She sees me.
Her eyes go over my body, assessing damage.
Anya’s face is still pressed against her, hidden from the mayhem.
She’s protecting her.
She came up from the safe room. I don’t know how or when, but her first instinct was to put her body between danger and my daughter.
“Back to the safe room.”
She doesn’t move.
She’s staring at me.
I can’t stand it. She shouldn’t be here. She shouldn’t have to see me like this. I take a step forward.
“NOW!”
Anya flinches. The fear from my daughter lands in my chest.
Ellie starts moving.
She doesn’t look at me again. She keeps Anya’s face turned away, and she steers them toward the corridor, back toward the stairs.
I watch them go.
Alexei appears at my elbow. He glances at me, then in the direction they fled.
“The perimeter is clear,” he says. “We’re securing the south approach now.”
“Good.”
“Your head?—”
“Is fine.”
Both of us know that isn’t true. The adrenaline is starting to wear off. My skull is being ripped apart from the inside.
But he doesn’t argue. He knows better.
I look at the room. My house. The evidence of what was done here.
The expression on Ellie’s face when she looked at me flashes through my mind. I know what she saw. I’ve seen it on other faces, but never on hers before.
I don’t like it.
Not one fucking bit.
“Call the team to clean everything up. Erase this attack from the face of the earth. Like it never happened,” I order Alexei.
I don’t wait for a response.
28
ELLIE
I would have lost track of time if it weren’t for the wall clock. I check it every fifteen minutes. Three hours have passed.
