Page 28 of Tarnished Queen

But then, in a move even I wasn’t expecting, she spins around and sprints out of the back door.

“Fuck,” I growl. “Elise, wait!”

I step forward, but the security guard has his gun out now. It doesn’t matter anyway. If I follow Elise through the room, she’ll maintain her lead. I need to move in the opposite direction and cut her off.

As I head back for the front door, I hear Camille talking to the woman at the front desk. “I guess a space just cleared up, am I right?”

The woman is slick, I’ll give her that.

Outside on the sidewalk, I take a hard right. An alley that runs through the center of the block. It’s my fastest path to the street behind the building. I turn into the alley and bear down, solely focused on the light at the other end—

When something slams into my shins.

The pain is blinding, but as I fall forward, I manage to tuck into a roll over my right shoulder. I pop up on my feet, facing the way I just came, though my shinbones are screaming at me.

The man across the alley snarls at me. He has the Battiato crest tattooed on his neck. It stands out against his pale skin, which is growing paler by the second. He clearly didn’t expect me to recover as quickly as I did.

“What the—”

I cross the distance between us in two strides and throw a punch before he can even raise his arms. His nose gets pulverized beneath my fist and he falls back against the brick wall. I follow, landing two more savage hits to his unguarded middle while he helplessly shields his face with his arms.

Then he roars, drops his shoulder, and drives me back to the center of the alley. I curse under my breath. Every second I spend here with this fool is another second Elise puts between us.

“I don’t have time for this shit,” I grit out. I reach for my gun, but the soldier is swiping at my arms and trying to pin them to my side.

Fine. We’ll do this the old-fashioned way. I drive my knee up into his face. More shit breaks. He groans and flops back. It’s enough time for me to grab my gun and stick it in his face.

I’m tempted to blow his brains out right away. But I have some questions first.

“What are you doing here?”

His eyes cross as he stares at the gun. “Takin’ a night walk,” he spits.

I whip him across the face with the butt of my gun. “Try again, wiseass.”

His nose is bleeding freely, blood flowing down his chin. His jaw works as he considers his options. Finally, he shakes his head. “I was here for the girl.”

“Xena wants Elise?” I guess.

At that, his lips smash together into a flat line.

“Don’t want to talk? Fine. I don’t really want to listen, anyway.”

He lifts his chin in defiance, but before the smug look can even settle into place, I pull the trigger. I’m already moving down the alley by the time I hear his body hit the ground.

I stop when I reach the other mouth of the alley, but the street beyond is empty. Whichever way Elise went, she’s long gone now.

I reach for my phone and, on instinct, dial Arslan’s number. It rings twice before I realize what I’m doing.

I freeze, my phone in my hand, and fight the urge to smash it against the wall. After a few deep breaths, I hang up and call Yuri instead.

“Change of plans,” I tell him. “Elise slipped away. Track her again.”

Without a single wisecrack about me letting a teenager escape my grasp, Yuri agrees. “Of course, sir.”

Arslan taught these men nothing, I think. Or maybe he taught them everything. Because if anyone else tried to talk to me the way he used to do, I’d have killed them.

“I ran into a Battiato soldier. He’s dead in the alley next to the building. Clean him up and find Elise before Xena does.”

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