Page 51 of Mile High Ruin

My name is written on it.

Camille looks over. “What?”

I pick up the box. “This was here when you arrived?”

She looks at it more carefully. “I don’t think so.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“Open it.”

I glance at her. “You say that very casually.”

“It’s chocolate, not an explosive.”

“You don’t know that.”

She gives me a look.

I pull the ribbon loose. Inside are chocolates arranged in neat rows, each one different, dark and glossy and obviously expensive enough that eating them should probably require financial planning.

There is no message. Only my name.

I turn the card over. Nothing.

Camille leans closer. “Well.”

“Well what?”

“That is not from catering.”

“I gathered that.”

“Someone likes you.”

I close the box. “That is a dramatic conclusion.”

“You received luxury chocolates on a private aircraft.”

“That could be normal.”

“It is not.”

Before I can argue, movement outside catches my attention. Cars are approaching.

The passengers.

My stomach tightens immediately. I put the chocolates back on the crew seat and take my position near the entrance beside Camille.

Anton boards first.

Then Marek.

Then Iosef.

My pulse shifts before Vadim even appears. He reaches the top of the stairs a few seconds later, and the moment his gaze finds mine, everything inside me becomes far too aware.

His eyes move over my face first. Then briefly toward the crew seat.