Page 12 of Dark Embers

“I mean it, Rina. Please. Promise me. Get her to stop.”

“I will. I’ll try. Just—Tara, where the hell are you?”

Gunfire crackles on the other end. My heart lurches.

“Run, Tara! Get the fuck out of here!” a voice shouts—gruff, familiar, and fucking terrifying—as the ramifications of who he is settle over me.

“You’ve been shot!” Tara cries, frantically and then the line goes dead.

The room falls into an ominous silence—a cold, gut-wrenching silence.

I stand frozen, the phone still pressed to my ear like if I just wait long enough, she’ll come back on the line. She doesn’t.

I wait for another few beats of my heart thumping against my rib cage before I move into action.

With fumbling fingers I pull up my phone contacts. I hit Sam’s name and thank God he answers after the first few rings.

“Sabrina? Is everything alright?” Sam asks.

“I know where she is,” I whisper. “And I know who she’s with.”

“Don’t say another word,” Sam snaps. “Go home and I’ll meet you at your apartment in forty minutes.”

There’s no hesitation. No time to change out of the glittery, thigh-high-slit dress I just danced in. I yank my coat over my shoulders, shove my feet into boots, and grab my purse. I move fast, slipping out the back of the Golden Lights before anyone can stop me, driven by what I can picture my sister Tara’s terrified face to look like before that fucking phone line had gone dead.

Twenty minutes later, I’m in my apartment, fresh out of the shower with a towel knotted around my head, and the kettle boiling on the stove. I’ve changed into sweats and a hoodie—my armor against the chaos that is my life. Elena’s not here tonight. She’s safe at Mom’s. I should feel relieved. But I feel a hollow ache in my chest instead and this gut wrenching fear for my sister.

A knock at the door makes me jump, my nerves are so on end. I glance at the time.

That was fast, even for Sam.

I swing the door open and start my lecture about speeding, “Jesus, Sam you shouldn't drive so fast this isn’t urgent enough to kill…” My voice trails off as the expensive cologne assaults my senses and I have to tilt my head back to see the blue eye giant staring down at me with an amused look on his ruggedly handsome face.

“What are you doing here?” My voice sharpens instinctively. “Did you knock on the wrong door? The whores are on the next floor up.”

Oleksi Mirochin isn’t fazed. A slow smile spreads across his gorgeous mouth as he stands in my doorway like he owns it. “Hello to you too, Sabrina.”

“Are you looking for my mother?” My eyes narrow. “Because she lives right across town.”

“No. I’m not in the wrong apartment and I’m here to talk to you,” Oleksi tells me.

“At this time of night?” My brows shoot up in disbelief. “You couldn’t wait until morning and just call me like a normal person?

“Would you take my call?”

“I guess now we’ll never know, will we?” I taunt him.

He is so close that I can feel the heat of his body and his tantalizing cologne is starting to wreak havoc on my desires. Desires that haven’t been fulfilled in over a year now. I shake my thoughts away. Jesus, even if he were the last man on earth, I’d rather pleasure myself than fuck him.

“I was at the Golden Lights waiting for you to finish dancing but then you took off like a bat out of hell so here I am,” he explains.

“So you followed me?”

“No.” Oleksi shakes his head. “I do know where you live, Sabrina. You’re listed as your mother’s next of kin in her employee records.”

“Right!” I nod, not convinced. “What do you want?”

“To help you.” His eyes flick over me, slow and lazy, like he’s memorizing the slope of my hips beneath my hoodie. “Because I think we’re both looking for the same person.”

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