The Devil's Bible by Steve Berry

Author:Steve Berry [BERRY, STEVE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2026-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

He hadn’t thought about Henrik in a long time. His dear friend had been dead for a while. True, Cotton had made a mistake there, one he hadn’t repeated in Antwerp. Nor did he intend to do so here. So he faced Ivan and asked, “What’s going on? A lot of people died today.”

“Those were our people. Not acceptable.”

He was beginning to understand. “Somebody has gone rogue?”

“Seems that way. At least in part.”

“And you need my help?”

“We need each other.”

CHAPTER 39

John walked down Sigtuna’s main artery. A lot of paths were about to cross. Scores to be settled. Things to be righted. They were coming to the point of no return. He’d thought of this moment for a long time, imaging how he would feel. Monica was here doing what she did best. Creating chaos. Keeping everyone off guard. What he’d not told the king or Stephanie Nelle was that he’d not been all that innocent nine years ago.

He’d had an affair. With Monica.

Hard not to find her brains, beauty, and energy attractive.

For the first few years he and Lysa had a reasonably solid marriage. But sadly, their relationship had always lacked intimacy. They were more like a couple of good friends than husband and wife. For a decade he just ignored the issue and quietly satisfied himself outside the marriage. Lysa was oblivious to any of that, so cheating had been easy. But with what happened nine years ago, stacked on top of a frigid wife, he’d recently decided he could ignore the situation no longer.

Sex for Lysa was nothing but a chore that occurred once every other month, at best. And with so many rules. Never after dinner. Or in the middle of the day. Or the day of or before a doctor or dentist appointment. Morning was preferable. Late afternoon better. And always after a shower and her makeup was applied. Never, though, if she had a lunch engagement or visitors expected for the evening. Their public displays of affection were nonexistent. She considered those unseemly. I love yous came rarely. True, they were kind and respectful of each other, but the relationship possessed not a hint of passion. He supposed a lot of that was her upbringing. Being raised in a royal bubble by strict Protestant parents came with its ups and downs. But humans were social animals and, as such, had a need to feel connected, to believe that they were worthy of someone’s love and lust. Intimacy made you feel alive, like you’d been found, as if someone was finally taking the time to peer into the depths of your soul and really see you. With Lysa he’d always felt like she was looking right through him. Gradually he’d slipped away until finally considering himself just a roommate. Friendly and cordial, but a roommate nonetheless.

Which Lysa seemed to embrace.

But he grew to resent.

Monica was not the first “other woman,” nor the last, but she had been the longest and most enduring of his extramarital relationships.

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