Page 239 of Mile High Ruin

Then they’re on each other. Just fists, knees, elbows, bodies hitting concrete and metal with sounds that make my stomach twist.

I should stay hidden. I know I should.

But I can’t look away.

Vadim fights like violence is not anger but skill, every strike controlled, every movement economical, while Viktor fights like a man who has waited years to put his hands on the person he blames for everything.

Viktor catches Vadim across the cheek. Vadim answers with a blow to his ribs.

Viktor staggers, then laughs through blood. “You know what the worst part is?”

Vadim grabs him by the coat and slams him into the side of the car. “I doubt you will live long enough to tell me.”

“I could have killed her.” Viktor coughs, then looks toward the place where I’m hiding. “I knew how precious she was to you. I saw it before you did.”

Vadim’s hand tightens in Viktor’s coat. “Don’t speak about her.”

“I thought about it,” Viktor says, his voice rough. “More than once. I thought if I killed Sloane, you might finally understand what it means to have someone you love taken from you.”

My blood runs cold.

Vadim hits him again. This time Viktor goes to one knee.

“But I didn’t,” Viktor spits.

Vadim stands over him. “Because you are sentimental?”

Viktor looks up, breathing hard. “Because I found out she was pregnant.” His eyes cut briefly toward me again. “I draw the line somewhere, even if I knew you were the father.”

Vadim’s face changes. He grabs Viktor by the collar and hauls him up, then drives him back so hard against the car that the window cracks.

Viktor’s knees almost give.

Vadim strikes him again. And again.

I know what’s coming. I see it before he does it.

Vadim shifts his grip, preparing for a final blow with the kind of terrifying calm that means he has already decided where this ends.

I run from behind the pallets.

“Sloane!” Anton shouts.

I ignore him. “Vadim, stop.”

Vadim freezes, but he doesn’t look away from Viktor.

I reach him and grab his arm with both hands. “Stop.”

“Sloane, move.”

“No.”

“He took you.”

“I know.”

“He used you.”