Page 18 of Essence of Fear

Viktoria’s jaw felt like it was flexing harder with every second because now it was starting to ache. “On a man?”

“Details,” her brother countered, “and we can deal with those tomorrow when you get here.”

“Kon—”

“Tomorrow at twelve in the afternoon, yes? Be here.”

He hung up.

She cursed him to hell and back while paying for her vodka.

• • •

Viktoria hated the Compound. No, that was too nice. She despised the place. It was huge, old, and smelled like it, too. In her memories from childhood, this place had never done anything good for her. The only time she remembered her father bringing her to the Boykov Compound was if something bad was going on, and he didn’t have a choice but to have her tag along, too.

She purposefully tried to avoid the maze of warehouses—and one old factory—that made up the Compound because unlike her brothers who had their offices here, there was nothing about the place that comforted her.

Like now.

Because she was lost.

Fuck.

That was the thing about the Compound. It was far too easy for someone like her—who wasn’t familiar with the many hallways, stairwells, and connected warehouses—to get lost by simply taking a wrong turn. She was sure her brothers could navigate this musty-smelling hellhole with their eyes closed. After all, they’d spent the majority of their life behind these walls, under the watchful eye of their father.

Her?

Ha.

She had no idea where she was.

Viktoria felt like she had now been walking around the Compound aimlessly for at least twenty minutes—a good estimation. She could absolutely call her brother, and have Konstantin come find her, but she didn’t want to give him that satisfaction. Knowing him, he would likely take great enjoyment from the fact she had managed to get lost and needed him to come find her.

He probably already knew she was lost.

She glanced up and saw a camera pointed in her direction at the end of the hallway in the right corner. A blinking red light told her the thing was live and watching every movement that happened in the hallway. No doubt, her brother was watching those cameras, and just waiting for her to call him for help.

Nope.

She would figure this out on her own.

Viktoria stuck her middle finger up to the camera as she passed it by. Just in case her brother was watching her and getting a kick out of her predicament as she tried helplessly to find the floor where his office was situated. Then he could know how she was feeling before they finally came face to face.

She was starting to regret bringing her large kit instead of the smaller kit that she usually used to travel with when she was tattooing. She’d taken some time off just because her mind was everywhere but tattooing, but even when she was working regularly, she typically traveled with the smaller kit.

It was lighter and easier to unpack or clean up. The larger kit was making her arm tired as she navigated the maze of hallways.

She came around a corner at the end of the hallway and ran right into someone coming out of an opened door.

No, not someone.

Not just anyone.

A man.

A strange man.

Viktoria’s kit fell from her hand and crashed to the floor. Her first instinct was to immediately step back from the man, and put as much distance as she could between him and her. In her mind, her thoughts raced. They screamed at her to relax, calm down … don’t let him see you’re scared; don’t panic, Vik.