One door isn’t as white as the others with some discoloration near the handle. I choose that door, rushing through it and hitting the wall on the other side. A set of stairs leads upward, so I take them two at a time with no time to think or consider my choice. The door at the top opens onto an open floor with multiple office cubicles dotted around, the walls just low enough that I can see over the top of the entire display.
I keep running, weaving through the cubicles like I’m well-versed in this kind of obstacle course. My heart pounds like a drum, the pain throbbing in my temple grows louder and louder, and my chest throbs from panting, but I don’t stop.
I can’t stop.
The last door I sprint through leads to a stairwell, and I barely have time to grab the railing before I stumble into it to stop myself from toppling over the edge.
Down. I have to run down.
Just as I run down the first few steps, the door two floors me slams open and bounces against the wall.
“Ivy!” Alexei bellows, his voice echoing and bouncing around the stairwell.
Up.
I run upward. My thighs burn like they’ve been lit on fire, sharp pains throb in my hips, and an odd coppery taste floods the back of my tongue as I sprint up the stairs as fast as I can, praying for another door to take me out of here.
Sweat soaks into my clothes, my hair catches to the back of my neck, and my forehead adds to the panic that’s gradually climbing in my gut.
I thought I could escape. I stabbed him and now he’s really going to kill me, isn’t he?
There’s only one door at the top of the stairwell and I crash through it with a ragged gasp as heavy, booming footsteps thunder up the stairwell behind me. The door opens out onto the roof of the building, where a cool breeze whisks past me and immediately warms against my skin. Abandoning the door, I sprint across the rough roof, darting around a couple of ventilation boxes and stumbling over myself as I make it to the edge.
Maybe there’s a fire escape or another close building I can leap to.
No such luck.
As I reach the edge, the severity of the height of this building hits me. A single glimpse at the street miles and miles below makes my stomach lurch and my heart flip up to join the lump in my throat.
There’s nowhere to go.
I’m trapped.
Alexei joins me a second later. He’s panting heavily and brandishing the knife he ripped out of his own arm. The arm in question is drenched in blood and his face twists in fury as he points the blade at me while he stalks forward.
“I was beingnice,” he snarls. “I was just talking, but now?” He starts to laugh, a hollow sound. “Now I’m going to fuck you harder than I fucked your mother, and then I’m going to chop you up and send bits to Ruslan until he gives me what I want.”
“Not if I die here,” I gasp breathlessly, taking one step back toward the edge. “I’ll jump. I’ll jump and I’ll kill myself and then there’s nothing standing between you and a slow, painful death at Ruslan’s hands. And you know him. He’s the Ace. He’ll make sure it takes weeks, maybe even months, because if I’ve learned anything about him over these past few months, it’s that he doesn’t half-ass anything!”
My rambling is partially a cover as I scan my surroundings, praying for a solution to present itself.
I don’t want to die.
I want to go home. Back to Ruslan. I want to thank him for saving my life, for not giving up on me and for caring about me even when I was the worst version of myself.
Wind rushes past me, grabbing at my clothes with its long, cold fingers and threatening to pull me off the edge. Alexei’s eyes narrow, and he tosses the knife, reaching for the handgun at his hip instead.
Fear spears through me like a blade.
“It’s over,” he snarls. “You won’t jump. You’re so fucking pathetic that you?—”
Alexei is suddenly bowled over, and he hits the ground with a loud yell. My chest contracts so painfully that I can’t breathe as I glimpse who the hell is on top of him.
“Ruslan?”
35
RUSLAN
