Page 240 of Mile High Ruin

“I know.”

“He could have killed you.”

“But he didn’t.”

Vadim looks at me then, and the rage in his face is so raw that it almost makes me step back.

“Please,” I say.

His breathing is hard. Blood runs from a split near his brow and down the side of his face.

I put one hand against his chest. “Please.”

Something breaks in him. His hand opens, and Viktor drops hard onto the concrete.

I exhale, shaking. For one second, I think it’s over.

Then Viktor coughs and rolls onto his side. His hand moves under his coat.

Vadim reacts too late because I’m in front of him.

The gun appears in Viktor’s hand, aimed at us. “Still sentimental?” he rasps.

Vadim’s arm comes around me instantly, pulling me behind him. I feel his whole body turn into a shield.

Viktor’s finger tightens.

Then it stops.

He looks at me. At my stomach. At Vadim standing in front of me. His face twists with disgust, exhaustion and something that looks almost like grief.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” He lowers the gun. It drops from his hand and hits the concrete.

I breathe.

Vadim does not.

Behind us, a gunshot cracks through the yard.

Viktor’s body jerks. For half a second, he looks surprised.

Then he goes down.

I scream. Vadim turns around, his arm catches me again.

“If he is not going to kill you,” a familiar voice says behind us, mild and almost annoyed, “I am.”

I look past Vadim. Iosef stands near the mouth of the lane with a gun in his hand.

His face is calm. Too calm. The same mild-mannered face I trusted in hospital corridors, the same quiet man who told me I was confused, who led me upstairs to Ethan’s suite as if he were the only reasonable person in Vadim’s world.

Now he looks at Viktor’s body, then at Vadim.

“Honestly,” he says, “you have all made this much harder than it needed to be.”

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VADIM