Page 107 of The Devil's Thorn
“Wait—what?”
“Vitamin,” I say dryly. “Dropped it in my drink. Watched me swallow it, then told me I’d been poisoned.”
There’s silence on the line.
Then— “You’re joking.”
“No.”
“And you didn’t kill her?”
“I was too impressed.”
“Impressed?” Nikolai scoffs. “You’ve finally lost your mind.”
“Maybe,” I admit. “But she pulled it off clean. Didn’t flinch. Eyes steady the whole time. She wastestingme, Nik.”
“And you just let her?”
“I said I wasimpressed,not stupid.”
“So what’d you do?”
I take another drag of the cigarette, the smoke curling from my mouth in a slow exhale. “I gave her a taste of her own game. Slipped a pill in her drink. She’s asleep now.”
“And you’re calling me why? So I can applaud you for playing house with a psychopath?”
“No,” I say, smiling faintly. “Because I want you to hear this from me first.”
“Hearwhat?”
“She’s the most dangerous fucking woman I’ve met in years. And I’m not letting her walk away.”
Nikolai’s quiet again. This time longer.
“You’re serious.”
“Dead.”
“She could be playing all of us. Lying about everything. You know that.”
“Sheisplaying us. And sheislying. But not about everything.”
“You’re betting on a gut feeling?”
“I’m betting on the look in her eyes when she held a blade to Alessio’s ego and smiled like she already won.”
“You’re betting on a woman with secrets we can’t trace.”
“Exactly.”
There’s another pause.
Then I hear him sigh through the receiver. “You’ve always had a thing for broken things.”
“No,” I murmur, my eyes back on her sleeping form. “I have a thing for people who know how to wield their damage.”
“So what now?”
