The Moment I Realized I Can't Lose You novel Chapter 123

"Audrey..." After the panic subsided, only a few people remained on set. Nora crept over, trembling as she stared at the creature in the bottle. "Are you... not scared of snakes?"

"Why would I be?" Audrey smiled faintly. "It's just another animal on this earth." She flicked the plastic bottle with her finger. Startled, the little snake curled tightly into a defensive ball. "But it shouldn't be in the city. Silveridge isn't a habitat for this venomous species. Someone definitely brought it here." Her brow furrowed. "And it made a beeline straight for me. Someone must have trained it using my scent."

Nora froze, then her eyes blazed with fury. "If that's true, this is attempted murder!" She spun around, ready to storm off. "I'm making Gideon check the security cameras right now!"

"Don't bother," Audrey said calmly, glancing at the dead lenses overhead. "They're all turned off." She had noticed it that morning. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, assuming Gideon hadn't bothered to turn them on since it was their final day of shooting. She never expected it was prep work for an assassination attempt.

Nora checked and confirmed the cameras were completely dead. She patted her chest, breathing hard. "Thank God you're not scared of them and managed to catch it. Otherwise..."

"Otherwise, I'd be in the hospital right now." Audrey's lips curled into a cold, mocking smile. "Some people are terrified of snakes, so they assume I must be too. How pathetic."

When she was a child, her relationship with Rainey hadn't been this toxic. She used to help Rainey catch little snakes. Finding the creatures fascinating, she had once put one in a bottle to show Joaquin. She still remembered the utter shock in his eyes when she held it up to him. He was a lot cuter back then.

"Audrey." Nora pulled her from her thoughts. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Take it to the police." Audrey slipped the bottle into her bag. "This is evidence of attempted murder." Even though she wasn't hurt, she had no intention of letting whoever orchestrated this off the hook. She smiled at Nora. "Care to accompany me to the precinct?"

Nora nodded, instinctively reaching out to link arms with Audrey before remembering the deadly snake in her bag and awkwardly pulling back.

Audrey laughed. "It's not going to chew its way out."

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