Page 54 of The Beast's Broken Angel
“What security footage?” Noah twisted in the chair, trying to look at me despite the restraints. “I was never in your office. I was treating Dominic in the medical bay while you were at the club. Check the bloody timestamps!”
The suggestion was exactly what I'd been waiting for—concrete evidence that would prove his innocence beyond any doubt Harrison might plant. But I couldn't appear too eager to verify his alibi.
“Who else knew about your sister's condition?” I asked instead, changing tactics. “Your financial situation? Who might use those vulnerabilities against someone desperate enough to do anything for family?”
Noah's expression shifted from defensive anger to something more contemplative. “Hospital administration had the full picture. Dr. Whitman knew about the treatment costs. Insurance companies.” He paused, considering. “And Harrison. You said he handles intelligence gathering for major decisions - he would have researched my background thoroughly before you made your offer.
The observation hung in the air between us, loaded with implications neither of us could voice directly. If Harrison had researched Noah's vulnerabilities during his background check, if he'd been positioning himself to exploit them from the very beginning, it suggested a level of premeditation that went far beyond opportunistic betrayal.
“Your training,” I pressed, letting the blade rest against his shoulder. “Trauma nurses receive instruction beyond standardmedical care. Tactical assessment, threat evaluation, intelligence gathering techniques disguised as patient care.”
“I'm not fucking military!” Noah exploded, straining against the restraints with renewed fury. “I've never served a day in my life! I'm a trauma nurse who grew up in Brixton and learned to fight because I had to!”
The outburst felt genuine, raw with authentic frustration. No professional operative would lose control so completely, would reveal such unguarded emotion. Unless the breakdown itself was calculated.
But I knew it wasn't. Knew Noah was innocent, knew Harrison was playing me with surgical precision. The question was how to expose the truth without tipping my hand too early.
I triggered the wall screen, displaying the security footage Harrison had provided. The figure moved through Ravenswood's corridors with apparent familiarity, navigating toward my private study during the club attack.
“Explain this,” I commanded, though I'd already spotted the inconsistencies that proved the footage was manipulated.
Noah studied the images with clinical attention, his medical training engaging despite the circumstances. “That's not me,” he said with growing certainty. “The height's wrong. Body mechanics are different. Compare the gait pattern—that figure's at least six inches taller than I am.”
The observation was accurate, confirming what I'd already noticed but Harrison had dismissed as irrelevant. The figure moved with different rhythm and posture, carried weight differently, existed in different space than Noah's actual body.
“Facial recognition confirmed identity,” I countered, displaying the technical analysis that had to be fabricated. “Biometric markers matched with ninety-seven percent accuracy.”
“Then someone fed the system corrupted data,” Noah shot back. “Or overlaid my face onto differentfootage. Christ, Adrian, you can do that with smartphone apps these days! When did you start trusting computers over your own instincts?”
The question hit harder than intended because my instincts had been screaming Harrison's accusations were bollocks from the moment he'd presented them. Every interaction with Noah contradicted the profile of a traitor selling information for money.
“The medical bay has security cameras,” I said abruptly. “Every treatment and interaction is captured on video.”
Noah nodded eagerly. “Check the timestamps! Cross-reference them with your supposed footage of me ransacking your office! I was treating Dominic's chest trauma while someone else was allegedly stealing your secrets!”
I called for Viktor through the intercom, requesting medical bay footage from the night of the attack. The wait stretched interminably while he retrieved the files, tension crackling between Noah and me like electricity before a storm.
When the footage finally appeared on screen, it told exactly the story I'd expected. Noah in surgical scrubs, hands deep in Dominic's chest cavity, working with focused intensity to repair arterial damage.
The alleged security footage of him ransacking my office had been recorded during the middle of the operation, making his presence in two places simultaneously physically impossible.
“Well?” Noah's voice carried vindication mixed with righteous anger. “Satisfied that I'm not a fucking time traveler?”
I cut his restraints with the blade I'd been holding, leather falling away to reveal angry red marks where he'd struggled against the bonds. “I'm satisfied,” I said quietly.
“Then why the performance?” he demanded,rubbing circulation back into his wrists. “You knew this was bollocks before you had me dragged down here.”
“Because Harrison has eyes everywhere,” I replied, indicating the observation window. “And he needed to believe his accusations were working. That I was torn between trusting him and trusting you.”
Understanding dawned across Noah's features, followed quickly by cold fury. “He set me up. Fabricated evidence to make me look like the leak while covering his own tracks.”
“Classic misdirection,” I confirmed. “Frame the innocent party while positioning himself as the loyal advisor who uncovered the betrayal. He's been planning this for years, waiting for the right moment to strike.”
“So what's his endgame?” Noah asked, his healer's instincts apparently forgotten in favor of something darker.
“Control of family assets,” I said simply. “My death would trigger succession protocols that put him in charge of liquid assets while inheritance gets sorted through probate. Enough money to buy small countries.”
Noah absorbed this with clinical assessment. “And he thought framing me would remove a potential obstacle while solidifying your trust in him.”
