AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No,” she says sharply. “No one does. I mean, Ilarion probably does. Nothing gets past him. But Dima? No. He just thinks we’re buddies.”
“Good lord, Mila. I always figured you’d go for exactly what you want, no matter what.”
“That’s because you don’t know me. Not really.”
“I would like to, though. I’d like to understand.”
“Trust me: you’re gonna regret saying that.”
“Try me.”
She shakes her head. “Not today, okay?”
I can see the pain written across her face, and I’m thankful that at the very least, she allows me to see it, if not to do anything about it.
“Okay,” I agree. “Another day then.”
I turn back to look at my sister. It’s so strange to think she might not wake up. She looks like she’s having the best sleep of her life. Eyes closed, chest rising and falling, her hair fanned neatly around her face.
Wake up,I beg her silently.Wake up and make me do the right thing. Because the longer you stay asleep, the easier it is to convince myself that it’s okay to succumb to something that’s so, so wrong…
Mila frowns suddenly and cocks her head to the right. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear wh—? Wait.”
Thumping. Running footsteps. Then raised voices, tires crunching over gravel, the clatter of panicked men moving in many directions.
Mila and I rush to the window in the far corner of the room and rip the curtains apart. But since we’re facing the gardens instead of the front entrance of the house, we can’t see anything.
“It must be them,” Mila says, an air of panic radiating from her. “I’ll go check.”
“I’m coming with you,” I insist.
We head out of the medical wing together and rush towards the staircase. We’ve just reached the first floor when I notice a trail of blood dripping on the white marble.
One of the security men zips past me, but before he can get far, I grab his arm and pull him to a stop. “What happened?” I beg. “What’s going on?”
He doesn’t immediately answer me, but then his gaze veers to Mila. “It’s thepakhan,” he says. “He was shot.”
63
TAYLOR
It’s my fault.
That’s the first thought that pops into my head the moment I register the news. I’m cursed. I’m a bad luck charm. I should come with a warning.
Don’t get too close to me, people! If you do, you’re likely to get shot or abducted or knocked into a never-ending coma.
“Taylor?”
I jerk to the side at the feel of someone’s hand on my shoulder. Mila gazes at me with those searing eyes of hers that remind me, for the first time, of her brother’s.
I tremble under her touch. “I…I can’t… If he’s dead…”
“We don’t know that. We don’t know anything. We don’t—Dima!”
Relief floods her face and she takes off at a run, jumping right into Dima’s embrace. He wraps his arms around her, letting out a low grunt when their bodies collide. “Oof! You put on a few?”
