The CEO Above My Desk Chapter 164

***Rowan***

The bedroom door slams hard enough to shake the hallway walls.

Then the lock clicks.

For a few seconds, nobody says anything.

Theo is still standing near the kitchen island staring down the hallway like he just watched his entire future collapse in real time. Devin slowly rubs a hand over his face while I remain exactly where Violet left me, still staring at the closed door like somehow glaring at it long enough will make her open it again.

“She told me to sleep on the couch,” Theo says finally, sounding genuinely offended by it.

Devin snorts.

Actually snorts.

Theo points at him immediately. “Don’t start.”

“I’m trying not to,” Devin says, failing miserably. “But honestly? That was kind of deserved.”

Theo looks personally betrayed. “You’re supposed to be on my side.”

“I’m on the side of the pregnant woman currently reconsidering every life choice that led her here.”

“That feels dramatic.”

“She threatened bodily harm, Theo.”

“Fair.”

I finally drag my eyes away from the hallway and walk back toward the kitchen while Theo collapses dramatically onto the couch like a Victorian widow mourning her dead husband.

Meanwhile, all I can hear is Violet’s voice replaying in my head.

You’re sleeping alone tonight.

Which shouldn’t bother me as much as it does.

I spent most of my life sleeping alone.

But now?

Now the thought physically irritates me.

Devin picks the tablet back up from the counter with a heavy sigh. “We still need to figure out what the hell they found.”

Theo groans loudly into the couch cushions. “I would rather die.”

“That can probably still be arranged depending on Violet’s mood tomorrow.”

Theo flips him off without lifting his head.

Despite everything, I almost laugh.

Instead, I lean against the kitchen counter while Devin unlocks the tablet again and reopens the files.

The second the photos appear on screen, tension floods the room all over again.

Theo visibly recoils. “Jesus Christ.”

My jaw tightens hard enough it aches.

Not jealousy.

Not even anger exactly.

Violation.

That’s what this feels like.

Like somebody quietly infected every corner of my company while I stood there blind enough to let it happen.

Theo slowly sits upright again, staring harder at the screen. “She was tracking all of us.”

“Yes,” Devin says flatly.

Theo suddenly looks toward me. “You hired her.”

I meet his stare evenly. “And you slept with her.”

“So did you.”

Silence crashes through the kitchen immediately.

Because there it is. The ugly truth sitting underneath all of this.

I laugh once under my breath. “Briefly.”

Theo drags both hands down his face. “That’s not exactly helping.”

“It ended quickly.”

“Still happened.”

“Yes,” I snap sharply. “Clearly I’m aware of that now.”

Devin keeps scrolling through the emails while Theo and I glare at each other across the kitchen like two men realizing we were both idiots in completely different ways.

“This is insane,” Theo mutters finally. “What the fuck even was she?”

Devin’s expression darkens slightly. “An asset.”

That shuts both of us up immediately. Because he’s right.

Devin turns the tablet slightly toward us again and starts opening more email chains.

Schedules. Meeting updates. Development reports. Permit discussions.

Avery feeding Hargrove information piece by piece for years.

Theo stares harder at the screen. “She monitored fucking everything.”

“Yes.”

“The infrastructure meetings?”

“Yes.”

“The development contracts?”

“Yes.”

“The city projects?”

“Yes.”

Theo leans back slowly against the couch cushions and stares at the ceiling. “Jesus Christ.”

I grab the tablet from Devin suddenly and start scrolling faster through the files myself.

Project updates. Financial reports. Environmental plans.

And then suddenly... I stop.

My jaw tightens instantly. Because there’s Violet. Mentioned casually inside one of the reports.

*Ashcroft appears emotionally compromised by the assistant.*

Something ugly twists violently in my chest.

Theo notices immediately. “What?”

I slowly turn the screen toward him.

The second he reads it, his expression darkens too. “Oh.”

Devin leans slightly closer. “That’s when Hargrove shifted focus.”

I look toward him sharply. “Explain.”

“She stopped trying to control you through business,” Devin says quietly. “And started trying to destabilize you personally.”

The realization settles heavily into the room.

Because that tracks. Horrifyingly well. Everything escalated after Violet. The investigations. The pressure. The targeting.

Theo suddenly points toward another email lower in the chain. “Wait.”

Devin scrolls. Then stops. The email from Avery. The one where she tried to quit. Silence fills the kitchen while all three of us reread it.

*Rowan Ashcroft is not the man you think he is.*

*He’s trying to help this city.*

*He’s trying to save it.*

Theo slowly exhales. “Jesus.”

I stare at the screen quietly. Because suddenly Avery becomes harder to hate cleanly.

Not innocent. Never innocent. But trapped. Manipulated. Blackmailed.

Devin opens Hargrove’s response next.

The attached photos appear again. Photography contracted through Drew Pierce.

Theo goes still instantly. “So Drew really was connected.”

“Yes,” Devin says quietly.

Theo rubs a hand slowly over his jaw. “Calder killed him.”

I don’t even hesitate. “Yes.”

Because I know it too. I feel it in my bones now.

Theo stares back toward the screen again. “Then somebody killed Calder.”

Silence crashes into the room again after that. Because that part scares me more.

Calder was violent. Corrupt. Dangerous. But he was still a weapon. And weapons get discarded when they become liabilities.

Which means somebody bigger is still out there. Watching. Moving pieces around while the rest of us scramble trying to catch up.

My stomach twists hard at the thought. Because Violet is involved now too. Deeply involved. Emotionally involved. And angry enough to stop being careful.

That realization terrifies me more than the explosion did.

Theo suddenly groans and throws himself backward dramatically onto the couch again. “My life is a disaster.”

Devin snorts softly. “You slept with the corporate spy.”

“You did too.”

“Yes, but I’m emotionally detached and therefore superior.”

“Oh my God,” Theo mutters.

My eyes drift back toward the hallway.

Toward the locked bedroom door. Toward Violet. My wife.

My terrifying, furious, brilliant wife who somehow walked directly into a corruption conspiracy and immediately started dismantling it out of pure rage and stubbornness.

Something painful tightens in my chest.