“Lock the doors,” he told me tersely as he tossed me the vehicle fob. “And get down.”
The door slammed shut, and then there was nothing but darkness.
I locked the doors, and my aunt moaned in response.
“Get on the floor,” I hissed at her. “And be quiet.”
She whimpered, but she took off her seat belt and slid into a small crouch onto the floor beside me. I knelt beside the seat but I kept eyes at the window level, straining to see in the darkness. I could hear the truck’s idling engine, but I couldn’t see anyone.
Then a flash of light. Then another. Then too many to count as the sharp cracks of gunfire echoed around us.
Please be okay. Please be okay. My mind chanted that on a loop while I struggled to see. But I could only hear was my aunt’s heavy breathing behind me.
The wait was excruciating, and I couldn’t tell how much time had passed. But it was long enough that I fully imagined Axel lying dead and then men coming to take me and my aunt.
I thought about getting out of the vehicle and running to hide in the corn, but I was so stiff with fear and aching that I didn’t think I would get far.
Then, out of the mist and broken stalks of corn, Axel emerged into the headlights of our vehicle, looking more than a little pissed. He was holstering his weapon and talking on the phone. He showed no emotion, but his movements screamed controlled rage. From his precise steps to his narrowed gaze, every inch of him pulsed with barely restrained aggression.
I exhaled a long breath I hadn’t known I was holding.
At first I thought he was muddy, but as he approached, I realized that his entire face was sprayed with blood and his jacket was soaked with something similarly dark and wet.
I unlocked the vehicle. When he opened the door, he was still talking on his phone. And, in the distance, coming around thepond, I could see the headlights of at least eight vehicles. My uncle’s calvary, arriving as promised.
I watched in silence as all the vehicles except one drove past us toward the back road from where we had come.
My aunt crawled back onto the seat and sniffled as she wiped her face.
The last vehicle pulled up beside ours. Axel got off the phone and looked back at both of us.
“Are you hurt?” I blurted out.
He shook his head. “No. Are you both okay?”
My aunt glared at him. “Did you have to drive like such a maniac? Look what you did to our vehicle. Who do you think is going to pay for it?”
Axel looked at me and motioned with his head to the SUV next to us. “They’ll take you back to the house.”
“Bring my bags,” my aunt demanded.
I opened the door and staggered out into the field. The pale moon illuminated the extent of damage to the vehicle, but most of it was from the gunfire. The entire side was riddled with dozens of bullet holes.
I stumbled over the broken cornstalks to the other vehicle and ignored the sound of gunfire in the distance. I crawled stiffly across the back seat. My aunt climbed in behind me and slammed the door.
Two men transferred our bags while Axel stood in front to take another call. I watched him talk, and every mannerism made him look impossibly intimidating and ruthless.
My aunt watched him closely, her face still stained with tears and sharp with judgment. “And you think Sergei is ruthless? At least we can control Sergei. No one controls Axel, and no one will be able to protect you.”
I turned and glanced at my aunt, feeling numb with horror at what I had just witnessed. Numb to what I had just survived.
A sneer curved her mouth. “You have no idea what you’ve gotten mixed up in, but I’m personally going to enjoy you finding out.”
I looked out into the dark field, the dim red taillights of the truck still glowing through the corn. I couldn’t reconcile the man who blew on my cold fingertips with the man who emerged from a gunfight covered in blood. My aunt wasn’t wrong. I didn’t know Axel at all, and that terrified me.
CHAPTER SIX
AXEL
