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“If you’re asking for a reimbursement, you can go to hell,” I growl.
She swallows, her throat bobbing against my palm. “I’m just telling you that I… I took care of him. I took care of him, and doing that for someone changes things. He was so helpless. So tiny. I didn’t—I couldn’t—”
Her voice cracks, and I think it’s real. Piper said Noelle didn’t regret anything, but I see the hint of it now. I repeat her own words back to her. “It’s too late for regrets.”
She clears her throat and gathers herself. “I tried to get away. I know you think I’m some monster, but I had doubts about what I was doing. I wanted to bring Benjamin back to you, but Kreshnik was watching the safehouse. The moment I left, he tracked me down. He—he ripped Benjamin from my arms.”
My hands are shaking with the desire to clench into fists. I let go of Noelle’s throat so I don’t accidentally strangle her. “Why didn’t he kill you?”
“I told him it was a misunderstanding. I told him I wasn’t trying to escape. And he believed me.”
I arch a brow. “I don’t know if you’ve looked in a mirror, but it doesn’t look like he believed you. He broke your face.”
She brings a hand to the bridge of her nose and touches it gingerly. “Yeah. Well, he wanted to make sure I understood what would happen if I did ever betray him. The black eyes and broken nose were just a taste, apparently.”
I shake my head. “Again, why not kill you?”
“I didn’t feel the need to question my good fortune. I was just happy to be alive.”
“Did he tell you what he was going to do with Benjamin?”
“No. And I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to know.”
“But you think he’s dead?” I ask.
She looks up at me with wide eyes. “Don’t you?”
I do. Or, I did.
Suddenly, I’m not sure.
Kreshnik should have killed Noelle. That’s what I would have expected. But he kept her alive.
Why?
I seriously consider the question for a few seconds before the answer slaps me in the face.
“You’re the distraction.” I pound my fist on the floor next to Noelle’s head. She shrinks away from my fury. “He left you alive to distract me. To divide my focus. Fucking—Fuck!”
“Let me live, and I won’t be a distraction anymore,” she blurts. “Let me live, and I’ll… I’ll tell you what I know!”
I narrow my eyes. “We just played that game. Were you telling me the truth or—?”
“I was! I was telling the truth, but I know more. While I was at the safehouse, I met one of the guards. He and I—well, we became close. I wanted a second source of information, so I—”
“You fucked him.” I circle my hand in the air to encourage her to spit it out already. “I get it. What about him?”
Her face is flushed with embarrassment. “Well, he told me that Kreshnik was going to embarrass you in every way imaginable. The airport was one stunt, but he wants you to be left with nothing. No heir, no Bratva, and no company. He said Kreshnik was planning to crash a party you were throwing with your—”
“The gala.”
I grab the gun from the floor and stand up. Noelle scrambles into a seated position. “Are you going to kill me?”
The gun is in my hand. It would be simple. One shot and she’d be done.
But when I look down at Noelle, all I see is Piper.
I curse under my breath and jab a finger in her direction. “I don’t want to see you again. Ever. Don’t darken my doorstep, don’t speak to Piper. I don’t even want to hear your name for as long as I live. You disappear and you stay the fuck away from my family. Do you understand?”
