I know who he means. “She stays close.”
“That won’t go unnoticed.”
“No.”
He waits. “There’s one more possibility.”
I look at him. “Say it.”
He doesn’t hesitate. “She arrived last minute,” he says. “No one vetted her properly. She has access to staff routes, schedules, food service, room assignments. She knows where people are supposed to be and when. And she’s close enough to you now that no one would question her moving in and out of places they should.”
I stare at him.
He keeps going, because Yuri has never confused loyalty with comfort. “You asked for possibilities. I’m giving you one.”
“No.”
Yuri takes that without flinching. “Based on what?”
I step toward him. “Based on my judgment.”
“Based on your cock,” he says flatly.
“You are out of line.”
“Maybe,” he says. “But I’m not wrong to raise it.”
I hold his gaze.
He knows exactly what he’s doing. Forcing me to separate instinct from fact. Forcing me to admit that wanting her safe is not the same thing as knowing she is.
“She was in the open all morning,” I say. “In front of everyone.”
“That proves nothing.”
“She had no reason to poison breakfast.”
“You don’t know what reason she has,” Yuri says. “You know what she’s told you. There’s a difference.”
I say nothing.
That, of course, is the problem. He sees it.
“She appears out of nowhere,” he says more quietly. “At your son’s wedding. Pregnant. Attached to old history with Ethan she won’t explain. In your bed within a day. And now we have one woman in the hospital and a firing position in the hedge.”
“She is not capable of this,” I say.
Yuri lifts a brow. “You know her that well?”
Yes, some ugly possessive part of me answers.
No, the rest of me knows better.
I drag a hand over my mouth and look back at the house.
I think of Sienna asleep in my room. Of the bruises on her wrist. Of the way she looked at the breakfast table when the girl went down. Of the fear in her face when she realized I was asking about the child. Of the fact that she still has secrets and I still don’t know how many.
“She’s frightened,” I say.
