Page 94 of Queen of Ruin

“Nice to meet you, Cameron. How old are you?” Ruslan holds up five fingers. “Are you this many?”

“No.” Cameron weeps. “I’m six.”

“Six!” Ruslan smiles. “That’s huge. Do you know your last name?”

He shakes his head and flinches as I approach, so I keep my distance and move around the two. While Ruslan calms Cameron and calls for help, I wander back into the penthouse. One kid here likely means there are others. I signal to Ruslan that I’m going to look around and he gives me the OK, so I move deeper into the penthouse.

Any remaining guards are swiftly dealt with as I move through the last of the rooms, searching for any sign of any other children. One locked door gives way under several kicks, and I find five more children all huddled together in the corner who are far too scared to say anything to me.

It breaks my heart.

All these children, but not the one I’m looking for.

Maybe I shouldn’t have killed that bastard. He likely knew more, but I couldn’t stomach the idea of spending days torturing him only to hear the words I feared the most from his smug fucking face.

Back in the hallway, Bradley suddenly appears at the main door with Cassian and countless members of our team, so I direct them to Ruslan and to the room full of children. As a sea of our people move in to take care of everything, I wander into the last bedroom and gaze around at how pristine everything is. No one has slept in here. There aren’t even clothes in the closet.

I turn to leave, then something clunks behind me and I freeze.

“Hello?” I turn, but there’s no one there. “Is someone there?”

Silence. Did I imagine it? Nothing looks out of place or disturbed. Maybe the sound came from another room? I’m turning back to the door when the slightest movement catches my eye. One of the doors on the bedroom cabinets near the window shifts as if it’s trying to swing open and something is preventing it.

My heart begins to race and I tighten my grip on my knife, though I keep the blade out of sight as I approach the cabinet and very slowly lower to my haunches.

“Hello?” I say again. The cabinet is too small for a guard, but it could be an animal and the last thing I want is to get mauled. Reaching for the handle, something clunks inside once more so I grab it and drag it open while tightening my hand on the knife.

No animal.

No threat.

Just a girl.

“Tabitha?” My heart lurches the moment we make eye contact, and I recognize her immediately.

Her wide eyes gaze up at me in terror, glazed over as if she isn’t even aware of what she’s seeing.

“Tabitha?” I repeat softly, and my voice trembles. “It’s me. It’s Valentina. Do you… remember me, sweetheart?”

She blinks slowly, clutching that poor threadbare rabbit to her chest. On her next blink, her eyes seem to clear and they stretch wider still as recognition floods her face.

“Val?” she croaks. “You’re okay?”

“So are you,” I gasp. “I found you. Oh, my God— you’re okay, sweetheart. You’re okay. It’s safe. You can come out.”

She doesn’t even hesitate. Tabitha launches herself out of her hiding place and into my arms with such force that I’m knocked off my haunches and onto my ass, but it doesn’t matter. My arms embrace her tightly and I squeeze as hard as I dare.

“Oh, honey, I can’t believe it! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“I hid,” Tabitha croaks as she bursts into tears. “I hid when I heard the bangs. I hid.”

“You did good. You did so good!” Her tiny hands clutch at my dress and her tears soak into my bare shoulder as I get my feet underneath myself and stand. “You’re safe now. I swear. You’re safe now.”

“Y-You promise?” Tabitha weeps.

The shake in her voice takes me right back to the cell they kept me in, where she stayed by my side and I promised her I would save us both. Had she been with me the night I escaped, I would have taken her, but I couldn’t find her when I ran and feared the worst.

But she’s here.