Chapter 34
IVY
Iwatch Maksim’s rideshare disappear down the road, the sound of its engine swallowed by traffic until all that’s left is the hum of the street around me.
For a beat, I just stand there. My hand lingers on the driver’s side door longer than it should, fingers curled around the handle like it might tether me to him if I hold on long enough. But eventually, I let go, drawing in a sharp breath before sliding into the seat.
Leo clambers into the back, still sticky-cheeked from ice cream, his lashes damp with sleepiness even as the sugar keeps his little body restless.
He hums to himself while fumbling with the seatbelt, buckling it with a proud click before swinging his legs over the seat, oblivious and blessedly innocent to the storm that’s been brewing in my chest since that phone call.
Whatever had been said wasn’t good. Maksim’s face had told me that much. It worries me more than I want to admit. If he’s unsettled, then it means the fight with Mikhail is coming much sooner than even he anticipated.
I grip the steering wheel, knuckles paling under the strain while I start the car.
Maksim’s cologne still lingers faintly in the car, threaded into the leather, clinging like smoke. It feels like him, a solid, unshakable anchor when my world feels like it’s catapulting into a downward spiral.
I believe him when he promised to keep this away from Leo and me.
Maksim isn’t the kind of man to speak lightly.
His word is law, forged in the sacrifice of his world.
But belief doesn’t erase the gnawing fear curling at the edges of my mind.
Because danger doesn’t follow rules. It doesn’t wait its turn, and promises, no matter how fiercely said, can only shield so much.
I glance in the rearview mirror as we pull away from the curb and get onto the main road.
Leo is busy tracing patterns on the glass with his fingertip, his mouth pursed in concentration, safe in the kind of bubble only childhood can create.
For his sake, I force the corners of my mouth up, even if the smile doesn’t reach my eyes.
“You doing okay?”
“Yeah,” he says, grinning at the picture he’s drawn. “I like your friend. He’s really nice.”
My heart warms hearing that. “Yeah? You wouldn’t mind hanging out with him again?”
“Nope! As long as he takes us to that water park I told him about.”
I laugh, some of the unease falling away. “I’m sure he’d love that.”
If Maksim’s world does come knocking at our door again, I need to be ready. Until then, I want to soak in as much time with him and Leo as possible. Before the inevitable chaos takes over and rips us all apart again.
The late afternoon sun slants across the windshield, forcing me to lower the visor.
Leo is still humming in the backseat, quiet little melodies spilling from him between yawns. He’s crashing from the sugar high, his voice softening, fading.
For a few blessed minutes, everything feels normal.
But then, a creeping feeling rolls over me. That same one I’d been feeling for weeks and had chalked it up to Maksim coming back into my life. I flick my eyes to the rearview mirror as a black sedan slips into the lane behind me.
Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe they’re just another driver on their way home like me.
But then I take the next right, and the car follows. And then another. And another.
My pulse skips, my grip tightening around the leather steering wheel until it squeaks beneath my palms. I tell myself not to overthink, not to spiral. Except when I merge again, the sedan merges too.
Goddamn it.
My eyes dart around for my phone.
Leo yawns, his voice groggy now. “Are we home yet?”
“Almost, sweetheart,” I say, keeping my tone light even though my throat feels raw from how hard I’m swallowing the bile back. My eyes dart between the road ahead and the mirror. The sedan has crept closer.
The street narrows into a single lane, a red light blooms ahead with a white van already stopped behind it. I ease down on the brake, sliding in behind it, my chest aching from the tension strung tightly inside me as my eyes lock onto the rearview mirror once again.
Only, the black sedan doesn’t stop. It accelerates.
I have just enough time to gasp, “Leo, hold on!” before we’re hit.
The sedan slams into us with a bone-jarring force that steals the air from my lungs. My head snaps forward, vision flashing white as the seatbelt digs so brutally across my chest it feels like it might split me in half. The steering wheel jolts in my grip, rattling against my palms.
The roar of their engine fills my skull, pressing us forward, crushing the front of the car into the van ahead. Glass explodes, tiny shards that rain across my arms and lap, glittering razors that cut and catch in the light before embedding into the upholstery.
Leo screams, high-pitched and terrified.
The car groans. My body whiplashes again as the sedan behind us backs up and slams into us again, grinding us even more into the unmoving van, the shriek of twisting steel drowning out even Leo’s cries.
I don’t know how long it goes on for, but when the shrill sound of the engine behind us finally quiets, all I can do is sag back into my seat. Blood pours down my arms and hands and parts of my face. I feel drenched from the small cuts that litter my body, the pain pin-sharp and horrible.
I catch movement out of the corner of my eye, a man pushing the door open to the sedan behind us. His steps are slow as they approach, the flash of a gun all the warning I have. I scramble to get my seatbelt off.
Leo’s passed out against the back seat, slumped over with a few shallow cuts on his face trickling blood down his cheeks. I twist in my bent chair, my legs trapped under the crushed console as I try desperately to get to him.
When the man reaches my side, I scream at him, “No!”
He punches me through the shattered window, hitting me so hard my head is knocked back. The force of it slams me into the passenger's side headrest, rattling my brain. I blink a few times, forcing my eyes to focus around the black dots clouding them.
My door is wrenched open, a horrible groan that grates on my ear.
Hands grab me and soon, everything goes black.