“Fine. But you let my men go, and I come with you to deliver Sia myself to her grandma. Simple
trade rules. She’s the one who set the bounty. I’m the one delivering.”
He chuckled. “Very well. But your men are coming, too. We can all have a nice tea party.” He
nodded at his men, who shoved my brothers back in the SUV as the ones in the corners came toward
me and Sia.
“Jesse, you should go. I don’t trust him. He’s going to kill you,” Sia whispered, sobbing.
“I’m not leaving you. I’ll find a way to get you out, I promise.”
The men surrounded me and her, taking our guns and phones. Then they zip-tied my hands behind
my back and pushed me to the SUV. My eyes never left hers as one of the men took her by the arm and
gave her to Rasputin.
They spoke in Russian. Well, he did the talking, and she barely said a word or two. She gazed at
me the whole time, and mouthed, “I love you.” As I was being shoved inside the car, I mouthed it, too,
“I love you, too, baby girl.”
With a tear dropping from her eyes, she said my name as if she’d never see me again.
Nineteen
Sia
My uncle asked me a million questions as we set for a six-hour drive to Chicago, but I didn’t have the energy or the focus to answer. My full concentration was with the SUV behind us. With Jesse.
Just when I’d thought life was going to be bearable again, and all fears would be gone, all my
hopes shattered to the ground, viciously breaking me with them. I was going back to the house where
I’d been once sold and was supposed to be burned alive, with the probability of both happening again
high.
“Nastya, are you listening?” Uncle asked.
I took a quick glance at him. He’d changed since the last time I saw him. He was older, and he
wasn’t bald back then. “How is Grandma?”
“Ill, but she’ll be very happy to see you.”
“And you? Are you happy to see me?”
“Of course, my child. I have been absent from your life, but you don’t know how much I care about
you.”
“But you cared about more about Tatiana.” I glanced at him sideways. “You burst into tears at her
funeral, but you don’t even bother looking for me after the fire. Six years. Then someone sees me, and Grandma, not you, set a reward for anyone who can find me.”
