Page 177 of Mile High Ruin

“Keep searching.”

Then I go inside.

The first thing I see is the birthday table. Half the cake is still sitting there. Glasses have been abandoned beside plates. A ribbon hangs from the back of one chair, and one of the paper decorations Anya insisted on making is lying on the floor where someone stepped on it.

Less than an hour ago, everybody was laughing.

Sloane was sitting beside me. She leaned closer when Anya tried to convince Mila that one slice of cake was not enough, and I rested my hand on her knee under the table because I liked knowing she was there.

Now there’s blood on the hallway floor.

Iosef is lying against the wall outside the study while a medic works over him. His shirt has been opened around the wound, and there’s blood along his side and shoulder. His face is pale, but his eyes open when I crouch beside him.

His voice is weak. “She came looking for you.”

I glance toward the study. “And?”

“I told her you were outside.” He winces when the medic presses fresh dressing against his side. “I knew something was wrong about her,” he says. “I tried to ask more questions, but she attacked me instead.”

“Did anyone come with her?”

“I didn’t see anyone,” he says.

The medic tells him to stop talking. This time I let him.

Anton is a few feet away, listening. “What do you think got into her?”

“My guess?” I say. “She got spooked. And then she decided to go after Sloane next.”

“Maybe.”

“There is no maybe.”

I know what I saw. Whatever Camille intended to tell Sloane does not matter now. Camille stabbed Iosef and then ran toward Sloane with the same weapon in her hand.

I don’t regret firing.

I regret only that Sloane didn’t know why I did it.

Because now she’s missing.

I head back outside. The gunfire has mostly stopped, but the grounds are still full of movement. Men are checking the perimeter, calling locations through radios.

I hate every second of it.

“Any sign of her?”

One of the guards shakes his head. “No, sir.”

“What about the cameras?”

“We lost several feeds before the attack.”

“Which ones?”

“The east garden and part of the front approach.”

Anton is watching me. I know what he sees.