Please don’t let me be too late, she prayed, pistol in hand as she neared the shadowy end of the alley. Only minutes ago she’d seen some of Stanislav’s thugs leave this place, speeding away in vehicles. And she hoped she was wrong about why they had come here. And who they had left in this desolate place.
There was no sound other than her hushed footsteps. No light here, and no one behind her. Holding her breath, she switched on the tac light on the top of her weapon. The thin beam of light lit up the end of the alley, outlining the body lying there.
A woman.
No…
Kiyomi ran toward the woman, heart in her throat. She couldn’t be too late.
Dropping to her knees beside the figure sprawled on her stomach, Kiyomi set the weapon down so that the light bounced off the nearest brick wall and gingerly turned the woman over.
Her heart clenched, a cry of denial locking in her throat. “Julia,” she croaked, horror swamping her.
Her friend’s face had been beaten almost to the point of being unrecognizable. Her nose had been flattened. Her lips were split open, dark, congealed blood telling Kiyomi it had been done hours ago. One swollen eyelid twitched, and slowly opened a slit, revealing a bloody eye with a hazel iris. The recognition in it as it looked up at her made the backs of Kiyomi’s eyes sting.
They’d bound her arms behind her. Kiyomi pulled out a knife and quickly freed Julia’s hands. Her friend moaned in pain.
Her fingers had been broken. Methodically.
Julia’s breathing was shallow and uneven. Raspy from the blood in her lungs.
Kiyomi had no medical supplies with her. And even if she had, Julia was beyond all that. She was dying. Needed immediate, emergency surgery.
“Hold on,” Kiyomi commanded, pulling out her phone to call for an ambulance. She cradled the side of Julia’s face with her free hand, maintaining eye contact with that one, slitted eye as she spoke to the emergency operator and gave them Julia’s location.
Julia’s arm twitched. One mangled, bloody hand lifted slightly. Brushing Kiyomi’s before falling. “H…help.”
The plea was barely loud enough to be a whisper. Barely audible in the awful, hushed gloom of the alley.
“I will,” Kiyomi vowed. “Help is coming. You have to hold on. For both of us.” She leaned over her friend, rage and agony howling inside her. “I’m sorry,” she said in an anguished whisper. “So sorry.” She’d been so close to finding Julia these past few days. So close to being able to free her and spare her this painful, hideous end.
Julia didn’t answer, struggling to breathe, the sound wet and gurgling and awful. But that one eye stayed locked on Kiyomi, as if it was the only thing keeping her alive.
She stayed as long as she could. Until the wail of the ambulance siren was so close that she barely had time to get away before it arrived. No one could find her. No one could know of the connection between her and Julia. It was too dangerous.
Kiyomi held her friend’s face and forced a smile. “You’re going to be okay,” she lied. “Help is here. And I swear I’ll find who did this and make them pay. I swear it.”
The eye focused on her for one last moment, then closed. And Kiyomi’s time was up.
Pain clawing at her, she shoved to her feet, stole one last helpless glance at her dying friend, then turned and ran back up the alley and disappeared into the murky darkness just as the ambulance turned into the alley.
Pulling in a sharp breath, Kiyomi returned to the present. The woman suddenly broke eye contact and disappeared into the moving crowd.
Kiyomi broke away from the car, heart thudding. She ignored Marcus’s worried call behind her and headed straight for the group of people filing out of the lot into the narrow walkway.
But when she reached the edge of it and scanned the crowd, the red-headed woman was gone. Or perhaps she’d been wearing a wig and removed it.
Damn, and the team was all off comms now. Kiyomi pulled out her phone and shot off a desperate text, pushing her way through the crowd, searching for the woman.
Female. Early to mid-thirties. Black capris and gray T-shirt. Heading south on walkway from parking lot. Possibly red wig in possession.
She shoved her phone into her pocket and moved faster, studying every single woman she came across. All too soon she reached the end of the walkway.
She followed the crowd out onto the street and paused to look around, turning every which way. There were too many people around to easily pick out the woman now.
She spotted Eden moving toward her, Zack a few paces behind. Eden shook her head as she got close. “Do you see her?” She stopped next to Kiyomi to look around.
“No.” Dammit. She couldn’t have disappeared into thin air.
The rapid thud of crutches made her glance over her shoulder. Marcus was rushing toward her, a deep scowl on his face. “What the hell?” he demanded. “What’s going on?”
She shook her head and kept looking around, frustrated. “I thought…”
He caught the side of her face and turned it toward him, worry lurking in his eyes. “You look like you saw a ghost.”
“I…thought I did,” she murmured, wondering if she’d misread this completely. Or if she’d imagined something that wasn’t really there. Maybe she’d seen similarities simply because she wanted to so badly.
Whoever that woman was, she was long gone now. “Hurry,” she told him and the others. “I need Amber and Lady Ada.”
She was silent on the speeding drive back to the manor, her mind in turmoil, and thankfully Marcus didn’t press her. Amber was waiting for her the moment she stepped through the door. “What’s going on?”
“I need you to dig into Julia Green’s death,” she said, aware of all the others gathered around them.
Amber nodded and rushed to get Lady Ada. Kiyomi stayed with her, the thump of Marcus’s crutches close behind them.
Kiyomi stood tensely while Amber worked her magic.
It couldn’t be her, she argued with herself. You know it’s impossible. You saw the death certificate. Verified for yourself that she died.
Yet there was no quashing the hope beating inside her. Pressing against the inside of her ribs until it felt like they would split.
Marcus wrapped an arm around her and held her firmly to him. She leaned into his strength, her heart thudding as she waited, watching the information Amber pulled up on the screen.
After a few minutes, Amber spoke. “She was pronounced dead at this hospital in Moscow on the night you found her. October eleventh.”
Kiyomi stared at the screen, disappointment hitting her hard. “You’re sure?”
“Positive. These records list her as an unknown prostitute, cause of death internal bleeding from being beaten. And here are the police reports confirming it.” She looked up at Kiyomi questioningly.
Shit.
Deflated, Kiyomi released a hard breath and ran a hand over her face. It was stupid of her to allow herself to hope. Stupid to even think it could be possible that Julia had somehow survived. She’d seen for herself the extent of Julia’s injuries. Had known she was dying even as she’d knelt beside her.
Still… She couldn’t let this go in case there was even a sliver of a chance that she was right. That maybe this had all been an elaborate test of sorts, to feel them out.