Page 156 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

Anna takes us in: Aleksander, Yuri, Mikhail, then me. “Who are you people?”

“David Kalinin tried to take Ivan,” Aleksander says instead of explaining. Her hold on Ivan tightens.

“Kalinin?” The name Kalinin takes the strength out of her knees. “Pavel promised me he wouldn’t work with him anymore.”

Pavel knew.

“He promised,” she adds. “He said once that if anyone with that name ever came near us, I should take Ivan and run.”

Ivan gives a small, frightened hiccup against her shoulder. “I want to go home.”

Anna turns at once. “I’m calling the police.”

“You should,” Aleksander says. “But not from your house.”

She freezes.

Yuri’s phone lights. He reads the message and looks at Aleksander.

“What?” Aleksander asks.

“There are two cars parked in front of Anna’s house.”

Anna understands before she wants to. “I’m not going there,” she says quickly.

Yuri looks down at his phone again. “There’s another vehicle idling two blocks from your parents’ street. Same plate family as Meridian. Different company name.”

Her house is gone. Her parents’ street is gone. The school is no longer safe.

Ivan feels it. His head lifts. “Mama?”

She forces her voice to soften. “It’s okay.”

It is not.

Everyone on that sidewalk knows it.

Anna’s mouth trembles. “What is happening?”

Aleksander takes one step back, giving her more space instead of less. “My name is Aleksander Sokolov.”

She knows the name.

Maybe not from newspapers. Maybe not from facts. But from whatever her husband carried home on his clothes and in his silences. From the old fear he left behind when he died.

“And I’m supposed to believe you’re safer than Kalinin?”

“No,” Aleksander says. “You’re supposed to believe what you just saw.”

Ivan starts crying again, quiet and exhausted now. “I want to go home.”

Anna looks down at Ivan, still pressed against her chest. She looks at the school. At the cars. At the street that used to be safe.

Her arms tighten around him.

I step forward slowly. “You don’t know me.”

Anna looks at me.