“More are coming. We must leave immediately.”
My stomach plummeted. “More… more of them?”
“They will come looking for these two,” he said, motioning towards the dead men on the street. “We need to leave. Now.”
I swallowed hard and nodded, unable to form the words. He turned, his grip tightening around my waist. Not painfully, but firmly, grounding me and tethering me to him as he guided me back toward the SUV waiting near the bend.
“Avgust,” I whispered as he opened the passenger door for me, my voice still trembling. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know they were still looking.”
“People like them never stop.”
“Are you not mad at me?”
“We will talk after getting home.”
My stomach dropped.
“Are you taking me back to the house?”
“Yes.”
I closed my eyes.
A part of me wanted to scream to be let go but another part of me sighed in relief at his agreement. I had not realized exactly when that place had started to feel like home.
Chapter 6 - Avgust
The drive back felt too long. Too exposed. Too quiet.
Ilana didn’t say a single word the entire way, and neither did I. She sat curled against the door, knuckles white around the seatbelt, shoulders trembling every few breaths as if her body hadn’t yet caught up to the fact that the danger was gone.
Temporarily gone.
I kept one eye on the road as Mikhail drove us back, waiting for headlights that never appeared. Still, it wasn’t enough to ease the coil of tension across my shoulders. I wanted her inside. Behind walls. Behind locks. Safe. Within reach.
Completely out of danger.
By the time we pulled through the gates and the guards let us inside the estate, my jaw hurt from how tightly I’d been clenching it. The SUV rolled to a stop right in front of the gates as rain slid down the windshield, blurring the world outside. For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then Ilana exhaled.
The sound was so small, so fragile, that it made something sharp twist inside my chest.
I stepped out first, opened her door, and waited for her to move. She didn’t. Not until I reached in and offered a hand, I didn’t think she’d take.
But she did.
Her cold, damp, and trembling fingers slipped easily into mine, and I felt the same jolt I had felt the night of the auction. That inexplicable recognition that overtook me whenever shewas close. That tug across my ribs. That urge to shield her from every single threat before she even realized they existed.
“This way,” I murmured, even though she already knew her way inside the house.
Despite that, she followed without argument, steps shorter than usual as she breathed unevenly. I didn’t release her hand until we were inside the foyer, the doors shutting behind us with a heavy thud that echoed loudly through the hall.
Safe.
For now.
The second the lock clicked, I turned to her.
