IRINA WALKS BESIDE me like we do this all the time. As we pass the swings, she stops. “I never get to go to the park. I never get to go on the swings.”
“Why don’t you have a go now?” I smile at her encouragingly. Us delaying isn’t wise, but my heart squeezes. What child hasn’t been to the park?
“No, I’m fine,” she answers me while staring at the swings. I step away from her and sit on one of the swings.
“What are you doing?” She’s trying to look serious, but I can see the child in her eyes. The one that wants to join me.
“I like swinging.” I push myself higher and don’t look at Irina. She soon gives up her protest and joins me on the swings. Her laughter is musical, and guilt churns in the pit of my stomach at what I’m taking part in.
I slow down and just watch her as she becomes the six-year-old she clearly never gets to be. I cast my gaze around the empty park. My stomach twists, and something deep inside me stirs as Nicholai walks toward us. Irina slows down on the swing.
I’m still seated on the swing when Nicholai approaches. I’m waiting for him to stop his approach, but he doesn’t. He reaches me and bends my head back. His gaze roams my face before he presses his lips against mine. It’s harsh and quick, but I feel it all the way to my toes.
“We have to go,” he says the moment he breaks the kiss.
“Irina goes home now?” I don’t move off the swing, and Nicholai shakes his head.
“Not right now.”
I’m standing and shaking my head. “No, Nicholai. She’s a kid.” I step away from the swings.
Irina is moving slowly, listening to us, and her mind might be sharpened to adult conversations, but I would treat her like a six-year-old.
“This was wrong from the start,” I say.
“Gail gave me some answers, but we could use her to get more.”
I reach up and touch Nicholai’s face. “If you think anything of me, you will let Irina go. Please! I’m begging you.”
I see the turmoil in Nicholai’s dark eyes, and when he looks away from me, I drag his face back to mine. “Please.”
I’m begging with everything in me.
Nicholai steps out of my touch, and my heart starts to crumble. He takes out his phone and dials a number. His gaze swings around the park.
“She’s at Park High, sitting on the swing.” He ends the call and reaches for me.
“Now we go.”
“We can’t just leave her, Nicholai.”
“I’ve told Gail where she is. When they get here, we won’t walk away from this.”
My heart bounces around my chest as I look back to Irina. I walk back to her, and she stops swinging.
“You’re going now?”
I nod my head. “Yes, your mam is on her way. So stay on the swing, okay?”
Irina nods. “Thanks for bringing me to the park.” Her smile twists at me.
“Take care, and don’t leave the swings.”
I want to hug her, but Nicholai calls me. It’s time to go. I leave Irina on the swing and take off with Nicholai.
“We need to get off the streets.” Nicholai curls his hand around mine, but my mind is still back with Irina. Did anyone collect her? Would she be left sitting there alone?
“We shouldn’t have left her,” I say softly.
“Gail will have her already.”
Nicholai’s hand tightens on mine. “You did well escaping the hotel. I didn’t think they would find you so quickly.”
I glance up at Nicholai to see pride shining in his eyes. “It was Irina’s idea to pull the fire alarm,” I tell him.
His grin is instant. “She sure is Gail’s daughter.”
“What did you find out?” I ask. I need to take my mind off the little girl on the swing. I have to believe she’s safely with her mother now.
We leave the main street and slip down an alleyway. Nicholai knocks on a large steel door and it grinds open. Without a word, he walks through, bringing me with him. A guy with a bald head and tank top grunts at me before pulling the door behind us. We step into a bar that’s dimly lit. Nicholai walks to the back booth. He lets me in first before sliding in across from me.
“We’ll be safe here, for now.”
“Nic, great to see you.” A man steps up to the table. He’s so thin—to the stage of resembling a walking corpse. His caved-in cheeks are gaunt, and he appears ready to keel over.
“You too, Carson.” Nic takes Carson’s outstretched hand.
“Manny is on the door. Any trouble, and we will alert you.”
Nic nods. “Thanks, Carson.”
“I’ll get you the usual?”
Nicholai jerks his chin out to me. “Make that two.”
Carson smiles. His face is too small for all the teeth he flashes me before leaving.
“He’s loyal,” Nicholai states and shrugs out of his suit jacket. I take in his tanned forearms as he rolls up his sleeves. My stomach squirms when his eyes meet mine.
“I know today wasn’t easy, but it was necessary.”
I don’t agree, but I don’t argue. “What did you learn?”
