Page 90 of Lord of Passion

"Hey, fucker!" One shouts. "What the-"

Kliment pulls a gun on them and he shuts up, scrabbling backward onto the sidewalk.

I'm running, pushing people aside. The Hotel Lyric is a beautiful old brownstone. Windows are shattering from the heat of thefire, and the flames are creeping out some of the broken windows. Oily black smoke stains the stone and I can hear the screaming.

Calling Isaak, I curse when I get that same blank message, "The number you are calling is-"

"Nikandr!" Alexsey grabs my jacket, swinging me around. "Have you reached anyone inside the building?"

"No," I say grimly. The fire trucks' sirens are blaring as they turn onto the street. "It's got to be Novikov. He's using a cell signal jammer."

Morozov security are helping people out the front doors from the lobby, guests staggering with smoke inhalation, employees who stayed behind to help, uniforms burned and smoking. There's a blinding white flash and an explosion shatters the doors, bringing down tons of stone and broken wood, blocking it.

"Fuck!" Alexsey says, lacing his hands on the top of his head. Grabbing his phone, he dials our security. "There are three other exits. The kitchen and the loading dock in the back, another guest entrance on the left side of the lobby. Cell phones are dead inside, tell everyone you see."

"I have to go," I say racing to the alleyway on the right.

"Nik, not that way!" Alexsey shouts, staggering under the weight of the two injured guests that a firefighter hands him. "The left!"

He may have remodeled this hotel, but I'm the one who's crept in more than once to get a look at my wife. There's a dumpster that's tall enough to get me to a second-floor window. I'm sure that she called me from her office, that's where the security monitors are.

The hallway is thick with smoke and broken glass; it takes me a moment to figure out where I am. Caroline is two hallways over. Most of this floor is clear, I hear footsteps thudding above me on the third floor, and screams from the lobby as our security and Morozov employees are trying to get people out. I can hear Dmitri's roar of fury from here when the firefighters try to block him from going back in.

"Take your fucking hands off me," he shouts. "I am Dmitri Morozov and I take responsibility for my safety. Now get your fire hoses going!"

I grin, pulling my jacket up over my nose and mouth, gun drawn. One hall… then the next. Isaak and Rafail are pounding on the door, Rafail's holding a marble-topped table, slamming against the wood.

"Mrs. Morozova! Can you open the door? Tell us you're alive, please!"

"Has she tried to get out?" I cough. Both their faces are soot-streaked, with their eyes red and running.

"Sovietnik!" Rafail wheezes. "No, she tried to turn the door handle, I don't think she can unlock it."

"Break the door in, it's not steel. Wood will eventually crack." They slam the table against the door even harder as I turn in a circle, looking for another way around to her.

There is an exterior window two doors down. Caroline has a terrace connected to her office… Kicking the glass out and craning my neck, I can see her balcony. The black railing looks sturdy. With a half smile, I know my wife could jump this effortlessly. Unfortunately, there's nothing under the window so I'm going to have to make my leap, crouching on the windowsill.

***

Caroline…

His oily voice started talking to me after I realized I couldn't unlock my door.

"Hello, my sweetheart." Johann Novikov. Of course. Of course it is. He's been busy today, booby-trapping my hotel. "It's hard to see people you love die, isn't it?"

He's using the overhead mic. I can't answer back, he knows he's got a captive audience. The monitors flicker out and turn on again, now, the images are cruelly sharp.“I want to make sure you can seeeverything,”he whispers.

The first footage is from the lobby. The explosion I'd heard was from there. Tons of rubble and shattered timber are blocking the exit. Another monitor. The ninth floor, it's almost completely engulfed. The feed shakes violently before it goes black. I'm frozen in front of the bank of monitors, each one coming to life to display another round of horrors.

My shaking fingers try to call Nikandr again. No answer. Running to my desk, I pick up the in-house phone, dialing the front desk, nothing. The Melody Restaurant on the fifth floor, just a flat buzz.

"It's quite terrible being helpless, isn't it?" Johann's voice sounds nauseatingly sympathetic as another monitor lights up. It's the pool area and steam is already rising from the water. There's two people in swimsuits cowering by the window. "I don't think those two are getting out," he sighs theatrically.“So many people dying, because of you.”

"Shut the fuck up!" I scream.

A shot fires outside my door and I race over, which is probably insane because there's two more shots and they could be coming through the door at any time. "Go!" I scream so loud that my lungs vibrate. "Isaak and Rafail, get out!" They can't die for me.

"Ah, I believe their time is up, my sweetheart," Johann's horrible voice crackles over the mic again.