Chapter 53
SIMA
For a moment, I can’t move. My mind blanks out, but my body knows before I do. Suddenly, I’m shaking. The world narrows to the crunch of gravel under their boots. My pulse pounds so hard I can feel it behind my eyes.
Then I turn to Kira, my voice brittle. “Why?”
She doesn’t look at me. Her hands stay on the steering wheel, knuckles white, tendons visible under her skin. “Is that really a question?” She laughs, cold and sharp. “You don’t belong with us, Sima. That’s your family.”
“Family?” I choke out, voice breaking. “No. That’s not right.”
“Yes, it is. You can go back to your daddy now. Isn’t that great?” She flashes me a cruel grin. “Don’t worry—you don’t need to thank me. It was my pleasure.”
I bet it was. Ever since the day she saw me, Kira has been planning my exit.
But fear overrides anger. Right now, all I can think about is those men, what they’ll do to me. Where they’ll bring me if I go with them.
“You can’t do this.” I’m pleading with her, I know, but dignity is far at the bottom of the list of my priorities. “My dad— You don’t know what he’ll—”
“And I don’t give a shit, do I?” Kira finally turns toward me.
Her face looks different now, stripped of all the warmth she used to fake.
“You’ll be fine,” she scoffs. “Your father just wants you home. Whatever teen drama you fought about, you can fix it once you’re out of my hair.
Like I said, I really don’t give a shit. ”
I shake my head. “If you do this, Petyr will kill you.”
If Petyr ever finds out what happened here tonight—and he will—there will be no stopping him. Kira may be Dimitri’s wife, but she just turned traitor. I doubt Dimitri himself would stand for it.
Her laugh slices through the air. “No, he won’t. He’ll think you ran away. That’s what you do, isn’t it?”
My heart sinks.
She’s right. Fuck me, she’s right. Petyr asked me the other day, didn’t he? Why I ran in the first place. If I’d ever do it again. I thought he just wanted to clear the air, but what if he’s been worried? What if this only ends up confirming what he already thought I’d do?
What if he doesn’t even look for me?
But no. He’ll look. He has to. Whatever he may think of me, he knows I’d never leave without Lilia.
God, Lilia. Does Kira have plans for her, too?
I shut that thought out. I can’t let myself go there. I’ll flip out, and I can’t afford that right now. If I want a shot at getting back to my baby, I need to clear my head. Panic isn’t it. It’s just clouding my judgment, and I’ve already made enough bad decisions tonight.
But if she hurts my daughter…
… God fucking help her.
I can’t look at Kira for more than a second. My eyes dart to the windshield where the men stand waiting, silent shadows in the dim light. My stomach twists until I feel sick, but I push through.
My hand moves to the door handle. The men are already walking toward the car, two on each side. I count their steps.
One.
Two.
Three.
The handle clicks under my fingers. My pulse explodes in my ears.
The second the handle gives, I throw the door open and bolt.
Cold air hits my face. My feet barely touch the ground before I’m running, breath squeezed out of my lungs.
Gravel slips under my shoes. I throw myself into the woods.
I pick a random direction and hurtle that way. Branches slap at my arms and snag my hair as I run. I can barely see, but I keep going.
My breath is coming in ragged bursts now. The air tastes like rust and rain, and the ground is uneven, slick with mud. Not exactly ideal conditions for a chase into the wilderness, but I can’t afford to be picky. Like Bon Jovi said, it’s now or never.
I stumble on a root, catch myself, and keep running.
Behind me, shouts. Heavy boots pounding. The sound echoes, bounces through the trees. My body runs on fear alone, every step a fight not to fall. The night presses in, black and endless, alive. A beast. Every shadow looks like another hand reaching to grab me.
I crash through the brush. My lungs burn, the cold air slices down my throat. My heart beats so hard it hurts. I try not to think, not to feel. Just move.
Something snaps close behind me. I don’t look back—I can’t. If I look, I’ll slow down, and if I slow down, I’m done. Finished. Kaput.
I need to get back to my daughter. Warn Petyr about Kira.
I need to—
My foot catches a root, and I fall.
Pain shoots through my ankle. I slam hard into the ground, scrape my palms on wet earth. The world tilts.
Then a hand clamps around my waist.
I scream and twist. “Get off of me!” I try to claw at the man, whichever one of my father’s lackeys he is, but it’s useless. No matter how hard I scratch at his face, he doesn’t let me go.
“Calm down, Miss Danilo.”
That’s not my name, I want to snarl back. I’m not a Danilo anymore. Haven’t been in a long fucking time. I’m Sima Gubarev, Petyr’s wife, a traitor to my kin and a woman on the run.
I’m a mother.
And my daughter needs me.
I kick the man square in the face. His nose snaps, an ugly sound that reminds me of Luka’s state when I first saw him again. Maybe it’s a Gubarev thing—snapping cartilage when we’re upset.
The man grunts. “Fucking hell!”
I recognize his voice this time. Bogdan, one of my father’s closest and most ruthless stooges. He has a body count in the four figures, and the only reason he’s not adding mine to it is likely because his boss wants me alive.
But apparently, “alive” doesn’t mean “whole.”
He slams my head against a rock. Not hard enough to kill me, but enough that my teeth rattle in my skull.
Pain blinds me. The world spins. Nausea surges through me as my whole body tenses and goes limp again within seconds.
He hauls me upright and spins me toward the light of the car.
My kicks are wild, desperate. But he’s a fucking wall, and Petyr doesn’t call me little fox for nothing. I’m tiny. Useless.
“My husband will kill you for this!” I gasp. “Do you hear me? You’re dead if you touch me!”
He says nothing. His breathing doesn’t even change.
“Wait! I can pay you. Whatever Nikolai’s paying, I’ll double it!”
He doesn’t react. Just throws me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and starts walking towards the headlights.
The woods turn upside down.
I’m too wrecked to keep track of how long it takes to get back to the car. All I know is that I fight him the whole way, but he barely even feels it. If I had a weapon, maybe… If I’d been smart enough not to follow Kira blind and unarmed, then perhaps…
But I don’t. I wasn’t.
Stupid little girl.
Bogdan opens the trunk with one hand. I realize too late what he’s about to do. “No!” I cry out. “No, no, no, please—!”
He shoves me inside. My back hits the metal. The breath leaves me all over again.
Then the lid slams shut.