Page 84 of Sinner's Sacrifice

She turned back to glare at her nephew. “Is she safe, Yvgeny?” she demanded.

“For now, yes,” he answered.

What the hell was going on? What hadn’t he told her? It must be something big. Something really, really fucked up. But damn if she could think of anything worse than that human trafficker scum bag Yvgeny had killed with his bare hands.

Activity on some of the hotel screens caught her attention.

Several people in very nice clothing had walked in through the main entrance. A couple of hotel employees greeted the group of five men and five women.

After a moment, the employees hurried off, one to the check-in desk and the other toward the concierge desk.

The newcomers checked their watches and cell phones, and milled around the space. Must be some kind of gathering.

The activity at the employee entrance down in the parking garage caught her eye.

Several cars had pulled in to block the doorway. As she watched, people piled out of the vehicles, all dressed in blue suits and carrying a variety of handguns and military style automatic rifles.

Whoa.

They headed for the entrance, but the doors didn’t open. The guy in the front aimed his gun at it and fired a couple of bullets.

Nothing happened.

Bullet-proof glass? She’d call Yvgeny paranoid, but obviously she was wrong.

What the hell else was she wrong about?

Someone in the middle of the pack made a hand gesture, and the group moved back on the other side of the cars. Then one of them tossed something at the entrance doors.

She leaned forward to stare at the screen. Was that a grenade?

The explosion a couple of seconds later answered her question. Yup. A fucking grenade.

The entire building shook, and the sound seemed to rumble through the floor and walls rather than air. Smoke and flames billowed out around the destroyed doorway for a moment, then the hotel fire alarm began to clang. Water shot out of the ceiling, dosing the entire area. Sam looked up, but the sprinklers above her didn’t spew out any water.

A few seconds later, the smoke cleared on the screen, and the doors were no longer an impediment. The other cameras showed no smoke or flames. The damage was concentrated on the employee entrance.

Wonderful. What was next? A tank?

People streamed out of the main entrance, and there was a line of people coming down the main stairway, also headed outside.

The fire alarm continued to ring, but Sam stayed right where she was.

Baz and Nika showed up on the main entrance camera as they ran into the building. But with the number of people trying to escape, Baz had to use his size to open a route.

The group of well-dressed people that had been waiting in the lobby hadn’t left the building. Instead, they were climbing the stairs, moving quickly. Too quickly. Holy cow, they were on the sixteenth floor already. How did they get there so fast?

Baz and Nika went into the stairwell, but Baz stopped inside the door. He looked up, then backed Nika out of the stairwell and moved toward the elevators.

Odd. Would they even work with the fire alarm going off?

Instead of trying for an elevator, he walked past them, dragging Nika behind him by their linked hands. He paused, studied the lobby, but everyone was focused on leaving.

He shoved at the wall, and a panel popped open. The gap wasn’t very big, just wide enough for Baz to slide through sideways.

He pulled Nika inside and the panel closed.

Sam shook her head. Of course, there was a secret passageway in the lobby.