Nicholai nods like he knows I’m still not happy. “Dimitri helped cover up your disappearance, which tells me that your father doesn’t know where you are. They must have made up a story and Dimitri backed up Oleg.”
Betrayal courses through me. I wasn’t exactly close to Dimitri, but he had been my bodyguard my whole life. “But why?” I wasn’t a threat. I was a child then. Why would they want to get rid of me?
“Dimitri wanted out of the Bratva, so he lied to gain his freedom. Why did Oleg do it?” Nicholai shrugs. “I don’t know. Do you remember ever having any other interactions with him?”
I’m already shaking my head. “I barely saw my father, never mind Oleg. I took no part in any of it.”
“Someone from your past spotted you, which is why Oleg wanted you collected.”
Once again I can’t think of anyone who cared. My mind immediately jumps to Eric, but I dismiss that fantasy that I had held onto for far too long.
Carson arrives back with a tray carrying two piping hot beef pies. The scent from the pies wafts toward us and its mouthwatering. He places a pie in front of each of us, along with cutlery. He leaves and returns with drinks.
Nicholai starts to eat like we aren’t running for our lives. Maybe having this one moment as something normal would be nice? I unroll the knife and fork from the napkin and start to eat. My stomach appreciates the pie.
“Wow,” I say after a few forkfuls.
I glance up at Nicholai. He’s smiling at me, and my heart jumps around in my chest. We eat in silence, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop thinking about Irina.
“How does Gail come into all this?” I ask.
“I collected Dimitri and he ran.”
The pie in my stomach sours. “And you caught him?” My words are slow, and the moment I say them, I know how stupid they are.
“Yes, I did. So, she was angry and happily teamed up with Oleg to kill me and you.”
“Oleg wanted me dead?” Oleg wanted both of us dead, I remind myself. “Nicholai,” I start and he holds his hands up like he knows what I might say.
“Let’s eat our pie.”
We do it in silence, and I take the time to study Nicholai in this lighting. If I saw him in a bar, I would admire him but walk the other way. Trouble is written all over him. Not trouble, but danger. That’s what I see when I look at him—a very dangerous man.
Carson arrives at the table. “They’re searching for you a few doors down.”
Nicholai pulls his jacket back on and thanks Carson. Our quiet moment is gone as we leave through a back door, where four men wait for us. I glance back at Carson and feel the betrayal toward Nicholai, who seemed to have trusted him. Carson shrugs and pulls the steel door behind him. The four men move in closer. The one with the scar on his face glares at me.
This isn’t good.
Nicholai pushes me behind him before stepping toward the men.
“I’m going to give you a chance to leave and return to your families.” Nicholai’s hands hang at his side. I know how good he is, but four men against him, and they all have guns? I have faith in Nicholai, but I’m not naïve either.
“The girl is back with Gail,” I say from behind Nicholai.
The guy with the scar sneers at me. “After I kill him, I’m going to gut you slowly.”
I move back until my back hits the steel door. I glance around the alleyway for a weapon but turn up empty. Boxes and trash cans are the only things around us. Nicholai bends his head as if he might start to pray. His arms are wide and he looks up.
“Fine.” One word falls from his lips before he kicks into action.
It happens so fast. Two of the men with guns drawn hit the ground. A knife pokes out of each one’s head. Nicholai reaches up and withdraws two guns from the band of his trousers. He fires quickly.
The other men were stunned momentarily, so he hits one and the other dives before twisting midair and firing back. I hit the ground hard and cover my head. Keeping my eyes tightly closed, I try to disappear into the asphalt. When the sound of gunfire ceases, I finally open my eyes. Nicholai stands and places the guns back into his trousers. Bodies litter the alleyway. I’m being picked up off the ground as Nicholai pats down my body.
“Are you hurt?”
I shake my head as my gaze skitters across all the bodies. Taking my hand, Nicholai takes angry steps along the alleyway and up to the front of the building. He releases me as he runs toward the door, then kicks it in. People slow down to see what all the commotion is about as Nicholai enters the building.
“Don’t run, Carson,” he calls, and I’m rushing behind him.
“We need to go,” I say to Nicholai, not wanting to see any more bloodshed.
Nicholai keeps walking. “You son of a bitch.” He marches to the back of the building. Sirens wail in the distance.
“Nicholai, we need to go.”
He curses and looks up at me.
“Now!”
He takes one final look at the surrounding space before we leave through the front door.