We struggle for a few seconds, crashing into the dresser and knocking the lamp to the floor where it shatters against the carpet. He's strong, but I'm stronger and more desperate, and I get my arm around his neck and squeeze until he stops fighting and goes limp in my grip. The first man is still on the ground trying to breathe through his crushed windpipe, and I give him a hard kick to the head to put him out of his misery.
The second man is conscious but barely, gasping for air with my arm still locked around his throat. I lean in close to his ear and speak slowly so he understands every word.
"Tell your friends that my men are coming to town," I say, making sure he can hear every word through the ringing in his ears. "They'll be here by morning, and when they arrive we're going to find Marat and we're going to finish this once and for all. There's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop us, so you might as well start running now while you still can."
I let him go and he collapses to the floor, coughing and retching and gasping for air. I don't bother killing him because I need him alive to deliver the message. Koslov's people need to know I'm not backing down or running away no matter how many men they send after me or how close they come to catching us.
I grab my jacket and climb out the window, dropping to the ground and sprinting for the car. Noemi's already in the backseat with Sasha, and I can see her through the window, talking to him and keeping him calm while I run toward them.
I slide into the driver's seat and start the engine, throwing the car into reverse and backing out of the space so fast the tires squeal against the wet pavement. The motel is behind us in seconds and then we're on the highway heading away from town, putting distance between us and the men I left bleeding on the floor of that room as fast as the car will carry us.
"You did so well on your fire drill, Sasha," Noemi is saying to him in the back seat. She still sounds perfectly calm like nothing happened, and I'm still shocked by that. "I'm really proud of you for staying calm and doing exactly what we asked."
"It was kind of fun, actually," Sasha says, and I can hear the excitement in his voice now that the initial confusion has worn off completely. "Can we do another one sometime?"
"Maybe. But hopefully, we won't need to practice again for a while after this." I hear the concern in her tone and honestly, I hope the same thing.
Glancing in the rearview mirror, I see my son grinning in the back seat, completely oblivious to the fact that men just tried to kill us and I left one of them dead on the motel room floor. Noemi has pulled off something I wouldn't have thought possible, turned a terrifying situation into an adventure he'll remember fondly instead of a trauma he'll carry for the rest of his life.
"Papa, can we go to the Moskvarium soon?" Sasha asks, leaning forward between the seats. "Noemi told me about the sharks and I really want to see them."
My instinct is to tell him no, because I'm not sure if we'll be in Moscow long enough to do that, and if we are, I know it's not safe. But Noemi catches my eye in the mirror and gives me a small nod, and I understand what she's telling me.
"We'll see," I say, which is the closest I can get to a yes right now. "Maybe after things calm down a little."
"That means maybe," Sasha says, settling back into his seat with a satisfied smile. "Sometimes, maybe means yes."
"Sometimes it does," Noemi agrees, and I can hear the warmth in her voice as she pulls him against her side. "Now try to get some sleep, okay? We've got a long drive ahead of us."
I watch in the mirror as she wraps her arm around him and he curls into her and yawns. She strokes his hair and hums something soft and low, and within a few minutes, his breathing has evened out and he's asleep again.
The sun is starting to come up on the horizon, and I have no clue where we're going now. Part of me wishes that I'd have left Noemi and my son in St. Petersburg where they were safe, but I know if I did that, the things that have happened between us would never have happened. Being on the road and forced to interact with them closely has pushed me outside my comfort zone and made me truly think about what I want in life.
I've done hundreds of little trips like this for Yuri, though never quite this dangerous. Never once have I had a travel companion. But while I thought this would be a nightmare, it hasn't turned out that way. Yes, I've had challenges, and protecting my family from Koslov's goons who've gone on the defensive hasn't been easy, but I don’t think I'd change a thing.
I lift my eyes to the rearview mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of eye contact with Noemi, but her head is back, eyes shut as she tries to rest more. After a situation like that, it's very telling that she can close her eyes and rest this easily. It's like she feels safe with me and that makes my heart swell.
I realize I've been thinking of her as my family now for several days, and not in the sense of the bond I have with my brothers in blood who'd do anything for me. Noemi and Sasha are different. I only just met both of them, but they are more family to me than any man in the Gravitch family.
That's a loyalty I have never broken, and I know this new found bond with Noemi and my son is stronger than that. I love them with every fiber of my being, and I never want to be without them again, not for a single second.
I've already proven that I will kill to protect them, and I'll continue to feel that way as long as they're alive.
24
NOEMI
Iwake up with my cheek pressed against the cold window of the car and my neck bent at an angle. I'm going to have a pain in my neck for days. We've been parked in this lot for at least three hours with the sun slowly warming us up.
Sasha's curled up in the back seat with his head on a bunched-up sweater, sleeping like this is all some grand adventure instead of a nightmare we can't wake up from. I envy him that ability, the way children can find excitement in chaos. It's amazing how they can see a night spent sleeping in a car as something fun. To him, being with his father out on the road is a distraction from the pain of losing his mother, which seems to help him power through.
I wish I had some sort of internal motivator like that.
Fyodor hasn't slept at all, and I don't think he's even tried. He's in the driver's seat with his phone in his hand, thumbs moving across the screen as he sends message after message. He's been at it for hours now, coordinating with Lazar and Vasili, telling them exactly where to find us so they can finally finish whatwe came here to do. Every few minutes, he pauses to scan the parking lot, checking for threats, and then goes right back to typing.
I watch him for a moment without saying anything, taking in the tension in his shoulders and the way his jaw keeps tightening every time a new message comes through. He's supposed to be the one doing the hunting here, the predator tracking his prey across the city. But somewhere along the way the roles got reversed, and now we're the ones running.
I feel vulnerable and exposed out here, especially with Sasha. That kid has suffered enough, and we're living in a situation that threatens to drop a nuke on everything he has left.
