“He does now,” I mumbled. “There are too many rules, Nikolai. You wouldn’t understand.”
He arched a blond brow. “You think I don’t?”
“No. Because you haven’t followed a damn rule in your life.”
“And you’ve never played a game without changing the rules to win.”
He leaned forward, blue eyes boring a hole into my head. I ignored him, turning back to the view of the city behind me. I couldn’t bear to see anyone right now. They all reminded me of Eva, of the girl I was missing.
“Where’s your phone, Aleksandr?”
I glanced back at the top drawer of my desk, where the device sat, powered off. I’d thrown it in there earlier when I realized she wasn’t going to call me. Staring at a blank screen only made the hollow feeling in my chest worse, like every minute I went without hearing from her reminded me that she wasn’t coming back.
I didn’t respond.
He sighed. “Alek?—”
But my cousin was interrupted by the harsh ringing of sirens from the city below.
A lot of them.
The sound was distant at first, soon rising to a roar, building and building, their echoes passing through the streets and up to the window of my high-rise.
Something in my chest tightened, the ugly feeling growing. I looked across the city and found thick, black smoke rising into the air from several blocks away. A fire, a large one by the looks of it. Red lights were racing to get to it, hoping to prevent a catastrophe. But by the growing size of the smoke, that wasn’t possible.
Wait.
That fire was downtown. It was near?—
“Where is it?” I snapped, and Nikolai froze as I turned back to him, bracing my hands on the desk. “Where the fuck is the fire, Nikolai?”
He frowned, already pulling out his phone, typing a few things before scrolling. Then he went still.
“Where is it?” I snapped, some inner part of me already knowing the answer.
He looked up at me, exhaling a ragged breath. Something uneasy flickered across his face. “The ballet theater.”
The room tilted on its axis, my vision blurring.
No.
No, no, no?—
“Multiple alarms. Heavy smoke.” Nikolai’s eyes flicked back to his phone. “There’s an evacuation in progress, but they were in the midst of a busy rehearsal. It sounds like they’re worried a few may be stuck inside.”
“That’s not—” I shook my head. “She’s not there.”
She couldn’t be. After catching us about to go for round two, there was no way Julian Vallen was going to let Eva out of his sight.
My heart slammed so hard it hurt.
The feeling
That fuckingfeeling.
I ripped open my desk drawer and snatched my phone, my fingers clumsy as I powered it on. The screen lit up, revealing mostly missed calls and messages from Nikolai, but one from Eva, too. And texts. She texted methis morning.
My breath caught as I scrolled through them.
