Page 41 of Mine To Possess

Amelia smiles back at him and thanks him. I help her into the jacket, then put my arm back around her shoulders.

“All right then. I’m going to have a word with the police,” Marty says.

I nod and he goes off to find an officer. I should probably go and talk to them myself, but Marty knows more about this than I do, and I have no intention of telling the police my theory about Igor. I’ll be dealing with him myself.

I look around the crowd again. Most of the people who were lying on the ground have been taken away in the first two ambulances, and the people left look for the most part like they only need basic first aid. The firefighters are fighting the blaze and a team of them are running in and out, pulling out bodies and covering them with white sheets that instantly turn black and red.

A firefighter stumbles out of the building with a woman slung over his shoulder. It’s the woman who was on the ground. I recognize her bright pink dress, even though it’s now streaked with black.

“Paramedic,” the fire fighter shouts. “Paramedic.”

Two paramedics rush in, passing by me and Amelia.

“We’ve got a live one,” he says. “I suspect she has a broken leg. She was trampled as people ran from the fire, but I think that’s what saved her life. She was so low down, she’s inhaled a lot less smoke than the others who were trapped in there.”

The firefighter puts the woman down on the wheeled stretcher the paramedics have brought over. She moans in pain as he puts her down as gently as he can. It’s a sound that should make me cringe, but instead, it warms my heart. She’s alive and conscious and that’s way more than I expected of her. A broken leg seems like nothing in comparison to what could have happened to her.

Another paramedic wheels the woman away. Amelia coughs beside me and I look down at her with concern.

“We need to get you to the hospital.”

She shakes her head and points. “Look,” she says. “I’ll just go over there.”

Two paramedics have set up a first aid area where they’re checking over people from the fire to assess if their smoke inhalation is bad enough to go to hospital or not and patching up minor burns. I nod and lead Amelia towards them. We join a short line, and within five minutes Amelia is in the hands of the paramedics.

“Are you ok here for a minute?” I ask her. “I have to make a call.”

“Sir, wait,” one of the paramedics says. “We really need to check you over. You could have inhaled more smoke than you think, and your hand is bleeding.”

I hadn’t even noticed the cut on my hand. I must have gotten it breaking and climbing out of the window.

“It’s nothing,”

The paramedic looks ready to argue with me, but I’m already walking away. I move away from the crowd and pull my cell phone from my jeans’ pocket and call Jerome, my main security guy. It’s late, well after midnight, but he answers my call quickly.

“Jerome? It’s Viktor,” I say. “Any word on Igor’s location?”

I know this could be a coincidence. It could be an act of mindless violence from some idiot, but I don’t believe that. Since I killed his father, Igor has popped up on my radar several times, talking shit about me and causing trouble in one of my clubs. The bouncer there broke his jaw and I thought that would be the end of it, but that only made it worse.

I’ve tasked Jerome with finding Igor’s location, but he seems to have gone underground, and Jerome’s men have been having trouble finding where he’s hiding.

“Not yet. I have men looking for him still, but honestly boss, it’s like he’s just vanished off the face of the earth,” Jerome says.

“Except he hasn’t. Because it looks like he’s just gas bombed one of my fucking restaurants,” I say.

“What?” Jerome exclaims.

“Yeah,” I confirm. “He threw a Molotov cocktail into Papa’s. And I’m going to make him pay. People have died in that fire. I was in that restaurant with my girl, and I swear he’ll pay for that twice.”

“Are you ok? Is she ok?” Jerome asks.

“We’re both fine. Amelia’s just getting checked over for smoke damage, but she’s mostly ok. But she might not have been. Jerome, I want this search widened. Use any resources you need but find me that fucker. And fast,” I say.

“Got it,” Jerome says.

I end the call and go back to the first aid stand. The paramedic has just finished dealing with Amelia.

“Are her lungs clear?” I ask.