Ruslan draws me from my thoughts by offering me his black leather-clad hand. I take it, finding little comfort in the warmth radiating from him, but the touch is grounding. I just need to make it to the car.
As we start to walk, he gently clears his throat and it seems to be a signal to the others who gradually fall in step around me as we walk toward the black iron gates.
“Do you think she’ll be cold?” I ask hoarsely, dabbing at my eyes. “In the ground?”
“No,” Ruslan replies gently. “She won’t be cold. The lining of her coffin is thick. I made sure.”
“You did?”
“Of course I did.”
“Thanks.”
Ruslan’s hand tightens around mine.
Each step is like walking through sludge, as if the chill deep in my bones is delaying the signals from my mind to my limbs.
How can they both be gone? It doesn’t make any sense. She was supposed to wake up. I was supposed to get answers from her and hold her while she recovers. She was supposed to be part of my new future.
“It’s too much,” I whisper as we approach the looming gates. “It’s all too much.”
“I can carry you,” Ruslan says, misunderstanding my meaning.
“No, it’s…” I stop dead, kicking up some gravel underfoot. Everyone else pauses around me. “My parents are d-dead. Why? All of this because of an affair? Or because of some drugs?” Finally, I lift my head and meet Ruslan’s dark eyes. “Tell me it’s not meant to be this way. Tell me I’ve paid enough. Tell me it’s over…please.”
Ruslan’s eyes move back and forth over my face, then he steps closer and cradles the back of my head with his other hand. As he leans in close, his breath warms my forehead then his lips press a single kiss just between my brows.
“It feels like too much, but life runs fast and hot in this world.”
“I never wanted to be a part of this world.”
Ruslan’s lips linger for a second, then he pulls back and slides his hand down to my shoulder. “I will get to the bottom of this, Ivy. I will get you the answers you need, I promise you.”
“The answers won’t make me feel better.”
Pain flashes in Ruslan’s eyes and he nods slowly, his lips pressing into a firm line. Before he can say anything else, though, a sudden hum of car engines fills the air.
His hand tightens in mine for a moment, then suddenly, Cassian is pressed against my other side and Valentina appears in front of me. Peering past her shoulder, Bradley has taken several steps away from us and arrives at the curb first. Several black sedans pull up from either side of the road, but they lack the silver trimaround the windows that I’m used to seeing in all of the cars Ruslan uses.
Our walk slows to a stop, and Ruslan takes a half-step in front of me, positioning himself with his shoulder in front of me. Leaning against him, I rise onto my tiptoes for a better look.
Car doors open and numerous men and women spill out of the vehicles, but there’s a distinct difference between the two groups.
Those on the left are dressed in smart gray suits with white shirts and gleaming sunglasses that reflect the world back at me. Each suit appears to move like liquid around its wearer as if every single one has been tailor-made to fit the individual.
The people on the right are dressed more casually in loose slacks, shirts ranging from plaid to yellow, and several of them have arms covered in tattoos visible by their rolled-up sleeves.
Bradley doesn’t flinch. He gazes from one group to the other, then slides one hand into his pants pocket and his stance relaxes.
“If you think the number of people you’ve brought is any kind of threat to me, then you are sorely mistaken,” Bradley says.
Ruslan leans slightly back into me, and I clutch tighter at his shoulder, trying to work out what the fuck is going on.
“Do you really think you would win here?” comes a thin voice from inside one of the vehicles on the left. The man who climbs out almost doesn’t match the voice. He’s well built with slicked back black hair and a white shirt that, despite its visible gold detail along the seams, strains at his arms as if it’s a size too small.
“Nico,” Bradley says. “Tell me you haven’t fallen far enough to think that the five of us are the only people here?”
Nico glances over his shoulder at his men, then casually looks back at Bradley, but he takes his time as if scanning the surrounding graveyard for hidden people.
