Page 173 of Reign
Then rage arrives.
It doesn’t build. It detonates.
I’m on my feet before I know I’ve moved, ring clenched in my fist, heart slamming so hard it feels like it’s trying to break out of the cage it’s been buried in for a month.
Vincenzo takes one step forward, then stops when he sees my face.
“What the fuck?” I say, because language has narrowed to the only phrase that can hold even a fraction of what is ripping through me. “No. No, you don’t get to stand there. You don’t get to look like that. You don’t get to be alive.”
“I know,” Vincenzo says.
“You know?” I laugh, and it comes out broken enough that his face flinches. “You know. That’s fucking wonderful. He knows.”
“Nikolaj,” Vincenzo says carefully.
I point at him with the hand holding the ring. “Don’t say my name.”
His mouth shuts. I don’t know whether I’m going to kiss him or hit him or collapse into the sand and never get up. He stands there and takes the silence. His eyes are wet, but he doesn’t let the tears fall. Of course not. Still so controlled. Still so fucking beautiful, devastating, and alive.
I start toward him, then stop halfway because getting closer feels dangerous in every direction. “Explain,” I say. “Explain why the fuck you’re still alive when I saw your body.”
He swallows. “Before the summit, I made plans with Kieran King.”
My entire body goes cold with rage. “Plans.”
“Yes,” Vincenzo says. “Extraction plans. Identity plans. A way out. I knew they were planning to hit the summit. Not exactlyhow, but enough. The intelligence was too inconsistent to bring before the council without tipping off whoever still had access. I knew if I moved openly, they’d adapt. If I canceled, they’d know I knew. If I included you—”
I step closer so sharply that he stops speaking.
“If you included me,” I say softly, “… what?”
The softness makes him pale.
Good.
“If I included you, your reaction had to be real,” Vincenzo says. “The grief had to be real. Everyone had to believe Vincenzo Vieri died in that explosion.”
The words hit my ears and refuse to make sense.
The grief had to be real.
My vision blurs, and I laugh again, quieter this time and far more dangerous. “So, you made sure it was.”
Vincenzo’s throat works. “Yes.”
I take another step, and now there are only a few feet between us. I can see the pulse beating at his throat.Alive.I can see the wind moving the edge of his shirt.Alive.I can see the faint tremor in his fingers before he curls them inward.
Alive. Alive. Alive.
I want to scream until the island breaks in half.
“Who was the body?” I ask.
His expression tightens with something like disgust. “Lucien. Kieran’s people handled the switch.”
My stomach turns. “The tests?”
“Kieran owns enough laboratories and enough people with sealed records to make the world believe what he tells it to believe,” Vincenzo says. “And I gave him half of my empire to make it happen.”
