“What?” she asks in English. Her eyes get wide with panic as she starts stammering. “I can’t leave town?—”
“You don’t have a choice.” I say this in English, keeping my voice low. “If you don’t have anyone to protect you?—”
“I’ve only got five hundred dollars saved up,” she says. “That’s not enough to leave town on. And even if it was, where would I go? I don’t have any other family and I can’t trust anyone else.”
Shit.I was banking on her having protection from her father or some other means of escaping this on her own. Now what? I suppose I could fund her escape, but I’m already stepping over the line just having this conversation…
I catch sight of a man over her shoulder, dressed in a track suit as he comes up the walk. He’s not looking at us at this moment, but his face is slate. His dark eyes look black even in the sunlight around us. He’s walking toward one of the benches with a newspaper under one arm. As he sits down, he opens it and starts reading.
The man doesn’t look a day over thirty-five and he’s reading the newspaper in a park. And he looks like one of us. It’s something in his walk, the way he’s sitting on the bench. The way his eyes look black and dead. My instincts are triggered.
“Let’s go for a walk,” I say to her in a lowered tone. I spot another man in a plain white T-shirt and black slacks, thin gold chains around his neck. He’s got the same black eyes and the same walk as the other guy. This one’s a few yards away and jogging across the park. As he moves, I pick out a bulge under his jacket.
“What is it?” Natalya asks me. She’s stiffened, watching me as I pick out another two oddities in the park. We’re nearly surrounded. I lean into Natalya.
“We’re being watched,” I whisper. Her eyes widen. “Get up and walk with me back to my car. Stay right by my side and don’t look around. Look down or straight ahead. Understand?”
She nods, her lips pressed together in a thin line as if to stifle her speech.
We stand up together. I place one hand on the small of her back and the other on the holster under my jacket. The oddities all move in casual uniformity. Shadowing our movements. And so the disadvantage of a nearly empty park is laid out before me. There are civilians here, surely, but only a few. It’s not a perfect setup, but it’s enough to try and take a shot at me or at Natalya. It’s a golden opportunity that they’d have been fools not to explore.
We get about halfway down the walk when I spot two men stepping onto the path in front of us, walking right for us. I need to act fast.
“When I tell you to,” I say to Natalya without looking at her, “run. Just make for the exit. I’ll be right behind you.”
“What’s happening?” she whispers, her voice drenched in fear.
“It’ll be fine,Devushka,” I say, rubbing the small of her back to soothe her. “Trust me. I’m not going to let anything happen to you today. Just do what I say and we’ll be all right. Okay?”
“Okay,” she says in a soft whisper.
I wait until the men in front of me get about ten steps away and I pull my gun. “Now,” I tell Natalya.
She springs forward, running to one side to avoid the men in our path. Her sudden movement and the pulling of my gun confuse them for a split second, which is all I need to take control of the situation. They both stop, looking at one another as if judging which to do first, both of them with their hands on their guns.I take that half-second opportunity and fire, shooting one in the head and the other in the shoulder and chest.
They both fall and I bolt after Natalya. Gunfire rings out behind me. I twist around, opening fire. My bullets find the man in the tracksuit. He falls backward as a puff of gunpowder rises from his chest.
Chaos erupts around us as the few bystanders around us start to panic. I don’t pay attention. I just run, following the red beacon of Natalya’s hair out of the park, my hand hot on the handle of my gun.
I feel a bullet buzz past one of my ears like a fly on fire and I duck my head instinctively, running the rest of the way through the gates of the park.
My car is across the street. Natalya stops on the sidewalk, looking around with bewildered eyes. I grab her arm and pull her with me. “Come on.”
We get to the car in seconds. I open my door and shove her in. She slides to the passenger’s side and I jump in, starting the car. “Hold on.”
She grabs the door handle and shrinks in her seat and as we pull off, I see a gang of Nikolai’s men rushing out of the park and to their cars. I turn the car around one corner, then pull off into an alley and park.
“Get down,” I tell Natalya, pushing her head down under the line of the window. I crouch down as well, keeping my eye on the rearview mirror above me. Seconds later, cars whizz by in pursuit… and miss us entirely.
“Oh, my God,” Natalya whispers. “Anton, what?—”
“No time.” I sit up and put the car in drive. “Stay down.”
I pull out of the alley and drive in the opposite direction toward my home.
“Where are we going?” she asks me.
“To the only place you’ll actually be safe,” I respond.
