Page 90 of Viper’s Reign

“Someone paid them a very hefty amount of money to get to you,” Noah concludes.

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“Because you’re all wrapped up in Grace and refuse to believe the worst of her. From where I’m standing, it makes perfect sense.”

I shake my head, letting his comment about Grace slide. There’s no point denying what we both know is true. “Then how do you explain Millicent’s disappearance?”

“A tactic.” Noah doesn’t miss a beat. “Grace didn’t file a missing-person report, remember? Perhaps because there’s nothing to report—because she’s hiding, not missing. An elaborate plan to make you think she’s being blackmailed, when really she got paid for the job. You’re a paycheck to her. Nothing more.”

The words land like a fist to the chest. On paper, Noah’s theory is solid. It explains the paid debts, the forged identity, the expo invitation that shouldn’t have been possible.

But it doesn’t explain the injection being subcutaneous. It doesn’t explain three days of silence in a dungeon when talking would have been so much easier. It doesn’t explain the look on her face when she apologized to a man she thought she was killing, or the tears in the blindfold, or the way she said I can’t instead of I won’t.

I know how to read people. It’s kept me alive. And what I read in Grace doesn’t match the picture Noah is painting—or maybe I simply don’t want to believe the woman I’m falling for could be this calculated.

A hesitant knock at the study door interrupts the thought. Noah gets up to answer it, and I catch a glimpse of red hair before anything else.

Grace is here.

36

GRACE

The glower Noah gives me when he opens the door makes it more than clear that he isn’t happy to see me. For one shaky second, I almost step back and retreat to my room, but I hold my ground.

I woke up when Dimitri closed the door behind him, and I knew if I didn’t want to chicken out, I had to tell him everything before I could second-guess myself. Whether it’s the right thing, I still can’t say with certainty. But I know I have to.

“Let her in, Noah.”

Dimitri’s voice makes my heart skip, my stomach knotting with nerves. Thank God I failed to kill him. I can’t imagine a world where he doesn’t exist because of me, because of my actions.

Noah’s lips go thin, but he steps aside and lets me into the study. He starts to leave—probably to give us privacy—but I stop him. “No, stay. You’ll want to hear this too.”

Dimitri’s gaze on me heats my skin from the inside out, and I want nothing more than to curl up in his lap and luxuriate in his warmth. But I don’t deserve that. Not until I help him find whoever sent Millie and me to him, and hopefully find Millie—alive or dead. At this point, any answer is better than this endless uncertainty.

Last night made me realize Dimitri might never let me go—and I don’t want him to. But we can’t stay stuck at this impasse forever. I want things to stabilize between us without my past mistakes hanging over our heads.

That’s assuming he still wants me after what I’m about to tell him.

“Before I start, please know Arie is innocent. She doesn’t know anything about this, and she never helped me in any way.”

Dimitri frowns, but it’s Noah who asks, “What does Arie have to do with this?”

I glance at him, still standing near the door. “Because I knew her before I met her here. Not well.” I hurry to clarify before either of them jumps to the wrong conclusion. “We saw each other in passing. Acquaintances—no, not even that. More like colleagues.”

“Arie didn’t work at St. Mark’s Medical Center when you were there,” Dimitri says. “She’s never worked there.”

“I’m not talking about St. Mark’s. There’s a hospital… well, more like a small clinic in Brooklyn. Dr. Lenz’s consultation room.”

“You worked at Lenz’s? How the fuck did I miss that?” Noah scowls as he finally moves away from the door, arms folded.

“I only worked there for a few months before everything went to shit. Let me start from the beginning.” I inhale again, trying to steady myself. “My best friend, Millie, and I had just started our preceptorship, which meant we had to give up our part-time jobs, because the internship was so demanding. The only free time we had was in the evenings and overnight, and there aren’t exactly a lot of overnight shifts waiting around for student nurses.”

“And Lenz took in two inexperienced students?” Dimitri’s quiet question grabs my attention.

“I wouldn’t say we were inexperienced,” I answer slowly. “Even before we went to nursing school, Millie and I were basically nurses for the other kids in the group home. So nursing kinda made sense.”

“And? What does this have to do with why you came after Dimitri?”