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Just when he turns back to keep walking, I hear what sounds like six vehicles racing in our direction from a distance.
“Dominik, is that a normal sound around here?” I ask as the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
“Fuck, we need to run now!” he shouts, grabbing me by the hand and pulling me behind a cinderblock wall before I hear the first round of gunfire.
They found us.
My vision tunnels as the panic overtakes me. The bullets hit the wall, just narrowly missing the place where we’d been standing moments ago.
Dominik jerks my arm again, and we sprint down the wall towards the parking lot where the motorcycle is parked. It’s blocked off from where the men are, but it won’t be for long. I can hear them preparing to annihilate us, and I know from experience that this is just a game to them.
He’s got his hand on his gun just in case, but he won’t be able to fend off all of them. Knowing my father, he probably brought in the Albanians as reinforcements. He isnotgoing to let me get away.
When we reach the bike, I’m shaking so much from terror that I can hardly move my hands. Dominik sees me struggling, so he takes the helmet and places it on my head for me before picking me up and putting me on the back.
I automatically wrap my arms around him, and I brace for the inevitable horrid sound of the bike’s engine as we speed out of the parking lot. I’m deafened by it as soon as we fly out onto the road, going in the opposite direction from where we came.
My heart is pounding inside of my chest, and if I didn’t know better, I would be afraid that it was about to explode.
Somewhere between here and the first shot, it feels like my mind took me out of my own brain and placed me into a jar of opaque liquid. Everything that’s happening feels like I’m witnessing it in third person, maybe suspended in the air. I’ve heard of this happening to other people when they experience something terrifying, but I never really believed it until now.
We get onto the highway, and Dominik sends us flying up the ramp at ninety miles an hour.
So far, neither of us has been shot. We haven had anything thrown at us that would destabilize the bike. If I could, I would look behind us to see if I could spot them weaving through traffic, but all I can do is hold on and hope that we lost them for good.
The fact that they were able to find us that quickly is unnerving to say the least, but at least in California we’ll be far enough that they won’t be able to do it in a day.
I’d do anything to just talk to Dominik right now, to get into his head and really know what he’s thinking. But all I can do is trust him, and it’s starting to look like I might have to trust him for a long time.
32
DOMINIK (2 MONTHS LATER)
I’m watching Mika sleep soundly in the motel bed that we’ve been in ever since we got to California. At first, she was repulsed by it, which I would have expected given the ivory tower that she was raised in. She’s adjusted well, and so far she hasn’t shown any signs of significant trauma. At least, nothing that we can’t work on.
We came here with nothing, no prospects or family to stay with. The only thing we have here is the perceived promise of safety from one specific man. There are still bad people here, especially in the area where we’ve been staying.
I was able to get a muscle-for-hire job pretty easily with one of the local gangs. It doesn’t pay like the Bratva did, but my position is far less involved. Since the room we’re staying in is eighty dollars a night, it’s been difficult to save it. Buying clothes for both of us was expensive, and food here cost far more than it did back in the city. I didn’t think that was possible, but here I am.
Things haven’t been easy since we got here, but I’m still grateful that we were able to escape at all. I haven’t seen or heard anything suspicious, and for now, that’s the most important thing.
Mika’s been having some issues with nausea again, and I’m not sure if it’s because she’s anxious about being out of her element or from the babies. One is already a lot in our situation. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be carrying two of them.
Yes, two. I was surprised when I found out. The doctor’s eyes got so big that I thought something was wrong. I saw those two shapes on the monitor and feared the baby had split in half or something.
Mika laughed at me for it, but now she has to admit that I care. A lot. Twins wasn’t something I ever expected, but it makes sense since they run in her family.
I just hope I can be the right type of dad for them. This is all so new to me.
“Jesus, you scared me,” Mika says as I walk into the room carrying what I could salvage from a vending machine.
“Sorry,” I mumble, dumping the food onto the bed where she’s laying. “I was trying to be quiet.”
She laughs, taking a bag of chips from the pile. “Being quietiswhat’s scary. I can’t hear you coming.”
“I’ll try to be, uh, louder next time.”
“What do you think the twins are going to be like?” She asks, popping a chip int her mouth.
