Her Rogue Russian(30)

 

I'm not leaving until I have answers, he reminded himself as he pulled his fist back and hammered on the front of the apartment. The door jumped its frame and eased open beneath his hand with an ominous creak, to reveal a darkened living room. Even after riding all the way over through a mostly uninterrupted night, Maxim's vision wasn't prepared for this. He stepped carefully over the threshold and ran his hand along the wall, pausing only briefly when he located the light switch. He flipped it on.

 

The room was suddenly bathed in light, and he could now see it was also bathed in blood.

 

He made no noise. He didn't so much as blink or flinch as the full horror of the scene sank in around him. A man's body lay on the floor in a sickening heap, a puddle of fresh red blood blooming out around him, leeching into the carpet and likely already dripping down into the neighbor's apartment below. There was gore splashed on the wall behind him as well, and heavy clumps of it clung to pieces of the man's spare furniture.

 

This had happened recently, then. The apartment's tenant had been murdered that night, and likely within the last hour.

 

Maxim studied the brutality of the crime scene. Accepted it. Kept any emotion carefully bottled up and isolated away from his logic center. Then, he moved carefully across the room to the lone desk pushed back against the wall. There were papers strewn about everywhere, scattered documents coded in numeric cyphers. Occasionally, he spotted what appeared to be contracts signed and dated in Russian. He wished it wasn't all so familiar.

 

"Maxim?"

 

Maxim whirled, his heart flying into his throat. Savannah stood in the doorway, wide eyes drinking in the scene before her. He saw her hand drop to her side, only to come up frighteningly, desperately short of discovering a firearm there.

 

"What the hell are you doing here, Savannah?" His voice cracked on the air like a shot. Her gaze leapt to him.

 

"I-I followed you. In a cab." He was startled to find tears leaking from the edges of her eyes. "Did you do this, Maxim? How? How … ?"

 

"That man is a hitman," he stated. "You'll have a hard time nailing him down in your database, but I'm betting it's all there if you dig deep enough."

 

"Did you know him?" Savannah whispered.

 

"I've known men like him. And I've seen this before." Maxim gesticulated to the horror show they were being forced to act in now. "This man was assassinated, Savannah. Likely in the moments before I got here. Whoever is responsible is long gone. I have a feeling I'm being set up."

 

As if to confirm his theory, the lone wail of a distant siren rent the air. Savannah gave a small start. Soon another took up the call, and then another, until Maxim was certain an entire pack of squad cars was closing in around them. They likely had only moments before the entire place was swarming with cops.

 

"I didn't call them." Savannah choked, fighting back whatever emotion threatened to take hold of her. "God damn it, but I should have called them. Maxim, this …  this is …  how am I supposed to believe you had no part in this?"

 

"Didn't you say you know the man I am now?" he said tersely. He stepped over the victim's body and went to her; Savannah drew back, but there was nowhere else to retreat. He had her by the shoulders before she could back her way out the front door. "Savannah." He wanted to shake her, but he refrained. It was all too much, too much, for him to handle anymore. He thought he could go it alone; he thought he could weather the accusations of his father's murder, but this …  seeing the face of the woman he-

 

 

 

        

          

        

         

 

"Go. Out the back. We have to get out of here. Both of us." Savannah spoke to him in stilted orders, and Maxim was all too happy to comply. He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her after him, navigating the expanding lake of red as he spirited them both out onto the back porch. They took the stairs quickly, hugging the shadows as the distant sirens drew closer.

 

"I'll get us out of here," he said. "I parked around back away from the road. We'll take my Hawk and drive as far from here as possible. We'll-"

 

"You'll take me home," Savannah stated. "And you'll give me that phone. In fact, you'll give it to me now."

 

Maxim stopped short and turned. Savannah stood rigid at the bottom of the stairs; he knew she wouldn't come with him if he didn't comply. He would run, and she would stay and rejoin the task force. They would turn her against him, and she would hunt him to the ends of the earth if he allowed the night to end this way.