Page 92 of Queen of Ruin

Whatever Raven says in reply has Ruslan nodding quickly, then he hangs up and pockets his phone. My stomach drops ever so slightly as the elevator rushes upward, then I slide my knife out of its holster and twirl it around my fingers.

“We still good?”

“Cassian still has eyes on our prime buyer. He’s out by the pool. There’s a handful of guys to take care of, but nothing we can’t handle. Bradley will enter the lobby in a couple of minutes and keep everyone down there distracted while we clean up.”

“Any sign of the girls?”

Ruslan pauses checking his gun and shakes his head. “No.”

“Fuck.”

“We’ll find her,” he says softly.

“Will we?” I glance at him and hold his gaze for a second, then turn away. Tabitha wasn’t with any of the buyers we previously dealt with, but she also wasn’t on any records leaving the country, either. The longer she remains missing, the more likely it is that she’s dead.

“I dream of her. Every night. I close my eyes and Diego holds me and I fall asleep, and then all I can see is her sweet little face, and all I hear are the noises she made when they hurt her trying to make me talk.”

“Val…” Ruslan steps forward and his presence warms my back. “No one blames you. You didn’t have anything to do with her other than stopping to help her. You know how these twisted fuckers are. If it wasn’t you, it would have been someone else.”

I know he’s right, but the guilt remains knotted beneath my ribs. Every day I spent without my memories was a day she spent getting closer to her demise. I could have helped her and I failed.

Now we’re following cold trails, killing child traffickers and their clients who dared to carry out their work on our turf.

The elevator finally hisses to a stop, and the doors slide open onto a deeply luxurious carpet that’s butter soft under my bare feet after I kick off my heels.

“You ready?” I murmur, flipping my blade so that the hilt remains in my palm and the blade aligns with my forearm.

“Yeah.” Ruslan quickly gets down on the floor. “ Call them.”

“Help!” I stumble out of the elevator and grab at my dress. “Help me!” My shouts carry toward two men flanking the penthouse door and they both tense at the sight of me.

“Ma’am?”

“Please help me! Help him! I don’t know what happened. We were just kissing and getting handsy, and then he collapsed! You have to help me! Call someone! Do something!”

They both hurry forward with their hands on their belts while I sag against the wall and feign crying. The moment they see Ruslan’s ‘unconscious’ on the floor, they surge forward to help him.

“Sir? Can you hear me?”

“Sir, what happened?”

The first man gets Ruslan’s knife directly into his throat while I throw myself onto the back of the second and plunge my knife into the side of his neck. He rears backward and stumbles, but I use my weight to guide him back into the elevator, then rip the blade from his throat in one smooth move.

Both men die quickly and quietly to sprays of crimson erupting from their throats like fountains.

Kinder than they deserve, considering who they work for.

“You good?” Ruslan climbs to his feet and takes my arm, guiding me away from the pooling blood on the floor.

“Yeah.” I nod and shake my knife to remove the excess blood. “Let’s get this fucker.”

One of the men has a keycard hanging from his belt, so I snatch it and follow Ruslan to the door. He nods twice, then steps aside and lets me slide the keycard into the electronic lock. It clicks once and flashes green, then I press on the door handle and slide inside.

Soft music drifts through the air, carrying the scents of alcohol and expensive soaps. Bradley told us the target is still out by the pool, so that’s where we head while hugging the walls on either side of the hallway.

Several guards mill about, either patrolling the hallways of the penthouse or lingering in rooms we pass. It’s easy to take care of them when they don’t know we’re coming. Each neck I stab is reminiscent of my days as an assassin working for my father, where I would find a kind of peace in taking a life.

I lost that peace until I found Diego. Now, being with him is all the peace I need.