The CEO Above My Desk Chapter 147

***Rowan***

The loft doesn’t feel like mine tonight.

It feels like a command center.

Screens glow across the long table. Files are stacked in neat, deliberate rows. The city hums beyond the glass, distant and irrelevant. Up here, everything narrows to voices, decisions, and the quiet understanding that whatever is said in this room is going to ripple outward..

I don’t sit.

I stand at my desk, hands resting lightly against the back of my chair, watching them.

Devin is already set up, tablet open, documents pulled, pen in hand like he’s ready to dissect every word spoken.

Across from him, the mayor sits composed, posture perfect, expression controlled but tight around the edges.

And next to him is Asher West.

Devin was right.

I don’t like him.

There’s something about the way he sits, relaxed without being careless, like he’s already run through every possible outcome and decided he’ll come out on top of all of them. His eyes move constantly, calculating, measuring, dissecting the room the same way I do.

But he smiles more.

And that makes him worse.

“Let’s stop pretending this is a conversation,” I say, my voice cutting clean through whatever low discussion they were having before I stepped fully into the room.

The mayor looks up first.

West doesn’t look surprised.

Devin doesn’t even blink.

Good.

“Your police department is compromised,” I continue. “Evidence is being altered. Witnesses are being accessed without authorization. And a councilwoman is walking into interrogation rooms like she owns them.”

The mayor exhales slowly, folding his hands together. “Rowan, I understand you’re concerned, but—”

“No,” I interrupt. “You don’t understand.”

The room stills.

West’s mouth twitches slightly, like he’s enjoying this more than he should.

“You don’t understand because if you did,” I continue, my tone dropping just enough to make it worse, “you wouldn’t be sitting there trying to soften this.”

The mayor’s jaw tightens.

“I’m trying to keep this contained,” he says.

“It’s already not contained.”

Devin leans forward slightly. “We have confirmed discrepancies in police audio logs,” he says, sliding a tablet across the table. “Sections missing. Clean cuts. Not technical errors.”

West picks up the tablet, scrolling through it like he’s already halfway convinced. “Deliberate edits,” he says after a second. “Someone got to it fast.”

“They expected something to be there,” I add.

West glances up at me.

There’s recognition there.

Annoying.

“Which means this isn’t reactionary,” he says. “It’s premeditated.”

“Yes.”

The mayor shifts in his seat. “If what you’re saying is true—”

“It is.”

“You’re asking me to accuse my own department of corruption.”

“I’m telling you your department is already corrupt.”

Silence.

Devin doesn’t speak. West doesn’t interrupt. They both let that sit. Because it needs to.

The mayor leans back slightly, running a hand over his mouth. “You’re asking me to dismantle my own structure.”

I tilt my head slightly. “I’m asking you to fix it before it dismantles you.”

That lands harder.

West lets out a quiet breath that almost sounds like approval. “We’re not talking about damage control,” he says. “We’re talking about layered response.”

Devin groans softly. “I hate when you phrase things like that.”

“It’s accurate.”

“It’s insufferable.”

West ignores him and looks back at me. “What do you want done first?”

I don’t hesitate.

“We lock this down legally.”

Devin nods immediately. “Rowan and Violet’s alibis are already supported by independent witnesses, timestamps, and footage. We formalize it. File it. Make it untouchable.”

The mayor frowns slightly. “And Violet?”

“She becomes a primary witness,” Devin says.

“And a victim,” I add.

West’s eyes flick toward me. “Victim?”

“Calder targeted her,” I say. “Pressured access. Attempted coercion. That becomes part of the record.”

West nods slowly. “That shifts positioning nicely.”

Devin shoots him a look. “She’s not positioning. She’s a person.”

“And protecting her requires positioning,” West replies calmly.

I take a step forward.

“Choose your words carefully.”

West meets my gaze without flinching. “I am.”

There’s a beat.

Then I move on.

“Next,” I say, “you clean your department.”

The mayor exhales sharply. “That’s not a switch I can just flip.”

“Yes, it is.”

He shakes his head. “You don’t understand the internal—”

“I understand enough.”

Devin steps in again. “Internal Affairs needs to be brought in immediately. External oversight if necessary. Freeze access to evidence systems. Audit logs. Pull every officer tied to Calder.”

West nods. “Suspend them before they have time to align stories.”

“That’s going to cause chaos,” the mayor says.

“Good,” I reply.

All three of them look at me.

I don’t blink.

“Chaos exposes cracks,” I continue. “Cracks show structure.”

West smiles again. “I like him.”

“Don’t,” Devin mutters.

I ignore both of them.

“And then,” I say, “you bring in the feds.”

That stops the room.

Even West goes quiet for a second.

The mayor leans forward. “Rowan…”

“No.”

“That escalates this beyond—”

“It’s already escalated.”

West taps the table lightly. “Federal oversight removes local control,” he says. “Which removes corruption from influence.”

Devin nods reluctantly. “It also locks evidence at a higher level. Tampering becomes a federal offense.”

“And your department loses authority,” I add.

The mayor looks between us, weighing it.

“If I do this,” he says slowly, “I lose control of the outcome.”

“You don’t have control now.”

West leans back slightly. “This is clean,” he says. “Legal shield, internal purge, federal takeover. By the time anyone tries to interfere again, they won’t have the authority to do it.”

Devin shakes his head. “I hate that this makes sense.”

“It always does,” West replies.

I don’t care about either of them.

My focus stays on the mayor.

“This gets handled,” I say. “Now.”

He studies me. Longer this time. Carefully.

“This will be loud,” he says.

“I know.”

“It will draw attention.”

“I don’t care.”

“It could affect—”

“I don’t care.” The words don’t come out louder.

They don’t need to.

They land exactly where they need to.

My eyes flick toward the stairs for just a second. Toward where she is.

“They’re coming after my wife,” I say quietly.

That word changes the room. Even West notices it.

“And I’m done letting anyone stand in the way of us having a decent life.”

No one speaks. Not right away. Because now it’s not strategy.

It’s motive. It’s final.

The mayor exhales slowly. Then nods. “Alright,” he says. “We do it your way.”

West smiles like he just won something.

Devin mutters under his breath, but he’s already moving, already pulling files, already executing.

“Good,” I say.

And just like that, everything shifts.