Page 98 of Brutal Vows

Masha slides into the back and kicks the two guns deep under my seat, totally out of reach. I wouldn’t even know what to do with one of them.

“Direct him to the hunting lodge, Milana.”

“That’s a two-hour drive from here!” I turn in my seat to face her, my gaze soaking up Annushka where she is cradled against her chest, asleep in the baby carrier we bought months ago. She’s grown. My heart breaks. If only I could hold her⁠—

“Yes, and we need to stop on the way to pick up…a prop.”

“What the hell is going on?” I can’t shoot Masha. Not when she’s holding my baby like this.

“Look ahead, don’t attract attention from the fuckers in the vans. They will follow us, but we can lose them along the way.”

“Not in this fucking car,” Luca grumbles next to me as he turns on the ignition. “Which way, princess?”

Princess.

With one word, he pulls me back from the ledge. All the times he’s said it, first jokingly, teasingly, with ever-growing concern, and then with passion while we were making love, compounds its meaning to me in this moment: he’s got this. He has both me and Annushka. Whatever happens, we will get out of here alive.

I exhale softly, slowly, suppressing the anxiety-riddled rage and helplessness bubbling in me.

“Turn right, go straight for about two miles. Then left, and that road will eventually connect with the highway going east out of Saint Petersburg.” To the hunting lodge. Where Masha has spent so much time lately, hell-bent on revenge she’s been plotting for seven long years.

As soon as he pulls out of the parking space and into the traffic, I glance back.

“How are you?” I ask, trying to gauge her mood beyond the insanity of her pointing a gun at Luca’s side.

“No funny business, cowboy,” she says as she pokes his biceps with it.

“Gotcha,” he says, but there’s no smile in his voice.

She looks at me, answers me in Russian, locking Luca out of our conversation.

“I’m at peace. Finally. Just trust me. One last time. I know this all looks crazy, but there’s no other way you’d go with my plans. I couldn’t explain them over the phone either, or in messages.”

Her other hand cradles Annushka’s head, and my heart stills at how gently she’s holding her. There’s so much love and tenderness in that small gesture. The love she could have had for her own child, if it hadn’t been conceived through violence and force.

Annushka stirs, her little mittened hands up, pressing against Masha’s chest.

“She’s grown so much. I want to…I need to⁠—”

“I know. Not yet. Let’s first get to the meeting point.” Masha puts the gun down to pull off Annushka’s cap and gloves. “She’s too hot. Look who’s here, malyshka,” she coos. “Mama has come for you, just as I told you she would.”

I well up as an array of emotions floods me. Joy that she’s here, looking healthy. Fear for our future. Determination that this will not be our end. I lean in to curl a finger around my baby’s chubby little hand. She clutches at it, and tears run down my cheeks as relief floods through me. I cling to her and she clings to me, but I know it’s more of an instinct with her than intentional.

“I’m so sorry,” Masha murmurs, and our gazes meet in the dark. “But you’ll see, I’ve planned it all out and it’s going to be so perfect. You’ll walk away and will never have to look over your shoulder again. Nobody will know she’s yours and Dimitri’s.”

I don’t know what to think and can’t see where she’s going with this. She is crying too, but so quietly. A woman trained to withhold her emotions, too hurt, too battered, and too ruined to have tears left that could rip from her chest in agony.

“Did you bring her things?” Masha asks after a long stretch of silence.

“Yes, I have a baby bag for her with enough for three days. It’s in the suitcase on the seat next to you.”

“Good. I left everything behind. Even my phone. Hopefully, they will have missed me carrying her.” She picks up the gun again, holding it up with a weak wrist, not half as threatening as she was before. This is eating at her too.

Luca doesn’t notice, too focused on the road and the traffic, looking into the rear-view mirror every few seconds. “The black van is following us.”

“Yes. I thought it would,” Masha says, not glancing back. “See if you can lose him on the highway.”

He curses under his breath. “I don’t know the on- and off-ramps, but I’ll try.”