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Demyen smiles and lifts the back of my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss there. “Yeah?”
“Do you maybe… want to go out sometime? Just you and me. And a candlelight dinner.”
I’m really more of a cheeseburger and fries girl, but I’m also a “let’s date abusive assholes” girl and old habits need to die.
Baby steps.
He grins. “Yeah? You sure?”
“I’m sure.” My heart squeezes at the notion that he’s even asking. No, I’m not loving the idea of being in a restaurant full of complete strangers who could all be armed…
But I’m alsohatingthe idea of not being in control of my own goddamn life.
Demyen looks so proud of me. There’s no way I’m backing out of this now. He opens his mouth to answer, but then the car’s system alerts him to an incoming call from Pavel.
He lets go of my hand just to tap the “Accept” button. “Everything okay, Pav?”
I glance at the clock. Willow’s school should be letting out right about now.
“I’m not liking this,” Pavel’s voice rolls low through the car speakers. “I’m here at the school, I have Willow, but…”
I take in a sharp breath.
Demyen glances at me. “But what, man?”
“I think I just saw a caravan of black SUVs pull in through the back?—”
POP-POP-POP.Gunshots. Screams.
Oh, God.
“Pav?”
“They’re here!” Pavel shouts into his phone. “They’re here and—run! Willow,run!”
Willow screams.
The line goes dead.
My world is spinning on a broken axis.
The only thing tethering me to it is Demyen’s hand squeezing mine. The sound of his voice promising me that we’re going to go get Willow “right fucking now.” Even the sound of his voice shouting orders in Russian is better than the dead buzzing of the ended call.
I do my best not to puke all over the leather seats while he pulls a U-turn so fast that it lifts us on two wheels before we crash back down.
We peel up front-and-center at Willow’s school, Demyen ordering me to stay inside the car while he grabs a gun out of fucking nowhere and bursts into the fray.
I get it—he wants me to stay where it’s safe. He loves me.
But this place looks like a goddamn battlefield and my baby girl is somewhere in the middle of it.
I’m not staying put.
“Clara!”
I ignore his shouts and beeline straight for Willow’s classroom. There are bullet holes lodged in the adobe walls and piercing through the glass windows.
Oh, God…
