Page 94 of Lethal King

My racing heart freezes.

“Rozalia?”

“The one and only. And she’s waving a white flag.”

I’m immediately suspicious.

“That doesn’t sound like the Black Cat to me.”

“Well, why don’t you come around and see for yourself, then,” Maksim insists. “I’m staring at her right now.”

“Where is she?”

“In the window by the front door. She must have ripped up a bedsheet or something, because that’s literally a white flag in her hand.”

My grip tightens around the handle of my gun.

“Send some men to my position, out back. Now,” I order.

“How many?”

“At least half. I have a bad feeling about—"

Before I can finish, something suspicious catches my eye. Every curtain on every window in the house seems to flutter backward at once.

“Did anyone just open up the front door?” I ask.

“No. Why?”

That sly fox.

“I’m going inside. She’s escaping.”

Throwing caution to the wind, I bound over my protective pile of corpses and make a beeline for the mansion’s backdoor.

I’m not greeted by any more gunfire. But that only heightens my suspicion.

“I’ve sent the men around back. What’s going on?” Maksim asks. “Talk to me.”

“Come in the front door and see for yourself,” I tell him, bursting in through the back door.

Sure enough, the place is a ghost town.

“What about Rozalia?”

“That’s not her.”

Moving as fast as I can, I try to find a set of stairs leading down to the basement. I already know there is one. Fortunately, it’s not hard. An intense draft whips up from a dark, half-open doorway just around the corner from the living room.

“What do you mean that’s not her?” Maksim asks, confused. “I can see her with my own two eyes. Does this mean you want me to engage?”

“Do whatever you want, just don’t hit me,” I say.

“Rian, I don’t understand—”

“It’s a fucking hologram,” I bark, descending the dark staircase. “A distraction. Someone just opened up a doorway, probably to an escape tunnel. I saw the curtains being sucked towards it. Whoever’s here, they’re about to get away.”

But it’s no secret who’s trying to escape.