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“No.”
Her gaze immediately strays to the ladder leading up to the garage.
“Don’t even think about it,” I say sharply. “If I want it, I’ll get it myself. But neither one of us should—”
A deafening explosion shakes the room, making the ceiling light flicker and sending bits of plaster raining down. My pulse leaps, icy terror coating my insides. On instinct, I jump to my feet, and so do Chloe and Lyudmila. On the bed, Slava’s eyes are wide with fear. Our security drill lie has to be less believable by the second.
I start toward him, only to have Chloe beat me there. Grabbing him, she settles him on her hip, and before I can say anything, I hear his thin, high-pitched voice speaking English, as per Chloe’s teachings over the past couple of months.
“Mama Chloe, where’s Papa? I don’t like this. I want him with me.”
She hugs him tighter, like the adoptive parent she’s become. “Me too, darling. Me too. But don’t worry. It’ll be okay. Your daddy will be here soon. We just need to wait.”
Her words are meant to be reassuring, and maybe to Slava, they are. All I can think about, however, is that a potentially lethal blast just went off. That at this very moment, someone I care about might be out there, lying in pieces. It could be Nikolai. It could be Pavel. It could be—oh, God—Alexei.
I have to do something. If it is Alexei’s forces out there, I can’t let this go on. I have to stop this. I have to—
Lyudmila steps up to me. Wrapping her arm around my shoulders, she bends her head toward me and murmurs in Russian, “Don’t even think about it. You’ll only get in the way. Alexei is here for the boy, and your brother is not going to give him up, you know that. Whatever you think you can do, you can’t. Neither can I. The best thing we can do is stay here, where my husband and your brother don’t need to worry about us.”
She’s both right and wrong. Unlike Chloe, she knows about the betrothal, but she doesn’t realize that Alexei and I have this whole other history between us, that Slava may not be the main reason Alexei is here,ifhe’s here. What sheisright about is that it would be stupid to leave the safety of this bunker, to get in the way of whatever is going on above us. Lyudmila and I are both pretty good shots, thanks to Pavel’s training, but we’ve never been in actual combat. We’d be a liability out there, as surely as—
“What do you think caused that?” Chloe bursts out. Realizing she’s scaring Slava, she hugs him tighter and continues in a steadier voice. “The explosion, I mean. Do you think—”
Oddly, her panic calms me a bit. “Could be an RPG,” I say, covering my terror with a flat, emotionless tone of voice as I step out of Lyudmila’s hold. I have to pull myself together, for everybody’s sake. “They could’ve launched it at the garage to take out our vehicles and eliminate the option of escape. Either that, or they manually planted some explosives at the garage entrance—which would mean they’re already here, at the house.”
To my surprise, the words coming out of my mouth make some sort of sense. I try to think rationally, to further analyze the situation.
If they are at the house, we need to prepare.
Shoving down the emotions threatening to choke me, I head over to the wall of monitors.
Chloe is apparently on the same wavelength because she asks, “Are there any guns down here? I’ve been to a shooting range a few times, so I can—” She stops as she sees me press my palm against the wall. It slides away, revealing an extensive weapons collection.
“My brother has foreseen everything,” I say as I reach in and pick up a Glock. This is one of the many armories hidden throughout the house. Nikolai showed them all to me when we first arrived. “They’re unlikely to find this room anytime soon, but if they do, we’ll be ready,” I continue as I load the gun.
Chloe’s face is ashen as she sets Slava down and starts toward the armory, only to have the child wrap his arms around her legs. “I want Daddy.” Tears enter his voice as he tips his head back to stare up at her. “Where is he?”
My chest tightens painfully. I’m about to go reassure him, but Chloe is already on it. She pats his dark hair, her expression soft and her voice only slightly distressed. “I don’t know, darling, but I’m sure we’ll see him soon. For now, we just need to be prepared, okay? So your daddy knows we didn’t fail this drill and that we can take care of ourselves—that we’re all strong, like Superman.”
Slava lets out a sniff but releases Chloe’s legs, allowing her to move.
“Good boy,” she murmurs and glances at Lyudmila, who’s now arming herself as well. For whatever reason, that triggers Chloe again. Her voice jumps in volume. “What the fuck are we doing down here? We should be out there, helping them!” Catching herself, she modulates her tone and reaches for a gun. “Maybe one of us can stay down here to watch over—”
Another blast reverberates through the safe room, sending more plaster raining down on our heads and shattering the fragile façade of calm I’ve acquired. Terror fills my stomach with shards of glass, and fresh adrenaline saturates my veins as the overhead lights flicker several times before winking out completely, leaving us in darkness, with only sounds of muffled gunfire overhead.
Nikolai. Alexei.
No. Fuck, no. I can’t think about either of them getting hurt right now. Or Pavel or any of our guards. I have to concentrate on what I can control. I turn, groping my way through the darkness toward where I last saw the others when Chloe’s tense voice reaches me.
“Slava? Slava, where are you? Alina, Lyudmila, you there? Where is he? I can’t find Slava.”
The shards of glass expand to fill my chest. “He was right next to you.” I switch to Russian and raise my voice. “Slava! Slavochka,where are you?”
No answer.
Chloe’s panic bleeds into her voice. “Slava! This isn’t a game. We’re not playing hide-and-seek. Lyudmila, do you see him?”
Lyudmila answers in her ungrammatical English, sounding just as worried. “No. Maybe he hurt. I search now for light.”
