal Affairs said-”

“I don’t care what they said,” Rowan cuts in. “He is not contained.”

“You’re being impossible,” I say, anger finally burning through the exhaustion.

“And you’re being reckless.”

“I want to go home!”

“You are home,” he snaps.

The words hang there.

Too heavy.

Too loaded.

“That’s not your decision,” I say.

“It is when your safety is on the line.”

“There it is,” I laugh bitterly. “Control dressed up as protection.”

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Chapter 90

His jaw flexes.

“That’s unfair.”

“Is it?” I shoot back. “You decide where I sleep. Who drives me. Who I talk to. When I leave. When I stay.”

“I’m trying to keep you alive.”

“And I’m trying to breathe.”

“I wouldn’t have to be so fucking controlling,” he says low and dangerous, “if you would just listen to me.”

The car goes dead quiet.

Theo slowly turns his head forward again.

Camille’s eyes flick between us like we’re about to explode.

*I am not your employee right now,” I say, voice shaking but steady. “You don’t get to order me.”

“And you don’t get to pretend this is optional,” he snaps.

The air between us is electric.

Practured.

Then I say the one thing I shouldn’t.

“I don’t need you to save me.”

That does it.

Rowan moves before I can process it.

One second I’m sitting upright in the seat.

The next, his hand is around my waist and he pulls.

Not rough.

But not gentle either.

Firm.

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Chapter 90

Decisive.

1 gasp as he shifts me sideways and into his lap.

“What are your “I start.

His arms lock around me.

Not crushing.

But unmovable.

“You don’t get to fall apart alone,” he says quietly against my ear.

1 freeze.

My body is rigid at first.

His chest is solid behind me.

His hand spreads over my back, anchoring me.

“You don’t get to push me away because you’re scared,” he continues, voice low enough that only I can hear it clearly. “And you don’t get to decide I’m the enemy because I won’t let you put yourself back in danger.”

My breath stutters.

“Rowan-”

“I am not trying to cage you,” he says. “I am trying to keep you breathing.”

The anger drains out of me so fast it makes me dizzy.

His grip shifts.

Loosens.

Not trapping.

Just holding.

“You don’t have to be strong every second,” he murmurs.

And that’s it.

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Chapter 90

That’s what breaks me.

I stop fighting.

The tension bleeds out of my limbs like someone cut a wire.

My hands fist in his shirt.

God, it’s soft.

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