Page 103 of The Scarab's Game

He’s not Enzo. Calm the fuck down.

I dug a hand into my pocket, gripping my poker chip and tensing to hide any shudder. With my other hand, I gestured for Jenn to stay put. She couldn’t get caught in whatever game Noah was playing.

“She looks different than I remember,” Noah said as he reached me, inclining his head toward Jenn. “Don’t tell me you two finally hooked up?”

The auctioneer started bidding for the scarab at two million, and I raised a hand, partly to bid and partly to keep Noah at arm’s length.

“As if you don’t know why she’s here,” I said.

Noah cocked his head, settling in beside me as I split my attention between the auction and him. “Initially, I assumed it was because she was working with you, but obviously not.”

Scarlett hissed over the earpiece, her voice full of venom. “Tell that jackass?—”

“Scarlett, please,” I muttered, cutting her off. The last thing I needed was her distracting me, too.

The Nigerian businessman raised his hand, outbidding me. Probably just to be a pain in my ass.

“Is Scarlett in town with you?” Noah asked, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. “Tell her and her new little boy toy I say hello.”

At least Scarlett didn’t respond to that. And neither did Malcolm, the ‘boy toy’ in question.

I ran my fingernail around the edge of the chip. “What do you want?”

Noah raised his glass to his mouth, hiding his words. “What I wantedtwo months agowas for your team to grab the scarab. You’re so late it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Why?”

“My team’s getting too cocky.” Noah sipped the champagne, his eyes glued to the front of the room—but I knew him well enough. He was watching everything. “They need to be reined in.”

Anger flared in my chest. It was clear Noah was manipulating the Reynolds team into doing his dirty work, which was precisely what I’d told Scarlett was going on. I clenched my fist, the poker chip digging into my palm.

“I hadn’t expected you to come now, though,” Noah continued, his tone casual. “You really should cut your losses and go.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Afraid we’ll mess with your grand schemes?”

“Afraid?” Noah chuckled—the sound grating on my nerves. “You haven’t stopped us from securing anything we’ve wanted. Sure, you’ve had some of our team members arrested, but none of them were critical to our end goals.” He took another sip as I raised my bid. “You’re little more than an irritating fly. We have loftier goals than you can understand.”

I kept my face neutral—he was feeding me intel, but what exactly? “So, why are you here talking to me?”

Noah shrugged. “Not everyone in our organization realizes this truth. You should be grateful our lines of communication are so poor. Enzo was certain the pretty restorer Dante brought in from Nice was an undercover operative.”

My heart skipped a beat. That explained it. “The break-in at her hotel?”

“He thought she was seducing Dante in order to uncover Massimo’s secrets. If he’d found out she was working with you?—”

“She’s not working with us.” My words had come too quickly, betraying how much his presence got under my skin.

“Let me rephrase.” Noah frowned slightly. “If he’d found her link to Reynolds, she would have been in a lot of trouble. Fortunately for her, he didn’t find any damning information in her bags, and she miraculously switched to another room shortly thereafter. Be happy he got bored pursuing her.”

Happy? If Enzo had found out where she was staying, that would have led him straight to me. A knot tightened in my gut, and I fought to relax my muscles. I couldn’t let Noah see that reaction. I raised the bid again, trying to focus on the auction. We were up to three and a half million euros. I only had half a million left to grab it legally.

Noah continued, “Although if Enzo or Massimo had bothered to tell me her name or that a Stone was poking his nose around, I would have figured it out before five minutes ago.”

“You gave us the tip about the scarab. Don’t tell me you would have scared us off the job?”

“I would have scared you out of Monaco altogether.”

“Why?”

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