Niko and I both reached in to get them out.
“Daddy!” Misha sobbed. He ran toward me, hugging my leg as I leaned over to get Kalina. “She won’t wake up. She—she—she?—”
“It will be okay.” I wasn’t lying. As I grabbed Kalina and hoisted her into my arms, I saw her chest rising and falling. She was breathing, but if we waited a few more minutes, none of us would be able to inhale anything but smoke.
“He hit her and she fell,” he sobbed.
Niko reached for him, scooping him into his arms. “Then let’s go.”
While he carried him out, I clutched Kalina to me as tightly as I could. Running back through the house wasn’t an easy way out. Stepping over dead bodies, slipping in blood, smacking into furniture. It was a messy, clumsy, and blind escape, but we forged ahead and ran out into the snow.
Niko had a lighter load and could run further. I wasn’t far behind, but as we raced to the SUV in the small barn that stood detached from the smoking and burning cabin, I glanced down at the woman I couldn’t lose.
You didn’t fail.
She’s alive.
She will make it.
You didn’t let her die.
Repeating that mantra was all I could do as I locked down and focused on getting us the hell out of here. Niko got Misha into the back seat, and between all three of us, we managed to get Kalina in with him. The sight of my son wrapping his arms around her to keep her upright would forever be seared into mymind. The display of terror and shock on his young face was proof that I had failed to protect him.
I shouldn’t have let this even happen.
I should’ve been ahead to anticipate this and prevent?—
“I’ll call this in,” Niko said as he got into the back. Phone in hand, he was with it, not breaking down with guilt or emotions. He was on the job. On task.
As I was supposed to be.
I nodded once, not wasting another second to throw myself into the driver’s seat.
Speeding away from the cabin, I vaguely listened to Niko calling and reporting to Simon. Then Emil. Back to Simon. Then Ivan. Even though they were far away, they would begin the process of securing the situation and handling cleanup, as well as investigating who the fuck had dared to come and ambush us at this secure spot.
I drove as fast as I could over the icy roads.
I had to get them to safety.
Kalina needed to be checked out.
Misha was due comfort and a chance to decompress.
With every glance up at the mirror, I checked that he was still with us. With me.
He was watching Kalina, worry in his eyes.
But when I got a glimpse of her, unconscious and so still, I hated myself all over again.
You didn’t let her die.
You didn’t fail her.
I couldn’t convince myself of either of those thoughts.
She still could. She might.
It was up to me to bring her to safety once more. And then I could reassess how I’d almost lost her.
