“Stay down,” he growls. His body presses against mine, keeping me behind him. One hand is flat on my chest, holding me in place before he goes back to gripping his gun with deadly precision.
Tires screech toward us. My heart stutters, and he throws me his phone. It’s on speakerphone, Semyon’s name at the top. “They’re coming in at three o’clock,” he yells. “Stopthem.”
A deafening boom like a cannon sounds ahead of us. Someone screams with maniacal glee, and Rafail shakes his head, cursing.Rodion.
A car races toward us at breakneck speed, tires squealing on pavement . Rafail leaps to his feet, heavy boots planted as he stands facing the oncoming car head-on, gun blazing. Fire spits from his weapon. Windows shatter. A tire explodes. I’m frozen in place, my heart racing, when it dawns on me with crystal clarity:they're going to hit us.In that moment—with the vehicle hurtling toward us and the knowledge that I'm going to be hit—a memory flashes in front of me.
I'm running. Running away from a nameless captor who's going to hurt me, running away from… Rafail? I can see the dark intensity of his gaze, even feel the heat of his fingers on me, but… he’s a stranger to me. He isn’t myhusband.
The memory of the accident comes back with brutal clarity. All of it. The screech of tires. The impact that shook my bones and rattled me into unconsciousness. His bellow of rage from behind me. Vague voices over me.
Another deafening boom rattles the ground beneath me. Then another. The car in front of us explodes as Rafail hits the ground and covers me.
“That’s it, Rodion,” Rafail says with dark approval. “Atta boy.”
Metal and glass fly over us. In an instant, Rafail presses me beneath him, shielding me with his body.
Bloodcurdling screams.
Boom.
Then… nothing.
Nothing but eerie silence.
I close my eyes, assaulted by memory after memory.
My mother.
My home.
I am Russian, and I…
It’s on the cusp of my consciousness, so close I cry out loud and reach for the air in front of me just before I collapse against Rafail, and my world fades to emptiness.
Chapter Fifteen
Rafail
The heavy silenceafter the gunfire weighs on me like bricks on my chest.
"They're gone," Semyon says from my phone. “We got them.”
I need answers.
I need her safe.
I need names.
My ears ring with the silence as I glance down at my wife. Panic sweeps over me when I realize her eyes are closed.
“Anissa!” I lift her slender shoulders and shake her. At first, she doesn’t answer, but after another shake, she blinks up at me, her eyes clouded with confusion and fear. Her chest rises and falls too quickly. It's too much.
Can I break my brain?She had asked.
Am I losing my mind?
Did she?
