Page 25 of Bought to Bear Bratva Heir

He shrugged. "I know, but—" A noise sounded from out in the apartment, and his eyes grew wide. "I have to go. Get dressed. When I come back, we can run away together."

Fifteen minutes later, I was dressed in my old clothes that were just a tiny bit too tight. The jeans and graphic tee weren't going to give me any kind of protection from the rain coming down outside my windows, and the flip-flops weren’t matched, but he had tried.

My son was going to bust me out. I didn’t know why he wanted to run away. Maybe Ilya was cold and harsh to him, but I didn’t think that was it.

I knew how Ilya acted when he cared about someone, plus I had seen how he had looked at our son.

He loved him.

"Ready?" Alec whispered from the door. Nodding, I tiptoed towards the door. My heart was thundering a million miles an hour. If Ilya came back now, I’d lose my life.

Hell, I’d probably lose my life if I stayed.

"We have to get the staff elevator. Down to the third floor, and then we use the fire escape. If we go down to the basement, Papa's men will catch us," Alec said matter-of-factly as he slipped his hand into mine and tugged me forward.

There was a backpack on his back. One with some cartoon characters on it that I didn’t know. Matching Wellington boots were on his feet.

"We have to be quiet because Milli will hear us." He pressed his finger to his lips, and I nodded.

Together, hand in hand, we moved across the spacious apartment until we got to the small service elevator, which was locked with a keypad.

Shit.

I’d never had to use this; I didn’t know the code. This was a dead end.

"It’s okay, we can—"

"Oh, two, two, four."

I stared at him in shock, completely confused until he lifted his little hand and typed in the first number. Followed by the other three.

Zero, two, two, four.

My birthday. The code was my birthday?

Together we stepped into the elevator. I had so many questions. How he knew the code? How he knew how to escape? But there was only one burning question on my lips as we hurtled downwards towards freedom.

"Alec?"

He tilted his head up to me.

"Is Papa mean to you? Is that why you want to run away?"

His chubby face, so much like his dad's, twisted. "No, of course not. Papa is the bestest Papa ever. He loves me the whole world."

He seemed genuinely outraged at the notion.

I let out a sigh. Okay, so that wasn’t the reason. Honestly, I hadn’t thought it would be.

Crouching down on my two left sandals, I brought our faces level. "Then why are you running away, Alec? It will make your Papa very sad."

Tears welled up in his eyes. Jesus, he was such a kind, sensitive little soul.

"Papa will be sad, but you will be sad too. And Papa will understand. He will say I am a brave boy."

I waited for him to continue, but at that moment the door opened onto one of the lower floors and we snuck out.

I couldn’t help but look around, half expecting a goon with a gun to jump out at any second. Surely Alec would have been missed by now.