Page 122 of The Scarab's Game

If only I could have borrowed some of his certainty. Why was he so sure of Emmett when I wasn’t? I was the one who’d slept in his arms, made love to him, told him how much I wanted him. I was the one who’d been in love with that liar since the tenth grade. “Why do you want it so badly, anyway?”

“He genuinely didn’t explain things to you, did he?” Noah sighed as he sat next to me. “I work for a man with… vision.” His gaze drifted to the stars, an unsettling smile playing on his lips. “The disc is part of a set of ancient artifacts that, when combined, will change the world.”

“Into what? Billions of crazy kidnappers?”

Noah extended his arm along the back of the bench and stretched out his legs, as if we were old friends catching up. “A cure to disease.”

“Which disease?”

He swept a hand across the sky, his voice filled with awe. “All of them. Everything.”

I followed his gaze upward, searching the constellations as if they held some answer. Was ‘all of them’ supposed to include a cure for whatever insanity had overtaken Noah?

“I tried telling Scarlett about this,” Noah said, his voice softer now. “But my teammates didn’t treat her well.”

My stomach lurched at the implication. If they didn’t treat his former fiancée well, what did that mean for me?

Noah rolled his head toward me and said, as if reading my thoughts, “No one hurt her.”

My imagination churned with nightmares of Emmett, beaten after his kidnapping. How bad had it been that he still had nightmares? Still slept with a gun under his pillow?

Oh, god. If they didn’t bring the disc, would Noah, Enzo, and whoever was aboard the yacht hurt me to get it? Spots crowded my vision.Stop breathing so hard.

“And no one’s going to hurt you,” Noah added quickly. “I’m sure Scarlett was coordinating the op from HQ.”

“HQ?” I echoed, swallowing the bile from my throat.

“The office in Halifax. I’m certain she’s not in Monaco. Which means she was on the line and no doubt told the team your safety comes first.”

I blinked, trying to process everything. “She’s in charge?”

“When do you remember hernotbeing in charge?”

The question hung in the air, unanswered, as the boat slowed and Enzo’s voice cut through the night. “Open the garage door.”

Ahead of us, the back of the yacht lifted, creating a space large enough to swallow our small boat whole. Terror screamed through my limbs, leaving me paralyzed. Once we were inside, I’d be trapped in the middle of this shitty situation with no way out.

“How does this work?” I asked, my voice trembling despite my best efforts to keep it steady. “They sail up to the yacht, toss over the disc, and you… what? Throw me overboard?”

“We’ll be more humane than that.” Noah’s lips quirked into a humorless smile. “The last thing we want is a firefight. We only want the disc.”

“And what do you do when you get it?” I pressed, desperate for any information to help me understand—or escape—this nightmare.

“Sail away, like we’d planned to all along.” Noah waved a hand dismissively. “All the Reynolds team accomplished was slowing us down by an hour.”

I clenched my back teeth to stop them from chattering as our boat glided into its designated spot. My eyes darted around, taking in two armed men patrolling the upper deck with scary-looking rifles. This was real. This was happening.

“Where are you going?” I asked, hating how small my voice sounded.

Noah stood, tsking softly as the boat settled into place. He held out a hand to help me up, but I couldn’t bring myself to move. “We’re going to visit our boss. And as pleasant as it was to see you again after all this time, I’m not divulging where he is.”

I remained frozen in place, my body refusing to cooperate.

Noah leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper that shot ice through my veins. “Don’t make me pick you up again.”

Bile rose in my throat again, but I managed a weak nod and forced myself to stand on shaky legs. As Noah helped me from the small boat onto the platform, a familiar voice cut through the air.

“This has been a disaster,” Massimo drawled, as though adisasterwere no more than an inconvenience.

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