BAM-BAM.

Two of my bullets scream through the air and destroy the handle of the door he was about to grab. He wails like a wounded banshee and drops to his knees behind the billiard table.

“You want me to respect you, Adrian?” I snarl. “Then you’ll have to stay and face what you’ve done.”

“I’m here,” he calls up. “Let’s just get the lecture over with, shall we?”

I inch closer. “I didn’t come to lecture. I came to talk.”

“Put the gun down then.”

I laugh viciously. “Not the kind of talk I had in mind.”

He rises up, eyeing my gun but sensing that I’m not quite ready to use it yet. “You’re wasting time, Kolya.” He sounds impudent, but his eyes betray him. He’s panicked. He has the look of cornered prey. “We can do this all day, but then it’ll be too late for June.”

I have no way of telling if he’s bluffing or not. But I know I can’t take the risk, and he does, too. “Where is she?”

“The room above this one,” he answers smoothly. “With Radomir Sergeev.”

My blood freezes. “You sold her to Radomir?”

“No, you did,” he retorts. “With your arrogance. But we did agree on no lectures, so I’ll save my breath. It doesn’t matter anyway—I’m sure he’ll sell the scrap back to you once he’s finished, for a very reasonable price. Should be any minute now. They’ve been in there for quite a while already.”

My first thought is to slaughter him with my bare hands.

My second thought is that he isn’t even worth the effort.

All that matters is her.

I turn and sprint hard, bursting out through the door I ruined on my way in. The staircase looms around the corner. I take the steps three at a time. My heart is hammering against my rib cage.

I spy a door and break it down without thinking. Empty.

Another one. Bashed to bits. Empty.

A third, a fourth, a fifth, all coming up empty.

And then I kick open one more, and I see it all.

June.

Radomir.

And blood.

So much fucking blood.

54

KOLYA

June’s eyes veer to me. “I-I… killed him,” she says softly.

The world goes quiet as I walk over to her. I kneel down beside her and gently take the shard of glass from her hand. She’s pierced him in the neck, severing the carotid artery. He must’ve lasted a minute, maybe less.

Her eyes tell me she’s still working through the shock. As the adrenaline ebbs away, the cold reality of what she’s done sinks in.

I remember the first time I killed. It takes something from you, something you never, ever get back.

“Did he touch you?” I ask. “Did he hurt you?”

“He tried to. B-but… I fought back,” she stammers. “I didn’t think. I was just… trying to survive.”

I lean in, cup her face with my hands, and look her in the eye. “June, look at me.” Her pupils focus on mine. “Listen to my voice. It’s me, Kolya.”