“Love. Trust. Things I never felt with you.”

Vanessa, who had moved closer than he ever wanted her to be again, shifted back. The color in her face drained.

“You just said—”

Blake removed his glasses, let the tightness in his jaw show as his eyes narrowed to daggers. By Vanessa’s expression, she felt them deep into her core.

“We’ve named you Viper. Do you know that, Vanessa?”

“What?”

“Your venom has poisoned enough. Did you really think you’d get away with it? Right now, in your condo, the police have searched and found everything they need.”

Vanessa started to edge back. Her stiletto heels caught and she nearly fell. As she righted herself, her eyes turned to pure hatred. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think you do.”

Blake noticed a black and white pull up along the sidewalk.

Vanessa’s eyes shot to the police and back to him.

“I did nothing illegal.”

She’d hired people to do her dirty work. The man posing as a worker to plant cameras in Samantha’s apartment. Taking illicit photos of him and his wife. He’d find whatever legal means he could to make her pay. “We’ll let the courts decide that.” She might not spend years behind bars, but Blake wanted every man who crossed the Viper’s path to know what kind of snake she was.

****

Eliza had pushed her boyfriend out the door when she’d found him snooping through her files about the new female clients she’d rounded up for Alliance. That left room in Eliza’s apartment for two brooding women who needed to spend their time discussing the merits, or lack thereof, of men.

Unlike any other time, Samantha wasn’t able to do anything more than eat, sleep, and stare out into the courtyard and watch people walk by.

The first night back in California, she’d shifted a cot next to Jordan’s bed in her room and did her best to sleep.

She’d screwed things up. She’d have the money to take care of her sister. But in the end, Samantha had a new responsibility. A child would come into this world, born of a selfish, domineering father and a mercenary mother.

What a pathetic pair they were.

And all for what?

Samantha could have made things work, could have managed to take care of Jordan without Blake’s millions. But the simple way was to take his offer and color her life easier.

The bone-deep pain inside her chest simply didn’t let up. At one point, she considered calling her doctor, thinking something must be wrong, but then she realized a broken heart held physical pain to the degree she hadn’t felt since her mother’s death.

Three days after her arrival home, Eliza had left Samantha alone to brood in peace.

When a knock sounded on the front door, she stared at it. She wasn’t expecting anyone so she continued to sit on the couch without moving. The knocking continued until she forced herself to her feet.

Although she expected Blake at some point, seeing him standing in a worn shirt, faded tan slacks, and a five o’clock shadow cut open a weeping wound.

“What are you doing here, Blake?”

“We need to talk.”

The tears were all dried up, and she refused to give their child any more stress than it had already been given.

“I don’t have anything more to say.”

As she started to shut the door, Blake’s foot stepped over the threshold, stopping it. “I love you.”

Samantha’s hand hovered in the air. She shut her eyes against the pain his words evoked. Another day, another time, she’d have thrown herself in his arms with his confession, now they came too late.

Even if he did love her, it didn’t change a thing.

“Did you hear me?”

“Why are you doing this to me?” The pain in her chest started to swell. Her breath caught and threatened to choke the air clogging into her lungs.

“Five minutes, Samantha. Give me five minutes. Please.”

Had she ever heard Blake beg for anything?

She opened the door wider, and accepted his presence in the room.

He handed her a paper. “Look at page three.”

“What is it?”

“Just look.”

Samantha tipped the pages to where he directed and noticed a picture of the Viper and another unidentified woman being escorted into a police station. “What is this?”

“Vanessa used her friend at my father’s lawyer’s office to obtain confidential files regarding the will.”

Which explained why the woman knew about the will and Samantha was left in the dark.

“So?”

“I found the condoms, Samantha. All of them.”

Samantha shook her head and lifted her uncertain eyes to Blake’s. “All of them?”

“Vanessa wanted to trap me into marriage. She knew I needed an heir before I did. She concocted a story about a latex allergy and supplied me with condoms. I had no idea she’d altered every one of them. She went so far as to open the boxes and glue them back together.”

Blake was standing closer now, his hands reached out to take hers. As the shock of his words washed over her, Samantha stared absently at his chest.

“Vanessa poked holes in the condoms?”

“It wasn’t me.”

Her mind clogged with the new information. Samantha backed away, dislodging her hands from Blake’s and sat on the sofa. The picture of Vanessa surrounded by the police solidified Sam’s belief that the woman was a snake.

“The police found files on Vanessa’s computer, video files, of us.”

The woman was sick. Blake was lucky to escape her clutches. But her actions didn’t excuse his. “Why didn’t you tell me about the will?”