1. Maggie #2
Before I can argue again, Jules steps between us, rubbing both hands over his face roughly like he’s trying to pull himself together physically.
“Maggie.” His eyes lock onto mine, still glassy with grief. “Honey, listen to me.”
I stare at him helplessly while Ivy clings tighter to my side.
“I’ll handle everything here.” He gestures back toward the shelter. “The animals, the volunteers, the cleanup, all of it. Ain’t nobody gonna be alone tonight.”
“But you’re exhausted.”
“So are you.” He gives me a pointed look up and down. “You’re covered in blood, runnin’ on pure adrenaline, and one hard breeze away from fallin’ over.”
I let out a shaky breath that almost sounds like a weak laugh.
“I can still help,” I insist, even though I’m barely keeping it together.
The shelter is my responsibility. Those animals are my responsibility.
So are the volunteers still crying inside that building, and Jules is standing out here trying to manage this nightmare around us.
He’s my family, and every instinct in me fights the idea of leaving him here to carry all of this alone.
“Maggie.” Jules lowers his voice gently. “Ivy needs you more than this shelter does tonight.”
Ivy curls closer against me until I can barely separate where her trembling ends and mine begins. Her little fingers twist tighter into the back of my shirt while her face stays buried against my ribs.
My grip tightens around her, and I have to swallow hard before speaking. “I can’t leave you here with this.”
“Yes, you can.” His eyes soften painfully. “You’re not carryin’ this by yourself tonight.”
Emotion rushes up my throat so fast it burns. “Jules…”
He shakes his head before I can keep arguing. “Go take care of that baby and let me take care of this place for a few hours, alright?”
Alexei speaks from beside me. “You have my men here now as well. He won’t handle this alone.”
Jules looks over at him, exhaustion and grief written all over his face. “I appreciate that,” he says quietly.
Alexei gives a single nod, his attention returning to the shelter and the officers moving around it. “No one else gets hurt tonight.”
An officer approaches us, holding a notepad against his chest. “Miss Hayes, we still need your formal statement.”
I nod numbly and follow the officer to front of the shelter.
The next half hour blurs together into questions, exhaustion, and grief so heavy it feels lodged beneath my ribs.
Ivy refuses to sit anywhere except glued to my side while I answer everything I can remember.
The man with the baseball cap. The Italian accent.
The scar near his jaw. The fake adoption paperwork he filled out right inside my shelter.
The detective writes quickly while another officer kneels a few feet away, trying gently to speak with Ivy.
“Sweetheart, can you tell me what happened tonight?”
Ivy says nothing. Not a single word. She only tucks herself tighter against me while her small body trembles again.
“It’s okay,” I whisper, smoothing my shaking hand over her curls. “You don’t gotta talk right now, baby.”
The officer gives me a sympathetic look before stepping back.
Alexei stays close enough that I feel him constantly, even when he’s not touching me. Every few minutes, another call comes through his phone. Every time he answers, his eyes grow darker.
When the detective finally walks away, Ivy slowly lifts her swollen, tear-filled eyes toward me. “Where’s Irina?”
The question cuts straight through me. I pull her closer, brushing damp curls back from her forehead while my heart aches so badly it feels bruised from the inside out.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
Her lip trembles. “Is she hurt?”
I look helplessly at Alexei, who’s a few feet away, talking quietly in Russian on his phone, then back at her. How do you explain death to a six-year-old who just watched someone die protecting her? How do you tell her the woman who tucked her into bed every night is never coming home again?
“Irina…” My voice nearly breaks. “Irina isn’t hurting anymore, baby.”
Ivy stares at me in confusion, waiting. Hot tears stream down my cheeks now.
“She went to heaven tonight.”
As the words leave my mouth, her face crumples completely. “No.”
I pull her against me while sobs tear out of her little body hard enough to shake both of us.
“No,” she cries desperately. “I want Irina.”
“I know, baby.” Tears continue spilling down my cheeks while I hold her tighter. “I know.”
Beside us, Alexei suddenly turns away and plants one hand against the wall. His shoulders go rigid while his fingers curl hard against the plaster. Then he ends the call and turns back.
“What happened?” I ask.
Alexei drags a hand down his face before lowering his voice enough that only I can hear it. “The attacker we captured is dead.”
My stomach drops. “What?”
“Roman said he bit down on a cyanide capsule before they could question him.”
Fear slides through me all over again. “Sweet Jesus.”
Alexei’s eyes lock onto mine. “Whoever sent those men made sure none of them would talk.”
