Page 160 of Ruby Malice

I think I love you.

The words are welling inside of me. It might be reckless. It might be a mistake. But why else would I keep coming back? What else can explain why our bodies respond to each other this way? I’ve never experienced this before and I may never experience it again… unless I tell him how I feel.

I open my mouth to say it. To blurt it out, consequences be damned.

Before I can, a scream echoes through the great hall.

Kirill goes rigid and turns towards the door. “What the—”

“A body,” a woman cries. “They found a body in the water!”

The breath leaves me in a rush. But I manage one word. “Ilya.”

Kirill hesitates for one second, his eyes roving over my face. Then he sprints out of the kitchen and is gone.

38

RAYNE

I get dressed as quickly as I can and run into the great room.

Everyone, guests and staff, are lined up along the wall of windows. The overhead lights are dimmed so they can better see the action unfolding on the sand below.

Kirill isn’t in the room, but I see Natalia’s half-shaved head near the end of the line. I run over and grab her shoulder. “Who is it?”

“We don’t know. Sonya and Kirill took off and no one here recognizes him.”

Him.

Please no.

Please, God, no.

I’ve never been a praying person, but I’ll drop to my knees and beg with my very life for this to not be happening.

Anyone but Ilya. He deserves so much better.

“One of the guards on guard duty saw someone walking on the beach. I guess when they went to escort them off the property, they realized the man was struggling in the water.” Natalia points at the glass, referencing the section of beach closest to Ilya’s apartments. “They just got him back to shore a minute ago.”

I follow her finger and see a cluster of shadows on the beach. There are a few headlamps and phone flashlights. Just enough light to illuminate the man knelt down on the ground, vigorously doing compressions on a body in the sand.

Kirill.He’s pumping his arms into a person I can’t see, clearly giving it everything he has.

There’s only one reason in the world thathewould be the one doing chest compressions.

“My God,” I whisper hoarsely.

Natalia turns to me. “What is it, Rayne? Do you know who that is?”

I couldn’t answer even if I wanted to. Grief is lodged in my throat, making it impossible to speak. Instead, I turn on my heel and run for the double doors.

“We’re supposed to stay here!” another waitress calls after me. “They told us all to wait.”

Leonid says something, too. But I don’t care about any of them. I care about Kirill and Ilya. My boys.

“I love them both,” I rasp, not that anyone is listening, as I take the stairs down to the back patio two and three at a time.

How could it have been so hard to admit that a few minutes ago? It’s so obvious now. So blindingly, stupidly obvious.

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