“I’m fine,” I choke. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not, and Ruslan will have my ass on a platter if your mental breaks.”
“I’m fine!” Not meaning to raise my voice, I glance at him through my building tears. “Please. I’m fine. Just let me breathe.”
Cassian doesn’t look convinced and crosses his large arms over his chest. “Fine. Five minutes.”
It stinks in here. Alcohol mixes with stale blood in the air and it catches in my throat like a blade. No matter how hard I swallow, the sensation doesn’t shift. There’s nowhere for me to walk thatavoids stepping on the stains on the floor so I grit my teeth and hobble to the bookshelf as quickly as I can.
Behind several heavy accountancy books that thump to the floor as I shove them aside, I find the hidden back panel and release it with a press at the lower left corner. It slides free and reveals my father’s safe.
“Cool,” Cassian remarks.
“He showed me it once when I was a kid,” I say as my voice trembles. “He was keeping Mom’s anniversary gift in here so she wouldn’t find it.”
“Do you remember the combination?”
I nod and type in the date of their wedding anniversary. The safe beeps quietly under my fingertips and the door pops open with a click. Inside, there’s nothing of value and my heart sinks.
I’m not sure what I expected to find. Part of me hoped there would be something so obviously incriminating that everything would suddenly make sense, but there’s nothing other than a few stacks of cash that don’t add up to much, some old jewelry, and a couple of passports.
“That’s it?”
“Not what you were hoping for?” Cassian asks as he reaches over me and takes the passports.
I take the silver bracelet from the velvet cushion it sits on and turn to face him, shaking my head. “I didn’t really have a hope but at the same time, after Ruslan showed me that picture, I guess I was hoping to find something kind of evil.”
“Evil”? Cassian flips through the passports.
“Yeah, like… I don’t know. Whatever would make someone in the Mafia get angry, I suppose.”
Cassian hums. “You don’t need a complicated reason for someone in our world to get pissed off.” His brow tightens and he looks up at me. “You don’t share your dad’s surname?”
“Hmm?” My chest tightens briefly. “Yes, I do.”
“Then why does he have a passport that says his name is Camden Harris?” Cassian turns the passport to face me, relinquishing it when I reach for it.
“What?” Almost everything on the passport is as it should be. It’s Dad’s face and his date of birth but not his name. “That’s not?—”
Creaking floorboards catch my attention and I glance up in time to see someone clad entirely in black dart through the office door. “Cassian!”
Cassian spins on the spot just in time to block an incoming blow by raising his forearm. The attacker grunts and a sharp blade glints in his clenched fist an inch from Cassian’s face. In a flash, the attacker drops the knife, catches it in his other hand, and plunges the blade forward, but Cassian manages to block that blow too, only for the blade of the knife to cut a long red line across his forearm.
“Ivy!” Cassian grunts as he’s forced back a few steps against the strength of his attacker. “Run!” The attacker lunges forward again and Cassian stumbles, disconnecting himself from the man who then turns to face me, blade raised. “RUN!” Cassian bellows and he charges forward, launching himself into the stranger.
I don’t make it far. The man slams his elbow down onto Cassian’s back and he crumbles. Then he lunges for me and catches a fistful of my trailing hair. I’m jerked backward and I scream, then I’m falling as Cassian is back on his feet and dragging the man off me.
Two punches and the assailant crumples.
“You okay?” Cassian barks, dragging his phone out of his pocket.
One button press and it’s against his ear. “Ace!”
“I’m okay!” I gasp, using the wall to get back to my feet.
“Ace, you gotta—argh!”
“Cassian?” Spinning around, Cassian’s on his knees with the attacker’s blade protruding from his thigh. The man uses that hold to get to his feet, drags the knife free, and in the same second, plunges it into Cassian’s shoulder.
