Page 2 of Marked By the Devil

I didn’t follow Maksim and the guards who covered Adrik. They moved swiftly as a mass, a gathered force going toward the cars. But I kept my face forward, looking up near the balcony level. We had enough guards around us. We always did. They didn’t need me to join them.

Hand on my gun under my jacket, I jogged ahead, breaking away from them.

“Viktor!”

I ignored Maksim’s shout, ready to pursue whoever had the balls—or lacked the brains—to actually try to take out Adrik. My leader. Our brother.

I would be damned if they got away.

Running toward the building while they left, I stayed alert and let the adrenaline coursing through me charge me. I sprinted ahead, uncaring whether anyone tried to stop me from darting into the authorized-only parking area.

Behind me, the sounds of the street faded. The party noise. The revelry and vendors shouting and hawking for prey. Only the sound of my footsteps slamming on the pavement echoed back here.

Down one alley, then the next, I trailed the person who’d fled the rear of the balcony space when that shot went off.

I panted, letting my lungs fill rapidly as I caught my breath. I swallowed thickly, forcing my throat to clear with the anxiety. I shot my gaze from side to side, tracking the one trying to flee the scene. Dumpsters stood against walls. Smoke and exhaust curled up from sewer pipes. Lights flickered out along the narrow, unpolished roadway between the big buildings that loomed over me.

Where the fuck did you go?

I slowed down, sticking closer to the walls as I continued on. I’d been relying on sound and the changes in shadows to know which way to go. But as I carefully placed my feet one after the other, listening and straining to detect another person back here, I worried that I might have lost them.

There.

Someone ran down a sidewalk to get around construction equipment left out to spend the night unused. Stacks of barrels made up columns, but I spotted someone using them as shelter.

Got you.

Shadows were sharper back here, making it all seem so black and white. So still. Everything in grayscale. Only that hint of red could stand out as the person tried to flee.

You can run.

But I’m not going to let you go.

Gritting my teeth as I settled in to stalk whoever had to be connected to that assassination attempt on my brother, I used the least amount of movements to get my phone out.

It had been buzzing in my pocket, but I had to lock in on my target before I could check it.

Volleying my gaze between the person up ahead trying to pick their way through the construction equipment left back here from the touristy side of the buildings, I looked at what was coming in.

Maksim: Estate is under lockdown. Effective immediately.

He’d sent that to the group thread that my three brothers and two cousins were in, the top of the organization.

Maksim: Adrik is unharmed.

Maksim: Viktor, help is on the way.

Help?

That was overkill.

No one else was out here but me and the person trying to escape. I wasn’t making my presence known, but with the sheer power of my attention locked on them, they had to know someone was pursuing them.

Stalking them.

Hunting them down.

Whoever they were, they were alone. No others were out here. Not a single person was tracking me as I sought out the idiot who had fled the scene.