Page 4 of Tainted Empire

I frown, confusion settling in. “What are you saying, Lee?”

She takes a deep breath, as if bracing herself for what she’s about to say, and I feel a knot tighten in my stomach, sensing that something major is coming.

“Mikhail was drugged,” she finally says, her voice calm but the weight of her words heavy.

My eyes widen in disbelief. “What? How? Why?”

Lee sighs, running a hand through her hair. “PCP. It’s a hallucinogenic drug. Can induce paranoia, delusions, even violent behavior in some,” I feel a chill run down my spine as she continues, “We think it was administered to him at the restaurant. And whoever it was, waited for it to take effect before sending him that video.”

I sit there, frozen, trying to process this new piece of information. It’s too much, too overwhelming.

“Lee, I... I don’t understand,” I stammer, my mind racing– then something hits me.

“The video,” I mutter, remembering his reaction to it, “My hair...it was shorter… I tried to tell Mikhail, tried to explain that I didn’t know Damian took it when we were together, but…”

But he refused to listen to me.

She nods in agreement. “Exactly. That video was old. It was a setup.”

I clutch the sides of the mug, my mind racing. The fragmented pieces are falling into place, but the image they form is dark and complicated.

I blink, trying to make sense of it all. “But why? Why would someone do that?”

“I don’t know yet,” Lee admits, frustration evident in her voice. “But I’m going to find out. And I’m going to make them pay.”

“But Mikhail...” My voice trails off, the image of him pointing the gun at me flashing before my eyes. He was drugged and led to believe I betrayed him… someone knew him well enough to know betrayal is his weak point.

“I know,” Lee says softly, reaching over to place a hand on my knee. “It doesn’t excuse what he did, Gabriette. But it might shed some light on his actions, and help us understand why he lost control like that.”

I nod, the reality of the situation starting to settle in. Mikhail, the man I love, was drugged. He was manipulated, used as a pawn in someone else’s game. And I was the one who paid the price.

But even with this new information, even with the knowledge that he wasn’t in his right mind, the pain, the betrayal, it’s still there. And I don’t know if it’s something I can ever truly move past.

For a moment, we sit in silence, the weight of the revelation settling between us. The lines are blurred, and though the pain remains, it’s now tinged with confusion and a desperate need for answers.

Chapter 4

Mikhail

The moment consciousness creeps back in, I can’t decide if the world has tilted or if it’s just my brain that’s off-kilter. There’s this relentless pounding behind my temples, like a jackhammer going at full tilt.

My eyelids are heavy, like they’re weighted down with bags of sand, and the room is blurring in and out of focus. Confusion seeps through my consciousness as I try to piece together the last fragments of my memory.

A sharp sting on my arm has me turning, and I notice the IV line snaking into my vein, a constant drip of who knows what flowing into my bloodstream.

There’s this clean, biting scent of antiseptic that’s all over the room, slicing through the haze in my head and making my gut roil with unease.

Panic flutters in my chest when I realize that something is terribly wrong, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.

Something’s not right — it’s like a whisper in my mind, a niggling feeling that’s slowly clawing its way to the surface.

I force myself to take deep breaths, to steady the racing of my heart. Shifting a little, seeking out the familiar warmth that’s always beside me. But a cold, hard pit forms in my stomach when I realize her side of the bed is empty.

Where the hell is Gabriette?

Snippets of the previous night slice through the fog in my mind — the heated words, the look of terror in her eyes, the goddamn gun. It’s like a gut punch, and I’m close to retching as the reality of it all starts to settle in.

Jesus, what the hell did I do?

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