24
MIA
I see Brad sauntering towards us, and my whole world narrows down to one thought.
I have to get Eli away from him.
“Nik,” I murmur, “can you get him to the car?”
I can tell by the grimace on her face that she hates the idea of leaving my side. But Eli takes precedence.
“I’ll ask Ms. Lawrence to watch him,” she grits. “Then I’m coming back.”
“Okay. Please, hurry.”
“Mommy?” Eli asks, a little panicked. “What’s happening? Why is Dad here?”
“Because you’re coming home with me,” Brad calls out as he approaches. “Or did your mommy not get her mail today?”
“No!” Eli bursts. “I don’t want to go home with you! I hate you!”
“That’s because your mother poisoned you against me,” Brad hisses. “Once you’re back with me, you’ll understand?—”
“You’re the poison! You’re horrible!” Eli screams. “You’re always drunk and mean, and you hit Mommy all the time!”
Brad’s face turns to stone. The whole school is watching us now. Parents, teachers—everyone.
I swallow the shame and place Eli in Nikita’s arms. “It’s okay, munchkin,” I whisper. “I’m going to talk to your dad now, okay? You go strap in.”
“I don’t want to go with him!” He struggles against Nikita’s hold and buries his face into my neck, crying. “I want you, Mommy.”
“You don’t have to go with him,” I promise. “I just need you to be in the car for a second, okay? I’ll be right there.”
“But he’ll hurt you!”
“He won’t,” Nikita butts in. “Or he’ll get hurt worse.”
That one’s intended for Brad, I know. But while Brad doesn’t take the threat seriously, Eli does. He’s never seen Nikita in her Bratva mode, but he’s always had good instincts about people. Right now, those instincts must be telling him we’re the big dogs in the fight, for once.
Reluctantly, he lets go of me.
I watch Nikita squirrel him away. “Hey!” Brad lunges for them, but I step in his path. “You can’t do this. I have a court order!”
“All you have is a custody hearing date,” I say. “That’s not a court order. It doesn’t mean he’s yours.”
“Yeah, right. Like you’ve got the funds to fight it.” Then, as if a lightbulb has gone off in his head, he sneers down at me. “Wait, don’t tell me. Your pimp’s footing the bill, isn’t he?”
“He’s not mypimp,” I retort, hot with rage at Brad’s insinuations. “He’s?—”
“What?” He smirks, stepping closer. “C’mon, Mia, finish that sentence. He’s what?” His gaze lands pointedly on my bare ring finger.
My throat tightens. I want to scream that it’s not like that, but the words won’t come. Because whatisit like? Yulian offered me a way back into his life, but I haven’t taken it yet. I wasn’t sure he deserved it at first, and now, I’m not sureIdo.
But I’ll be damned if I let Brad think he’s right about us. If I let anyone here think Yulian is anything less than honorable.
“You want to know who he is?” I step up to him, striding straight into his shadow instead of running from it for once. “He’s the man who kicked your ass, Bradley. He did it once, he did it twice, and then he did it again. That makes three, doesn’t it?”
“Are you admitting that he assaulted me?”
