The driver laughed louder. “You know he ain’t boyfriend material, right, bitch?”
“He isn’t just some soldier or anything. We’re talking about Sergie Orlov. Mikhail’s enforcer. He’s one of the most lethal motherfuckers in all of New York.”
“One of the deadliest assassins in the goddamn country,” the driver said, chiming in.
No. No. Please, no. Stop talking. Stop saying these things…
I wished I could close my eyes and cover my own ears. The concept of ignorance being bliss wasn’t an option like this, but I wished I could tune it all out.
How?
How could I have been so blind?
So dumb?
He was in the Mafia and I’d unwisely overlooked that. He was a killer, the one who’d taken my husband from me, and I’d run without thinking, right into the enemy’s clutches.
But hearing that he was some decorated murderer was too much to bear.
How could I have been so stupid?
Fitz was so peaceful, so loving, so calm and such a pacifist. Moving on to want a deadly, manipulative serial killer was such a gross jump of my reality that I hated how naïve I must have been all this time.
Sitting there for the rest of the ride until they brought us into a safehouse, I let my hatred of Sergei be the mask against this terror that almost enveloped me. I let my loathing for him keep me sharp among the men who pushed me and Maisie onto the floor before locking the door.
If I had been smarter, if I hadn’t been so lured by the illusion of safety with him, I wouldn’t have ended up in this position.
That was the sin I’d never forgive myself for.
As I sat with my daughter and held her close, her small frame shaking in fear, I vowed to never, ever repeat that mistake.
I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I caved and surrendered to such a violent opposite of my husband again.
“Mommy, I’m scared.”
I hugged her tighter and rested my chin on top of her head. “Me too,” I admitted in an honest, raw reply. “But we will get out of here. We just have to stay strong.”
She nodded weakly, her face smushed against me as she cried softly.
I will stay strong.
I will be smarter.
I will keep you safe, baby girl, until we can run again.
I could only hope that I’d be able to guide her to run with me to a safer destination this time.
Screw Sergei. I wasn’t relying on him ever again.
It was just me and my daughter against the world now, regardless of how lonely and dangerous it would be.
23
SERGEI
There was no time to waste.
Natalie had left so recently that it shouldn’t have been as hard to track her down as other retrieval or rescue missions.
