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Ana steps back, her face pale. “I thought this was a linen closet. What are you doing? What’s up there?”
“You’re safe with me.” I hold her and cradle her head. “I just want to show you something.”
Cormac’s imprisonment is a hairpin trigger for my Ana. I didn’t think I could ever hate my own blood, let alone my twin, who’s more than just blood. He’s me. Down to the cells that make up his body.
Body…
My eyes linger on Ana’s swollen stomach and I ease her in front of me, my hips pressed into her ass.
“Trust me. Just take it one step at a time. I’m right here. I won’t let you fall.”
Ana glances over her shoulder. Her eyes say the unsaid words in my head.
Too late.
We’ve both fallen. We’re both at risk of heartbreak.
“What’s up here?” she asks.
“You’ll see.” I keep steadying her.
We reach the top, and she’s surprised she can straighten to her full height.
“Darragh, this isn’t an attic,” Ana says with snark. “This is immaculate.”
“That sucks up all the dust.” I point to a machine humming in the corner.
“What are we doing up here?”
“I don’t want to make you nervous, but you should know, God-forbid something happens, and I’m not here…”
Her back straightens as she looks around. “You have a bunker?”
“Bunker?”
“That’s what Papa called it. A place to hunker down in the event of an attack.”
It reminds me how much alike our upbringing was.
“Yes.” I lead her that way, using the light shining in from the oval stained-glass window that faces the back of the house to see. It’s a rare cloudless night and the moon reflects the city’s skyline onto the water of Puget Sound.
In the event it’s pitch black because the power’s been cut… My steps halt as this feels too real.
“Darragh?” Ana immediately notices.
“If it’s too dark up here, flip this switch.” I show her the lone toggle with a cow-painted switch cover for Sophie to remember.
Tiny lights in the baseboard shine to life. “It’s programmed to stay lit for five minutes only.”
Ana exhales. “Wow, you really thought of everything. The guards on Papa’s estate were instructed to bring Katya and me to the bunker, lock us in, and stand guard.”
“He never showed you what to do if they were all killed?”
Her head shakes tightly.
Either Alexei Koslov had so many men loyal to him, or he was naïve to think his daughters would never be vulnerable.
“Clearly, I don’t have guards. Sophie knows what to do. We have a drill once a year. She thinks it’s a safe room for weather emergencies.”
