“He confirmed that he’s the one who’s been attacking me. He put the snakes in my bed, shot me, poisoned me, nearly ran me over, and dropped a bear trap in my yard.” She’d forgotten a few assassination attempts, but Grigoris could give them the full list once she left.
“He said he hurt me…” Nikolett’s throat closed with tears. She swallowed hard several times. Everyone was looking at her with soft pity, and she desperately wanted them to stop. Wasn’t it enough that she was about to lose the man she loved? The pity of her peers was salt in all her many wounds.
She got herself under control, speaking in the cold silence. Her voice was strained but the words echoed off the walls.
“He said he hurt me because Eric loved me. It was never about me. It was always about Eric.”
With the last bit of control she had, she turned and slowly walked out of the Great Hall.
Once she hit the stairs, she started to run.
Eric stared at the door Nikolett had disappeared through. There was a buzzing white noise in his brain.
Holding tight to the last shreds of his control, he looked around the table.
“Find him.” Eric’s voice came out as a low, terrifying snarl. He couldn’t have changed that even if he wanted to. “He’s still on this island. Find him and bring him to me.”
Everyone was staring at him except Grigoris, who glanced down at something on his lap.
“I don’t care who he is or what I did to him. He hurt Nikolett. He probably crashed that plane.” The official reason for the crash hadn’t yet been determined, and given Gus had been both on the plane and chained up, it was hard to imagine how he could be responsible. He couldn’t have contacted any of his people, let alone done something himself. And yet…
Despite monumental amounts of searching for the Spaniard and background checking Angus McAngus, they knew basically nothing about him. Because of that, no one was willing to definitively say he wasn’t to blame.
“You think you’re smarter than him?” Eric looked around. Every person at this table was brilliant. “You’re not. He’s smarter than any one of us. Nikolett and I were ready to make him a member and then make him our third.”
Surprise rippled around the table.
“I may be stupid but she’s not.” He pointed to Nikolett’s empty chair. “Assume he’s the smartest, most dangerous enemy we’ve ever gone up against, because he is, and act accordingly.”
Eric looked around one last time. “Find him. Now.”
Then he left, a quiet rage boiling in him as he followed Nikolett.
Not at Gus—though he would kill the man when they eventually got him.
No, he was pissed at Nikolett.
He stalked up the stairs, steps slow and measured. He didn’t even question where she’d gone. She’d gone to his apartment. Their apartment. The place that might have been, might still be, their home.
She was exactly where he’d expected her to be—in his bedroom.
And she was packing.
She’d refused to keep wearing the brace now that she had both glue and stitches holding the wound closed. Stretching that arm and twisting made her wince, so her packing was slow and careful, mostly one-handed.
She didn’t look up, though he knew she’d heard him approach.
Eric folded his arms and leaned against the door.
“I’ll move to one of the guest rooms,” she said as she packed the last item into her bag.
“The fuck you will.”
Nikolett jerked, finally raising her head and looking at him. “Excuse me?”
“Who’s the coward now, Nikolett?”
She blinked.
