Page 238 of Mile High Ruin

Then Viktor lowers his weapon first.

Vadim watches him. Slowly, he lowers his too.

My chest tightens.

Both men drop their weapons onto the concrete. The sound is small and final.

Viktor rolls his shoulders once.

Vadim steps forward.

Before either of them strikes, Viktor says, “I’m sorry about what happened.”

Vadim stops. Every man behind him goes still.

Viktor’s face changes, and for the first time since I’ve known him, he looks less like a Pakhan and more like someone who has been carrying a wound too long for it to be clean anymore. “My brother shouldn’t have touched her,” he says.

My breath catches.

“No,” Vadim says. “He shouldn’t have.”

“I didn’t know at first.”

“You knew enough.”

“I knew after.”

“And you still came for me.”

Viktor’s face hardens. “You killed him.”

Vadim steps closer. “He assaulted my sister.”

My hand clamps over my mouth.

Mila.

For a second, everything inside me goes silent. Not because I don’t understand. Because I do. The protectiveness. The way Vadim reacted when Daniel startled her. The guarded way Mila moved through the house. The rage he never explained. The thing Petrov had said earlier.

All of this because I was too blind.

Viktor’s younger brother had hurt Mila.

Vadim had gone after him.

That was the family matter. That was the reason Viktor had wrapped revenge around every part of Vadim’s life.

Viktor’s jaw works. “He was twenty-two.”

“Mila was younger.”

“He was drunk.”

Vadim moves so fast I barely follow it. The first punch sends Viktor back against the car, and the sound of bone against metal makes me flinch. Viktor recovers quickly and drives his shoulder into Vadim’s ribs, forcing him sideways before swinging for his face.

Vadim blocks most of it. Blood appears at the corner of his mouth.

He smiles. It’s horrible.