“What? I thought we were the only ones going.”
“My visions have changed. This is how it must go.”
“Sammy,” Milanie sings as she runs over and takes my hand.
“We’re ready. I hope we aren’t holding you guys up.”
“Sammy,” Jamie drags out as he sees the rest of our party.
“It will be fine. Trust me.”
Jamie sighs and nods. “Let’s go.”
***
“Mikhail,enough. I’m not having this today. Get your butt up before I take you into the bathroom and give you something to cry about.
“Where do you even get this mess from? I’m tired of it. Stop embarrassing me. Now.”
Mikhail looks up at his mother with tears in his eyes and trembling lips. He gets angry and stands up from the floor where he was having a tantrum.
He stomps his foot and the look that comes to his mother’s face says he’s in trouble before she grabs him by the arm and drags him off. Milanie looks between her mom dragging her brother out of the store and me. I haven’t been talking to her much, so she gets a sad look on her face and turns to run after them at the last minute.
“No, stop,” I say with little volume and without the urgency I should give.
“Oh, kid. You’re on some bullshit,” Lovie says to me but takes off after Milanie, knowing that’s her cue.
I look around for Jamie and smile. He had to go take a call, so he’s going to miss most of this. I pull my earbuds from my pocket and pop them in.
I cue my music to drown out my visions so I can focus. “New York” begins to play as I take my backpack off and head to the window. I get there just in time to see Milanie standing frozen in the middle of the street as a van comes to a halt and a man jumps out in front of her.
Lovie pulls her backpack from her back and pulls the golden gun chassis that was hidden inside her bag and quickly readies it. The man has grabbed Milanie and thrown her into the van, but Lovie takes out the man before he can get back in the vehicle.
I pull the gun chassis Lovie designed for me and begin to ready it as I head out of the store onto the street. Another guy jumps out of the front passenger seat with his gun drawn.
I put two in his chest as Lovie heads to grab Milanie from the back of the van. Someone inside the vehicle kicks Lovie back. It’s hard enough to cause her to stumble back and fall to the ground.
The van tries to take off. I blow out the back window and then take out the tires. The van swerves, telling me I hit the driver as intended. The vehicle comes to a slow stop not too far away.
Lovie is in the middle of a hand-to-hand fight with the guy who jumped out after kicking her. He should have remained in the van.
He’s no match for Lovie. She plants a boot in his chest, sending him flying. He straightens quickly and charges at her. Lovie sidesteps him, grabs him by the waist and turns her body as she lifts him in the air and slams him to the ground.
She gets to her feet quickly and takes a stance as the guy struggles to his feet. Shaking his head as if to clear it, he looks like he starts to take Lovie more seriously. While they fight, Milanie climbs out of the van, sobbing.
I run to Milanie and grab her hand. Another man stumbles out of the van with his head bleeding. Milanie begins to scream and tighten her hold on my hand.
“Shh, I’ve got you,” I say.
I aim and take the bad man out. That’s when another vehicle speeds up. Before they can climb from the car, Jamie appears and kills them right where they sit.
Lovie has the guy she was fighting pinned on the ground with his arm twisted behind his back. Jamie walks over to them and puts a bullet in the guy’s head.
Milanie releases my hand. Lovie gets up and turns to lay eyes on her. Lovie opens her arms and Milanie runs to her, still sobbing.
I look to Jamie and Lovie. “It is done. We can go back now. There is one still in the van. Bring him. Uncle Misha will want to see him.”
“What the hell just happened?” Milanie’s mother says as she comes running from the store she’d taken Mishutka Mishyenka to so she could whip his butt.
