Page 42 of Ruin
They know how to read a room. They know how to read me.
I pull my phone and dial Vincent.
He picks up on the first ring because Vincent always picks up on the first ring.
"Warehouse Six is burning," I say.
"I know. I'm en route. Cassius, there's a note. Spray-painted on the loading dock door. Cyrillic."
"What does it say?"
He’s quiet for a moment. "'Your queen makes you slow.'"
Something cold and sharp settles behind my sternum.
Not fear. I don't feel fear, but something adjacent to it.
Something that tastes like iron and smells like smoke and sounds like Selene's name in a language I don't speak.
"Double security on the penthouse," I say. "Pull the safe house protocols. And get me a location on Zhukov's people. Every single one of them. Tonight."
I hang up and turn to Lionel. "Finish the offload. Get everything to the secondary location on Fifth. Nothing stays here past sunrise."
"And Demetri?"
"Have someone collect him. Quietly. His family gets taken care of."
Lionel nods once and goes back to work.
My men resume their tasks.
The crates come down. The crane swings. The operation continues because it has to. Because stopping means losing, and losing means dying, and I don't do either.
I walk back outside.
The cold hits me again, but I don't feel it this time.
I'm already calculating. Warehouse Six was chosen deliberately.
Not our most critical asset, but close enough to the docks to prove they know our supply chain.
The note proves they know about Selene.
The timing proves they've been watching, waiting for a night when my attention was split between the shipment and her.
I was right to bring extra security.
I was wrong to think extra security would be enough.
The SUV door opens.
Selene steps out before Peter can stop her.
She's been watching through the window, reading the shift in my men's behavior the way she reads any situation.
Her face is calm. Her eyes are not.
"Something happened," she says.
