"Mom!" Eliza shouts. She digs in her heels and pulls back her hand. "Mom, I don't want to go!"
I know she can sense something is wrong, and it's not just her stubbornness showing.
But the man is gaining on us. He's big, massive, his hair cut short, his eyes hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses. If a dictionary had pictures, his would be under the word "menacing."
"Miss Walters," he calls, his voice laced with an accent.
We're nearly at the school, which is still surrounded by a large crowd of parents and teachers. I hope this guy won't try anything with all these witnesses, so I turn and look straight at him.
"What do you want?" I demand. I realize the guy looks familiar, especially as he takes off the sunglasses. "You're Iliya, aren't you? Viktor’s driver?”
He nods and confirms it. "Yes. Mr. Antonov wants to speak with you."
Out of the corner of my eye, I see several people looking our way. "Well, as you can see, I'm with my daughter right now. I have an appointment after this that I need to get to. If Mr. Antonov wants to talk with me, he knows where I work. He can call me there."
"I don't think you understand—" Iliya says, interrupted by a voice from behind him.
"Leah? Are you okay?" Two teachers, one female, one male, are walking toward us, their expressions worried.
I glance back at Iliya, then gratefully toward the teachers. "Actually, I?—"
"Leah?"
That voice. I whip my head around. Viktor has come up to stand in front of Iliya, who has assumed a place just to the left of his boss's shoulder, like he's guarding his back.
"Viktor, what are you doing here?"
"I came to see if I could take you for coffee."
"At my daughter’s school?"
"I think we have a lot to talk about, don't we?" The way his head tilts, the quirk of his mouth, the look in his eyes, and I suddenly realize Viktor knows my secret. He knows, though I have no idea how he found out.
Eliza tugs at my hand. She's looking up at me. "Mom, who's this?"
"This is a friend. He helped me one time when Benji was being bad."
A spark in Viktor's eye makes me flush, and his quick smirk to his mouth makes me want to either smack it off his face or kiss it off. I'm not sure.
I smile at the teachers. "I'm okay. Really."
The teachers give me one last look, then turn away, their heads bent together as they talk. I sigh. "I hate to cut our reunion short, but I have an appointment I have to get to in Midtown. "
"Why don’t you let me drive you?"
"No, thank you. We'll just take the subway."
"It's just a ride, Leah. That's all. And I feel we know each other well enough for a single ride to an appointment."
That's when I see the sedan with the blacked-out windows. It's waiting under the trees on the opposite side of the street. Both Viktor's and Iliya's attention follows my gaze. Iliya is on instant alert. It's impossible not to notice the way his shoulders tense; his jaw clenches, and he moves like he wants to grab something at his hip.
Even Viktor's expression changes. His mouth tightens into a grim line and something frightening flashes across his eyes.
Both their reactions tell me very clearly that I haven’t been imagining things, and that car, and whoever is in it, isn’t harmless.
"Leah?" Viktor asks. "We’ll go straight to the office. Promise."
That's what his words say, gentle, nonchalant. But his expression, the look in his eyes, says something different. He wants me off the street and away from that car.
