The CEO's Rose

Ryan’s POV

"Are you alright?" Ryan blinked at the question. Turning, he found Vivian staring at him from her spot on the couch. The worry on her face clear to see.

Shaking his head, he tried for a smile, but that failed dismally. The expression instead turning into a slight frown before he replaced it with a blank look.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I was absolutely fine?" He asked. Vivian raised a disbelieving brow and Ryan’s shoulders slumped. A part of him kind of wished that Vivian had done him the favor of pretending to actually believe his lie. But since that had not happened, he was forced to voice something that had been eating away at him.

"You know how both of us are pretty certain that Gwendolyn was Bryce’s benefactor the entire time. That she was probably the one hiding him and also the one who had been pulling the strings,"

Vivian nodded. "Of course, but didn’t we already agree that you would be hunting her down only if she were in the country?"

Looking her in the eye, Ryan finally decided to share something that he had been thinking of, but had not been too certain on. A huge part of his reluctance had been because of the seriousness of what he planned to do. But the more he thought on it, the more sense it made.

"How about not involving the police once Gwendolyn is dug up from whatever hole she is hiding in? Why don’t we forget about legalities completely? I believe that it would be better to go after Gwendolyn using darker means," Ryan finally said, unable to look Vivian in the eyes as he let his words hang between the two of them.

***

Ryan had never tested the full extent of what his money could get him. Even when he had dabbled in the shadier side of things, he had always made sure not too go into deep, wary of being tainted by darkness.

But the issue with Gwendolyn was not sitting right with him. The longer he let her go unaddressed, the more of a problem she was likely to become.

The woman was dangerous.

She had been in cahoots with Bryce and he was one hundred percent certain that she was also his killer. Just waiting around for her to show herself and come at them did not sit well with Ryan.

Which was why despite knowing that it would probably change the way that Vivian viewed him, he wanted to run something by her.

"How about we handle the situation ...permanently? I have never hired a contract killer before, but with my money and power, I am certain that I would be able to get in touch with one with ease," The words said, Ryan lapsed into silence. His eyes focused on Vivian as he waited for her response to the horrible thing that he had just suggested. Her hand reaching out for his, Vivian linked their fingers together. When she spoke, there was no accusation, no condemnation in her voice. She just simply asked him a question.

"Let’s say you really do hire a hitman to get rid of her and they track her down and do just that. Would you be willing to live with the guilt of having taken a life, even if you did hire somebody else to do the dirty work?" Ryan looked at her, the answer to that should have been ’no’. It should have been that he was too good of a guy to be able to live with such a thing.

But instead he found himself nodding.

"To protect you, I will say and do all manner of awful things. So long as at the end of the day you are safe, I do not care about the consequences. I will accept them all and gladly live with them," Sighing, Vivian shook her head.

"As lovely as it is to hear that you are willing to endure that for me, I do not want you to have to shoulder such things for my sake. Gwendolyn most probably killed Bryce, in that I agree with you, she killed him and she got away with it,"

"Call me naive, or childish, but I do not think wherever she is, she will keep living her life without karma paying her visit. Let’s just find her. Do not have her hunted and killed like an animal. Something is going to get her. Either the world itself will punish her, or she will come up with her own sort of personal hell.

***

Barely three hours after he had floated the idea of possibly killing his ex to his fiancée, the two of them were weaving through traffic. Their destination... Gwendolyn’s safe house.

One of his people had managed to find the carefully hidden property that she was in. Had it been found before his talk with Vivian, Ryan would have already had blood on his hands.

But thanks to Vivian’s counsel, the two of them were merely driving there, Ryan’s security surrounding them. They made it to the mansion in record time, and Ryan’s people immediately swarmed the property.

His head of security leading them, Ryan and Vivian helped his people look, the two of them holding hands as they moved from room to room. Turning the place upside down in a bit to get Gwendolyn to reveal herself.

***

Nothing.

Every nook and cranny had been searched and Gwendolyn had not been found, she was gone. The reason why became apparent when they found her surveillance laptop.

It seemed that she’d set up cameras going back as far as the road that led to the property. From the looks of things they’d missed her by mere minutes.

Had he known her any less, he would have had his people going after her. But he knew better, this time there would be no unearthing her from whatever hole she had crawled into.

***

"Leave us," That had been the simple command that’d had all of the guards leaving him and Vivian alone.

His people had done their best, Ryan knew that much. But he also knew himself well enough to know that after failing to catch Gwendolyn he was likely to direct the anger that he felt at them.

As though to further fan the flames of his rage, his phone vibrated with an incoming message. Reading it, Ryan could not stop a snarl from overtaking his features.

"What is it?" Vivian asked, her soft tone helping to soothe some of the rage that he was feeling.

"She made it out of the country, she had someone impersonate her at the docks while she boarded a plane," Pocketing the phone, Ryan gripped his hair and let out a frustrated scream.

He’d had her! Had he been just a little bit faster, more cunning, she would be in his clutches.

Kicking at a nearby table, he only felt a little bit better when the expensive vase there shattered.

"Here," Turning to the sound of Vivian’s voice he found her holding a hammer and some goggles towards him. At his confused look, she smiled softly.

"You did not even notice me step out did you?" He shook his head, and she chuckled. Taking the offered items despite not knowing what they were for, he watched as she put on her own goggles and grabbed the hammer that she’d placed on the table that he had just kicked.

"She might be gone, but we can still get some stress relief. That room full of mirrors is very tempting,"

Oh, she wanted to destroy the mirror room that Gwendolyn had.

Ryan knew for a fact that his ex was very attached to her mirror rooms. Gripping his hammer tight, he found himself very taken by the idea of destroying it. After they were done, he would be sure to post pictures on social media without any explanations. He was certain that the pain would reach Gwendolyn no matter how far from him she ran.

Suddenly feeling much lighter, Ryan put on his goggles and held out a hand for Vivian.

"Shall we, my love," Laughing prettily, she slid her hand into his and they made their way to the mirror room.

What followed was an hour of grown adults wrecking as many mirrors as they could while screaming at the top of their lungs.

When pictures of the devastated room finally went online a lot of people merely stared in confusion. But the woman that the picture was meant for immediately broke down. Crying so hard that the people who witnessed her sobbing were convinced that she had just lost a loved one.

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