A frantic woman pushes through the crowd while calling a name.
The child glances up. “Mommy!”
Chloe rises to her feet and hands the boy to his mother with a reassuring smile. “He’s okay, just a little scared. Don’t worry, the glitter’s nontoxic.”
Disbelief grips me. Despite the attempted robbery and confusion all around, she’s consoling a stranger about glitter.
Always the teacher. Always thinking of others.
I grasp her arm, my fingers leaving streaks in her glitter-coated skin. “Side door. Now.”
This time, she doesn’t argue or ask questions. Simply obeys immediately.
Just the way I like it.
Chapter 12
Chloe
The heavy metal door slams behind us, sealing off the chaos inside with a dull thud. My back hits the rough brick wall, my legs unable to support my weight without help. The alley reeks of rancid essential oils and wet cardboard, but my nostrils flare with phantom scents of glitter and fear.
I suck air into uncooperative lungs while my heart hammers violently enough to pulse in my teeth.
Kolya remains perfectly still with his back to me, scanning the narrow passageway between buildings. Even in crisis, he doesn’t sweat or tremble. His shoulders rise and fall in controlled, measured breaths while mine heave like I’ve run a marathon. Beneath his dark jacket, the muscles in his back form a wall of tension.
A hysterical laugh bubbles up my throat and then splinters like broken glass. “That’s… Wow.” I can’t make sense of anything. “We’ve got to think about that, right?” My teeth chatter.
The question barely leaves my mouth before Kolya’s right in front of me, radiating heat. Even though it’s eighty degrees out, I’m freezing. Probably shock. That’s how people get those silver emergency blankets in movies.
I squeeze my eyes shut, but the darkness behind my lids only worsens the spinning. My stomach lurches. “I think I’m going to be sick.” I open my eyes and glance up, expecting…what? Concern?
Instead, fury hardens every line of his face. “Why the hell did you stop to talk to the kid?”
The raw anger, which should scare me, actually anchors me, slowing the churning in my head.
I lift my chin. “He was afraid. He needed to feel safe.”
“Except it wasn’t safe.” The muscles in his jaw flex. “That’s why I told you to run.”
My shoulders droop. He’s right. I could have gotten the boy hurt.
I study my hands, mesmerized by the glitter glimmering in the sunlight. Pink. Green. Silver. Gold. “I know, but I just couldn’t. I ran once before and…” The rest sticks in my throat, choking me. “I had to…help.”
He can never understand. No one can. No one will ever know what it was like that night on the island.
Me, hiding. Crying. Fleeing from everything I knew.
“I couldn’t just leave him alone.”The way I was.
My legs buckle, and I slide down the wall and wrap my arms around my knees. The rough concrete digs into my thighs through my jeans. I stare at the pavement between my feet, focusing on a crumpled Hobby Hut receipt fluttering in the slight breeze that catches on my shoe before dancing away.
There’s glitter everywhere. Stuck to my hands, tangled in my hair, smudged across Kolya’s knuckles. The same knuckles that just sent a man crashing into a shelf. That broke another man’s bones.
That now hover near my shoulder, not quite touching. “You’re good.”
Maybe he intends to be reassuring, but the statement comes across as an order. He’s commanding me to be okay.
If only it worked that way.
