Page 91 of Viper’s Reign

“She’s trying to tell us about the person who sent her, Noah. Stop being obtuse and keep quiet if you have nothing useful to contribute.”

Dimitri’s words are toneless, but I still give him a grateful smile for being on my side. “After a few weeks at the clinic, someone approached us. An agency. Their job was to connect nurses with concerned families and friends of patients who’d given up on life because they believed the treatments for their illness weren’t working.” I pause, my throat tightening. “The families or friends would give nurses medications still in clinical trials to administer to these patients in secret. Either the patients survived… or they didn’t. But they believed it was better than standing by and doing nothing.”

“And you didn’t stop to consider the ethics? The reason those medications aren’t FDA-approved?”

“Noah.” Dimitri’s warning is sharp.

“Well, I didn’t—because I wasn’t interested in the job.” I meet Noah’s eyes. “But when you’re starving and someone hands you food, do you stop to wonder whether it came from a clean kitchen?” I do my best to keep my voice even despite the anger simmering beneath it. “People who work at Dr. Lenz’s don’t do it because they want to. They do it because they have to. Do you have any idea what kind of patients we treated? We were barely scraping by ourselves. So when little side jobs like that come along, most people don’t have the luxury of questioning it.”

By the time I finish, my voice has risen anyway. I squeeze my eyes shut for a second and draw a slow, steadying breath.

There’s no point in getting mad at him. He wouldn’t understand anyway.

“If you’re going to judge, maybe you shouldn’t be here after all,” I say, a little calmer. I don’t expect an apology, and I don’t get one. But some of the hardness leaves Noah’s face, and that’s enough for me to continue.

“When the agency approached us, I refused, but Millie… she thought it was noble. The idea of saving someone who’d already given up on life excited her. She wanted to be a hero in someone else’s story.” I swallow, remembering the bright smile that lit up her face whenever she talked about it. “But something must have happened. She wouldn’t tell me what it was, but it had to have been really bad.”

She barely left her room for weeks. And when she finally did, she was closed off, harder… more selfish. She told me, “Grace, I don’t care what this medication does anymore, not as long as I get paid. You should stop caring too. We need to start putting ourselves first, because no one else will.”

“It was like a little bit of her light had died, but she kept working with the agency. And then she got a new client. The person’s target was you.” Dimitri’s expression gives me nothing.

“Millie tried to convince me to take the job—she’d been pushing me toward the agency for a while. I said no, and she accepted it. But she couldn’t get close to you. You didn’t give her the chance.”

For some reason, this makes his lips curl up in a ghost of a smile.

“She tried one last time to convince me to take over for her, but I still said no. I really wasn’t interested in that kind of job. Then one night, while I was walking home from the medical center, someone dragged me into an alley and…” I trail off, chest aching as I recall that night.

I clear my throat. “He showed me a video of Millie… bruised and tied up. Apparently, she’d already been paid for the job, and he wasn’t interested in refunds. He told me either I took over and gave you the medication, or she died. And after Millie, I would be next. I didn’t see any other choice, so I agreed.” I finish quietly, lowering my head in shame.

The silence that follows stretches long enough that I finally make myself look up at Dimitri. Is that tenderness in his eyes? For me? Then he glances away, the expression clearing from his face.

“You said you’d recognize the man who approached you. Would you be willing to look through some photos to see if you can identify him?”

“Of course. Whatever helps find her.”

Dimitri nods. “We’ll do our best to find your friend and bring her back to you.” Relief rushes through me, and I sink into the chair. He’s going to find Millie. Maybe I should have told him everything from the beginning. But there was simply no way to know if I could have trusted him.

What if he hadn’t reacted like this back then? Maybe he’s only reacting this way now because he’s grown to like me… I push the thought out of my head, refusing to indulge the fantasy. Projecting my own feelings onto him won’t change reality.

He gets to his feet, typing into his phone as he walks toward me. Surprisingly, he comes to a stop in front of me and lowers himself into a crouch until we’re almost eye level.

His hand settles gently over my clenched fists. “Look through the photos and tell me which one it is.” Carefully, he coaxes my fingers open and places the phone in my hand. The tenderness of the gesture makes my breath catch. My throat tightens, and all I can manage in response is a nod.

37

DIMITRI

My left hand remains over hers as I unlock my phone and look up pictures of my suspects online—I don’t have them conveniently saved, so I search as I go. Daniel’s picture comes up first, and she shakes her head. I didn’t expect it to be him anyway.

If he is behind this—and I still believe he is—he wouldn’t have shown himself to her. With the way his face has been splashed all over the news the past few months, she would have recognized him in an instant. No, he would’ve sent someone else to do his dirty work while keeping his own identity protected.

Noah steps closer, stopping behind me. The hostility he greeted Grace with has faded, replaced by a more thoughtful approach. “Show her a picture of Vincenzo Marino.”

I glance back at him, surprised. Vincenzo has never registered as a threat—if anything, several of his own men were taken in the same wave of kidnappings that hit ours, which made him a fellow target in my analysis, not a suspect. Why the fuck would he try to kill me? “Why him?”

Noah shrugs. “No strong reason, but we can’t afford to overlook anyone.”

“Even if Vincenzo is by some chance involved, he wouldn’t risk showing his face to her,” I remind him, though I pull up his picture anyway. Grace shakes her head again.