Page 107 of Where the Wind Whispers

There was no way out.

The numb calm settling over Violet’s system was almost frightening. She could feel the fast beats of her heart, the thrumming in her throat and the fear simmering through her blood, but she was still so calm.

Her driver reached for a gun in his glove box.

Violet already knew it would do them no good.

Her father was making his final move, she realized.

Perhaps Alberto had expected this very thing—that Kaz would do what was best and right for his family as he always had, and send them away to be safe while blood painted the city red in his attempt to end it all once and for all. And in knowing that, maybe her father had decided to strike.

Was all that had come before—all that Alberto threw at them—just a lead up to this one moment?

Violet’s hand snaked across the seat and into her daughter’s car seat. She felt the softness of Anastasya’s cheek under her palm, and as the cars came closer, slowly closing them in a little more, she took that one moment to just touch her child.

She didn’t know what was going to happen.

But Violet did know a few things.

Fighting would do her no good. These people—likely her father’s men—had a job to do, and they would do it whether she fought them or not.

They wouldn’t hurt her, not enough to leave her for dead. This fact, Violet was positive of. Alberto had promised to hurt the things that meant the very most to her, but not her. The driver, however, was probably another story.

Violet couldn’t dwell on that for now.

She had more important things to consider.

Things like her child—what if they took her?

Violet’s panic came up fast and harsh, knocking her from that calm state and bringing her back down to reality.

What if he took her baby?

“Fuck!”

She heard the driver utter that one word just a single second before glass blew out the driver’s side window. He’d already had his gun out, and ready, but it did no good. Blood and brain matter painted the passenger side window and the seats as the bullet exited the right side of his head, and his body slumped over the seats.

Violet, watching men begin to slide out rather gracefully from their vehicles, scrambled for her daughter. Her hands shook as she unbuckled the baby’s harness, and she pulled a now crying Anastasya from her car seat.

“Mama’s here,” Violet told her, holding the baby closer and grabbing the fluffy blanket to wrap her tightly inside. “I’m right here, sweet girl.”

It didn’t help.

The noise from the gunshot and breaking glass had stunned the baby. It pissed Violet off.

Anastasya was just a baby.

She didn’t understand these people or why they were doing these things.

She was innocent.

Nearer the men came …

Violet hit the lock button on the SUV, hoping to at least deter them for a bit longer. Just enough for her to dig in her purse, her hand still trembling as she searched for the item that would likely do her no good.

She was far outnumbered.

There were too many men for her one.