Page 13 of Bratva's Vow
How an armed intruder had gotten into the room was beyond me. I was seeking answers because the fact that Wren had been with me when this happened was unforgivable.
What if Wren had been the one who got hit?
That guy with the bone sticking out of his leg because he thought it was smart to get fresh with me was lucky he only had a broken limb.
If it had been Wren who got shot, he’d be dead.
I stepped forward, slow and deliberate, until the faint clicking of my shoes against the polished floor made one of the employees flinch.
“Everyone here right now,” I said, voice low, measured, “was working during the last hour. Yes?”
Everyone nodded. No one dared speak.
“Then someone in this room either let the shooter in or turned a blind eye.” I clasped my hands behind my back, forcing myself not to clench them into fists. “I’m not interested in theories. I want facts. Names. Access logs. Security footage. Everything.”
One of the workers, a tall, pale guy with a trembling jaw and a clipboard clutched to his chest, cleared his throat. “We-we have security cameras in the corridors and the staff entrances, but not in the game arena itself. That’s standard. Corporate doesn’t like the idea of kids being filmed in the dark.”
“I want to see every frame of footage from today. I want a full log of staff members who had access to the restricted zones. And I want it in the next five minutes.”
The room stayed frozen.
“We-we don’t have access to all that.” I tracked the speaker. Casey. The one who’d welcomed us into TagX. “The manager has the system password, and he-he’s not here.”
I slammed my palm against the wall, and she jumped, biting off the rest of her sentence with a squeak. I stepped in front of her. Bent just enough to meet her eye. “Bullshit. Someone else must have access to the system. What if something happened to the manager? Who’s next in charge?”
No answer. I let the silence stretch on, allowing each second to emphasize my impatience. Casey swallowed hard, her wide eyes glistening with unshed tears.
The last thing I wanted was to hurt any of them. They were just doing their jobs. Minus the fucker who’d taken a shot at me.
“Listen to me, Casey. You look like a smart woman. We came here for a good time. That’s all. We would have been in and out of here with no problems, but someone,someonedecided to play God with my life, and now I need to do the same with theirs. There’s no reason anyone else has to get involved in this. You were responsible for our party, so it’d be in your best interest to give us what we need to find the person behind this.” I lifted her chin with a finger. “Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to take it that you’re in on this plot to kill me.”
Her eyes went wild, and she shook her head. “No, I didn’t know anything. It’s Bryan. Bryan has access to the security feed.”
She pointed at the guy whose leg I’d broken.
He was pale, sweaty, and his eyes darted around in panic. I rose to my feet and crossed my arms. “Bryan, it’s officially nice to meet you. I am Maxim—Maxim Morozov. Now I can be the man who gets you medical attention stat or the man who breaks your other leg. For starters. What’s it going to be?”
He spilled his guts. In no time, my men had set up screens along the check-in desk so we could scrub through the footage at high speed. Viktor brought Bryan to the doctor who was working on Sergei’s arm to get his leg fixed.
One of the guys watching the footage tensed. “Mr. Morozov, I think I’ve found something.”
I strode over. The footage wasn’t crystal clear, but it was good enough. A man, average build, hoodie up. No laser tag gear. Moving through the back corridor too quickly to be casual.
“Where does that hallway lead?” I asked.
“To the staff only entrance,” Casey whispered. “And storage.”
“Zoom in.”
The hoodie flickered forward a few steps, head down, but I saw enough. He hadn’t been a guest. No wristband. No vest. And the moment he turned sideways toward the maintenance panel, I spotted the weapon.
Small. Concealed.
For a moment, I didn’t move.
Then I turned back to the room. My pulse was a cold throb under my skin. “Someone let him in. He didn’t come through the main entrance. He doesn’t have a pass. Someone opened a door.”
Silence.
