I tighten my hold around her. “It means you’re mine.”
Aurora lifts her bloodshot eyes, those soft lips have turned a deep shade of purple from the cold, parted, as she watches me…I could have lost that ray of sunshine.
No, death would be too merciful for them.
Without letting go of her, I fish my phone out of my pocket and send my location before dialing the number I hadn’t used in five years, but Denis picks up on the first ring.
“Sava?”
“Adres polychil?”
“Da.”
“Zdesj dvoe. Tak shto b iih ne nashli nikogda.”
“Bydy cherez chas.”
“Denis?”
“Da?”
“Eto dolzhno ostatsya mezhdy nami.”
I end the call. “Let’s go,” I snap, unable to keep watching her shivering body getting pelted by more and more rain and guide her toward my still-running truck.
“Wh-where?”
“To get Emett and your stuff.” I stop. “No, screw clothes, we’ll buy new ones. Let’s just get Emett. Where is he?”
“Why do we need to get Emett and our stuff? Severin! Stop! Where are you taking me?”
“To my place. You can’t stay here. You can’t live here.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Aurora rips her hand out of my hold just as we near my car, standing right in front of the bright headlights.
The headlights that now illuminate every emotion on her face that was hidden by the darkness.
Despair. Confusion. Hurt. Powerlessness but it’s the last one that cracks something inside me.
Fear.
Her gaze shifts to the men lying on the ground and me. She looks at me with fear coating her gaze as her whole body shakes violently and I force myself to tame down the desperate urge to gather her in my arms and run away with her so no one else can steal mylychik.
She’s scared. She’s terrified. Of me…Of course, she is. I look down at those same, unmoving bodies. She’s scared but I can’t bring myself to regret it.
I’ll kill every last motherfucker who dares to hurt her. I wish I was here earlier. I wish I’d never leave her side. I wish she didn’t have to see that side of me. I wish for a lot of damn things these days.
“Lych—”
“Wh-what are y-you doing h-here?” Aurora interrupts me, her teeth chattering so hard, she’s barely able to get a word out.
“Please, let’s get out of the rain,” I plead.
“Wh-what are you doing here? H-how are you here?” She wraps her arms around herself.
The pain. The uncertainty in her voice almost breaks me all over again. I sigh. “Lychik…I’ll always be here.”
Something clicks inside her head at hearing me say it.