Jules reappears beside the ambulance, carrying my purse and apartment keys.
“I found these in the office,” he says quietly.
“Thank you.”
Before I can say anything else, he pulls me into another tight hug, careful of Ivy still clinging to me while his hand cups the back of my head. The gesture nearly undoes me all over again.
When we finally pull apart, Alexei steps closer and rests his hand against my arm. “We’re leaving now.”
The firm look in his eyes makes it clear he’s not asking.
I rub my trembling hand slowly over Ivy’s back. “I need clothes and…” My thoughts feel tangled and slow before I blink hard. “And I need to call my mama.”
Alexei watches me before giving a single nod. “We’ll stop at your apartment long enough to get clothes and anything else you need.”
Relief starts to loosen something inside me until he speaks again. “But you’re not staying there tonight.”
My stomach tightens. “Alexei?—”
“You’re coming home with me.” His hand remains against my arm while those ice-blue eyes lock onto mine. “I’m not leaving you alone after what happened tonight.”
The stubborn part of me wants to argue. Wants my own apartment, my own bed, my own space to fall apart privately for a few hours.
But then my mind flashes to Irina bleeding out on the shelter floor.
To Ivy, screaming. To the man in the baseball cap who was smiling at me days ago.
To Roman’s men dragging the other attacker into a black SUV.
And worst of all, to the awful truth that the thought of walking into my apartment alone tonight suddenly feels unbearable.
I hate that Alexei already seems to know it.
“I have to call Mama,” I murmur.
I pull out my phone with shaking fingers as Alexei guides Ivy and me across the parking lot toward one of the black SUVs waiting near the curb. It takes three tries before I finally unlock the phone.
Mama answers on the second ring. “Maggie?”
As soon as I hear her voice, fresh tears sting my eyes. “Mama.”
Fear floods her tone. “Honey, what happened?”
I glance down at Ivy pressed tightly against me before lowering my voice. “There was an attack at the shelter.”
“Oh my God.”
“I’m okay,” I rush out. “I’m okay, but…” I choke on the next words anyway. “Irina died.”
Mama gasps. “Oh sweet heaven.”
“And Ivy…” I look down at the little girl trembling against me. “She won’t let go of me.”
“Honey, come here tonight. Both of you.”
Part of me wants to say yes. I want Mama’s kitchen and her soft quilts and the smell of coffee brewing before sunrise. I want something normal after tonight ripped the world sideways. But Ivy clings tighter with every step I take.
“Mama,” I whisper shakily, “I think I need to stay with Ivy tonight at her house.”
There’s a pause before Mama sighs slowly. “Then that’s where you stay.”
Emotion clogs my throat.
“But I wanna see you first,” she says firmly. “I’m not lettin’ you disappear to some billionaire mansion before I put eyes on you myself.”
“Good.” I can hear the worry she’s trying to hold together and the forced calm in her voice. “And Maggie?”
“Yeah?”
“You let that man keep you safe tonight.”
My eyes sting again. I nod even though she can’t see me. “I love you.”
“I love you too, sweetheart.”
Alexei continues guiding me across the parking lot before carefully lifting Ivy into his arms when her steps start dragging from exhaustion.
She barely protests, only curls against him and rests her head on his shoulder while one small hand reaches toward me.
By the time we reach the black SUV, Luka is already there holding the back door open for us.
I climb into the backseat first while Alexei lowers Ivy beside me. She looks half asleep already, her cheek still against his shoulder until he gently brushes her curls back and fastens her seat belt for her.
“Stay next to Maggie, solnyshko,” he says.
Ivy reaches for my hand the minute he steps back.
Alexei shuts the door firmly behind us before circling the SUV and sliding into the front passenger seat beside Luka while answering another phone call.
The drive to my apartment feels endless. When we finally pull in front of my building, Mama’s car is already parked outside waiting. Luka barely has the SUV in park before Mama climbs out so fast she barely shuts her driver’s-side door.
“Maggie.”
As soon as I step out of the vehicle, she wraps both arms around me carefully, like she’s trying not to hurt me and hold me together at the same time. The familiar smell of vanilla lotion and coffee clings to her sweater, and I nearly break apart right there in the parking lot.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
“I’m okay,” I whisper automatically, even though we both know that’s a lie.
Mama pulls back just enough to cup my face between both hands. Her eyes move over the dried blood staining my shirt and jeans before filling with horror all over again.
“Oh my God.”
“I tried to wipe it off,” I say weakly.