Page 92 of Promises in the Dark

I nearly choked on my own spit, my eyes bulging out of my skull, totally caught off guard by her blatant compliment. “Well, shit,” I replied, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Glad someone finally noticed.”

“Don’t get too cocky,” she replied, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “It’s just an observation.”

I shrugged, trying to play it cool even as my heart hammered a frantic rhythm in my chest. “Well, I’ll take that as acompliment,” I replied, feeling my face heat up with a blush that would put a fucking tomato to shame.

Once I was decent, or as decent as I ever got, I turned back to face her, crossing my arms over my chest in a poor attempt at nonchalance.

“Well?” I prodded, trying to ignore the warmth that was creeping into my cheeks despite my best efforts. “Don’t leave me hanging here.”

Red’s expression did a complete one-eighty, shifting quicker than a chameleon on speed. She went from zero to concerned in about two seconds flat. And knowing her, it was probably bad news.

She hesitated for a moment, gnawing on her bottom lip like she was trying to find the right words.

“It’s about Viper,” she began, her voice all low and serious, like she was about to deliver the sermon of the century. “He’s stable now, but there’s something you need to know.”

I let out a heavy sigh, running a hand through my hair in frustration. Just what I needed—more drama to deal with.

I bent down and grabbed the towel from the floor, tossing it carelessly onto a nearby chair as I reached for a pair of pants.

“Alright,” I grunted, making a huge effort to ignore the way Red’s eyes scanned me like she was trying to solve the mysteries of the universe with nothing but a calculator and a prayer. “Lay it on me. What happened?”

I pulled on the pants with hands that that felt numb and clumsy and I motioned for for her to sit her ass down. Red perched on the edge of the bed like it was about to bite her.

“They found something in his system,” she said quietly.

I joined her, a chill creeping up my spine like icy fingers. “And?” I prompted, impatient as hell, glaring at her like I could force the rest of the information out of her mouth.

She swallowed hard, her gaze dropping to her hands in her lap. “Heparin,” she answered, her words slow and careful like she was trying to break it to a child.

I furrowed my brow, the name sounding vaguely familiar but not ringing any bells. “Heparin?” I repeated, my mind racing to catch up. “What the hell is that?”

Red took a deep breath, her shoulders slumping as she was preparing to drop a bomb.

“It’s an anticoagulant,” she explained, her voice all clinical and shit. “Thins the blood, prevents clotting. But it can cause hemorrhage if it’s not administered properly. Which is exactly what happened with Viper.”

This made zero fucking sense.

I stared at Red, her face a damn stone wall, as if she was hiding a vault of secrets behind those pretty eyes.

“What about the TXA?” I interrupted, cutting straight to the chase. “Did that even make a difference?”

Her face fell and she shook her head. “None of it showed up on Viper’s medical tests,” she said, her frustration bleeding through loud and clear. “It’s like we never even injected him in the first place.”

My gut clenched tighter than a nun’s thighs in church. So not only did Viper get pumped full of God-knows-what, but now half of it’s gone missing like it never even existed.

Great.

I needed a smoke to calm my nerves before I blew a gasket.

I gritted my teeth, trying to keep my cool as I reach behind her towards the nightstand. My fingers wrap around the pack like it was the last piece of my sanity. I lit one up, sucking in a lungful of smoke as I tried to shut out the noise in my head telling me everything was royally fucked.

Red was staring at me, her silence speaking volumes as she watched me smoke like a chimney. I knew what she was thinking—she probably believed I fucked up with the vials, like I was some kind of amateur who couldn’t tell the difference between meds.

I vividly remembered grabbing that vial, checking the label like my life depended on it, and it damn well said TXA, not Heparin.

I wasn’t some incompetent jackass who couldn’t tell his ass from his elbow. So, either the tests were shit, or someone swapped the vials.

I took another drag, trying to gather what was left of my balls.

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