Page 49 of Devil's Retribution

“And if he goes after you legally?”

I scoffed at the irony of that. “If he goes after me legally, he’ll have a lot of explaining to do when I prove he stole my inheritance. I don’t even think he’ll bother with that.”

“Take his money. Force his return. Anything else?”

I showed him the boxes of pills and creams. “Prescriptions. Several of them are crucial to his continued good health. He has a heart condition apparently. He never told me, of course.” Every day that passed I seemed to learn another secret he had kept from me.

I wanted to punish him for it. I wanted to make my uncle know what it felt like to suddenly, without any warning, lose everything.

“So. Trace his medications, find a way to stop them if we can.”

“Or find out where and when he picks them up and be there. My uncle is a paranoid bastard, and he’s not going to let anyone else pick up his meds. There’s only a window of a week to pick up most prescriptions in pharmacies, and nowhere in the Caribbean is likely to have home delivery available. Especially not to a yacht.”

He burst out laughing, shocking me—and shocked me even more when he started clapping his hands. “Hah! My God, you’re brilliant at this.”

I blushed again. “I mean, it’s not that difficult to see where his points of contact—”

He put a finger over my lips. “Take the compliment, Emma. Most people would not even think of such things.”

He was so close to me right now that I could feel his warm breath on my face. I was flustered. He had to be flattering me. There was no way he could be that impressed with a simple deduction.

Was there?

He took his finger from my lips and I blinked up at him, stunned into silence not just by his reaction but by his nearness. He smiled down at me—and then leaned down and kissed me.

It was light, sweet, almost tender—but intensified suddenly as I returned it. My whole body seemed to float off the ground as his arms slipped around me. My hands were on his chest, and I could feel his heartbeat pick up as he stole my breath.

“Are you guys kissing?”

Oops, Nick was up.

Viktor didn’t show even a bit of embarrassment, breaking the kiss gently and then looking over with a smile as I struggled to catch my breath. “Yes, yes we are. Does it bother you?”

Nick screwed up his face thoughtfully. “I guess it’s okay if you’re not mean. But if you’re mean, you’re gonna have to go away.”

The irony of the situation made me a little dizzy—and so did that kiss. I looked between them, still trying to figure out what to say.

“I promise I won’t be mean,” Viktor said with amused warmth.

Nick smiled. “Okay then.” He peered at the stack of paperwork and the two packages. “What are all those bottles?”

Viktor and I reluctantly stepped away from each other. “Uncle Charles’s medicine for his heart. They got sent here.”

Nick’s smile faded a little. “Is that why he’s turned so mean? Cause his heart is sick?”

“No, he just decided to be mean. The heart stuff is just illnesses.”

“How’s he gonna get better without them, though?”

I hope the bastard never gets better. I hope this heart thing kills him. But there was no way I could say that to Nick.

“He’s rich. He can pick more up wherever he is.” Until we found a way to interfere with it, of course. Or take advantage. Either way, I was not exactly feeling bad that he would spend the next week or so feeling lousy until he could clear things up.

“Okay. I wish the pills would stop what’s making him mean too.” He looked a little regretful. I could understand why. He was young and innocent. I wasn’t, and even I had a part of me that wished that this was temporary, not really my uncle’s actions—that one day soon he’d turn back into the man I thought I knew.

But I was an adult and had to stick to reality.

“They don’t have pills for that,” I said almost apologetically. “I wish they did too.”