Page 246 of Mile High Ruin

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VADIM

I run back through the warehouse, past the rusted machinery and broken concrete, my gun still in my hand and Iosef’s blood still warm across my knuckles.

The moment I reach the loading entrance, I see them.

Anton is beside Sloane, one hand hovering near her elbow as if he’s afraid to touch her without permission, while Marek stands a few feet away with his gun raised toward the open yard, scanning every blind corner with the kind of rage that means he already knows something went badly wrong while he was gone.

Sloane is standing, barely. Her face is pale, one hand braced against the support pillar, the other pressed low over her stomach.

She looks at me first. Then at the blood on me. Then at the warehouse behind me.

“Vadim.”

I go straight to her.

Anton steps back immediately.

Marek does not. “Where were you?” he demands, his voice rough with anger and something close to fear. “We thought we heard shots, then we found her out here alone.”

“There’s no time to explain.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only one you’re getting right now.”

Anton looks past me into the warehouse. His eyes narrow. “What happened inside?”

“Petrov is in there,” I say. “He’s alive, but badly injured.”

Marek’s head turns toward the warehouse entrance. “Petrov is alive?”

“For now.”

Anton gestures to two of the men who arrived behind him, and they move toward the entrance with weapons ready.

Marek keeps looking at me. Then around the yard. “Where is Iosef? And why was he here in the first place? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him interested in being in the line of fire.”

I look at Sloane. She’s watching me with wide eyes, and I know she heard enough inside that warehouse to understand pieces of it. Maybe not all, but enough.

“That’s because he got us into this hot shit,” I murmur.

Marek stares at me.

Anton’s expression changes by a fraction, but on Anton, a fraction is enough to mean he has felt the ground move beneath him.

“What?” Marek says.

“Iosef was the leak.”

For a moment, neither of them reacts.

Then Marek says, very softly, “No.”

“Yes.”

Anton’s voice is low. “Are you certain?”