“Find them.”
“And the club?”
I look around the hallway. Cracked paint. Damp floor. Bad lighting. A place built for women to lose options one by one.
“Clean it or burn it,” I say. “I don’t care which.”
Viktor nods.
That should be the end of it. I should leave. I should return to the study, the contracts, the men waiting to switch loyalties, the empire that’s slowly becoming mine.
Instead, I walk toward the exit Anya used.
The back door hangs half-open, moving slightly in the cold night air. Outside, the alley is empty. Wet pavement. A dumpster. Red light leaking from the club sign around the corner. One of her heels lies near the wall, abandoned where she must have stumbled out of it.
I stare at it for too long.
It’s ridiculous. A cheap black heel that doesn’t fit her, scuffed at the toe. Still, the sight of it does something to me. I imagine her running through the alley with blood on her dress, one shoe gone, hair loose, terrified of the man behind her and the man who saved her. I imagine her trying not to cry because pride is the last thing she has left.
My hand tightens around the gun.
I followed her to the club because I told myself she was a loose thread. A useful embarrassment to Dmitri. A potential weapon against my father. A girl wearing my mother’s ring. That’s what I told myself.
Standing in the alley now, I know it’s no longer enough.
Viktor appears behind me. “We found the girl’s other shoe near the street. One of the guards saw her turn east.”
“How long ago?”
“Three minutes.” He hesitates. “We should get her while she’s still in one place. She may run again now that she’s spooked.”
I anticipate as much.
“Send two men,” I say.
Viktor waits.
“Quietly,” I add.
“And then?”
I look down the alley. “Then they leave her alone.”
Viktor’s face gives nothing away, but I know him well enough to see that he’s surprised. “Understood.”
I turn back toward the club.
I will find her again.
Not tonight.
Not while she’s terrified and covered in blood.
But soon.
The city is large, but not large enough to hide what has already become mine in my head.
9
