Karma Doesn’t Sleep: The Revenge Queen Rises novel Chapter 417

Amelia’s senses kicked into overdrive. Her hand landed on a wrench someone must’ve forgotten on the table and she quietly hid it behind her back, just in case.

The next second, the door creaked open. When she saw who walked in, she froze.

“Ryan?”

It really was him.

He filled the doorway—tall, broad-shouldered, that unfairly good build, and the kind of presence that made the whole backstage feel way too small. He closed the distance with long, easy strides.

The only light was a dim, bluish ceiling lamp mixing with streaks of moonlight from a tiny window. Amelia sat right in the middle of it, caught in moonbeams, staring at him like she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“What are you doing back here?” she managed.

Ryan stopped in front of her, his strong features cast in shadow so his eyes looked even darker than the night outside.

“I thought the whole point was to recognize people by touch,” he said, voice calm, gaze sharp and steady.

So many hands had reached out from behind the curtain, but none of them had been hers.

Amelia hesitated, thrown off balance.

She found herself getting lost in his eyes and, out of nowhere, her mind flashed back to college—to that one class game of “name tag ripping” that everyone was obsessed with. The class committee had made it mandatory. Amelia could do most things just fine, but athletic competitions weren’t her thing. Of course, she’d been randomly put on the team with all the sports stars, which instantly made them the target.

A bunch of teams had teamed up to take them down first.

Amelia, hopeless at the game, did the only thing she could think of—hide and hope no one found her.

She’d barely been tucked away for ten minutes when a shadow fell over her.

She’d looked up and there was Ryan, grinning like he’d won the lottery.

“Found you, Amelia...”

Nineteen-year-old Ryan looked so much like the man in front of her now—except now he was older, more handsome, and somehow even harder to handle.

It was always the same. He always found her.

Her heart thumped hard, twice, in her chest. She ducked her head away from his open, steady stare, feeling a sudden jolt of panic. Instinct took over. She jumped to her feet, ready to make an escape.

“This game’s kind of boring. Timmy’s waiting for me, so I should—”

She didn’t get to finish. Ryan caught her arm.

“Amelia.” His eyes locked on hers, his face impossible to read. He asked, quietly, “Are you scared of me?”

She could almost smell the cool, smoky scent that seemed to cling to him—dangerous, completely intoxicating.

Honestly, yeah. She was a little scared of Ryan.

She’d always had a knack for reading people, for figuring out what they wanted. Everyone except him.

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